248 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
Middle States, and is amphibious. This, also, is 
entirely innocent. A peculiarly interesting char- 
acteristic of the Tritons is the ease -with which 
they break, and the facility with which the 
wounded part heals, or is replaced. Amputated 
tails or limbs will grow again, and if these are 
cut off they will be soon replaced by others. 
Tim Bunker on the Eight Hour Law. 
BIG FERMENT IN HOOKERTOWN. 
Mr. Editor. — We have been having consid- 
erable doings up here lately, and as you wanted 
me to keep you posted on Connecticut news in 
general, and Hookertown in particular, I send 
you some notes I took on the Eight Hour Con- 
vention. It was got up by Cicero Smith, and a 
few of the fellows that work with him, when 
they do anything, which is not often. 
Big posters were stuck.up on all the sign posts 
iu town, calling upon mechanics and working 
people in general, to meet in the town hall, and 
assert their rights, just as if somebody had been 
trying to take away their rights. There was a 
full house. Shadtown was well represented by 
the fishermen, and the White Oakes turned out 
strong. Kier Frink and the coal men came 
down in their carts, and Hookertown-street has 
not seen such a collection of broken down wag- 
ons, and gaunt, raw-boned horses, in many a 
day. It reminded one of the early days of the 
war, when they were holding big meetings to 
drum up recruits. 
Judge Loriug was appointed chairman, and 
Cicero Smith introduced a long string of reso- 
lutions, recommending eight hours as a legal 
day's work, and pledging the meeting to vote 
for no man that was not in favor of an eight 
hour law. He said the time had come for 
the heavy burdens of labor to be lifted from 
the working classes ; that they now did all the 
work, got poor pay, and had to live in humble 
abodes, on scant fare, and endure all the ills of 
poverty. They were ground down by capital 
to the lowest depths, and had no time for the 
cultivation of their minds, and for social enjoy- 
ments. He hoped to see the day when the men 
who did the work should have the money, and 
the fine houses, aud the fast horses, and enjoy 
life like human beings. He was in favor of 
paying the laborer as much for his eight hours 
as he now received for ten, aud if that was not 
enough, he would go as far as the fartherest in 
relieving his wants, and meeting his wishes. 
The only true foundation for a State was to 
glorify labor. 
Seth Twiggs said he should like the latter 
part .of the gentleman's speech better, if he 
would illustrate it in his life. If any body got 
one hour's work out of Smith, it would be so 
much_ clear gain. " There is as many as two 
ways of glorifying labor. One is to make 
stump speeches to working people, and the oth- 
er is to pitch iu and work yourself." He 
thought a man who held a plow, or chopped 
wood all day, honored labor enough sight better 
than a man who was everlastingly talking about 
work and doing nothing. He didn't value the 
working of the jaws near so much as some oth- 
er parts of the body. 
Uncle Jotham Sparrowgrass said he didn't 
know as he understood this eight hour move- 
ment, but as fur as he did, he didn't think much 
of it. "It ain't any thing new. It was tried 
over on the Island more than forty years ago. 
There was a set of fellows then trying to get rid 
of work, and they come nearer to saying what 
they meant than folks did now. They wanted 
to divide up property equally all round, and 
said nothing about working for it. When I was 
a boy, folks who got ahead any, used to get up 
early in the morning and work as long as the}' 
could see, and milk the cows in the dark. If 
the}' got the chores done by nine o'clock and 
got ready for bed, the}' did pretty well. They 
hadn't much time to feel abused and talk about 
their rights. The main pint was to get a living 
and get ahead in the .world. They may have 
carried work a leetle too far, but arter all, they 
were firts-rate people, and better neighbors I 
never expect to find in this world." It seemed 
to him that the question was whether folks 
should work and thrive, or try to get a living 
without work. For one, he was in favor of 
work, and if he could find any thing to do that 
paid, he shouldn't be particular about the hours. 
George Washington Tucker said he was glad 
there was somebody to consider poor folks. He 
had always worked hard and had nothing to 
show for it. He never owned a foot of laud, 
and couldn't expect to without some change of 
times. He wanted more pay and less work, 
and he thought the eight hour plan was the best 
one that had ever been tried to relieve poor folks. 
Jake Frink said he was a good deal bothered 
about the question. " Heaven knows I've hard 
work enough to git along. I've been trying to 
pay for my farm this thirty years, and hain't 
made it eout yit. And I've worked like a dog 
a good part of the time. But how working 
eight hours instead of twelve is gwine to help 
me, I can't exactly see. I rather guess there 
would be less corn in my bin, and pork in my 
cellar in the fall, than there is now. I have to 
hire some help in summer, aud if a man quits 
in the middle of the arternoon, and leaves me 
to git up the hay and grain, I don't see how I'm 
gwine to be benefited. It looks considerable like 
a humbug. I bo't some patent manure onc't," 
Dea, Little said he didn't like the looks of this 
question. " They tried the same thing in Sodom, 
and it didn't work well. The land was rich 
and produced big crops, and they had nothing 
to do but look on and see 'em grow. They oome 
very near getting rid o' work, and took to serv- 
ing the devil so that no decent man could live 
among them." Work was a good thing for sin- 
ners, and he never expected to live without it. 
He thought if his friend Tucker would pull 
harder at the hoe haudle, and not so much at 
the bottle, he would be able to own land and a 
house, and to be quite comfortable. Idleness 
clothed a man in rags in Solomon's time, and 
he didn't expect to see a lazy man's wardrobe 
improve any in our day. " If you want any 
thing, work for it, and if you work long and 
hard enough, you are pretty sure to get it." 
Rev. Mr. Spooner said he was troubled about 
the moral aspects of this movement. It was 
nothing new that men tried to escape the curse 
of toil. Nothing has called forth more ingenui- 
ty, but the curse still remains, aud he doubted 
if man would ever be able to repeal the law, 
' Six days shalt thou labor.' Eight hours was 
not a day's work under this law, whatever the 
civil statute might make it. The average length 
of the day was about twelve hours. Men were 
able to work more than eight hours, and did 
generally, without injury to health, and with 
much advantage to their fortunes. "That was 
pretty good evidence that they ought to work 
more. Some people, he supposed, worked too 
long and too hard, but there was a far larger 
number who were ruined by idleness, and the 
vices that grew out of it. He thought the great 
want of the country now was more labor. If 
this measure was made a practical thing, it 
would take one-fifth from all the labor in the 
country, and that meant, when we come to sift 
it down, a deduction of one-fifth from every 
man's income. It was labor that gave value to 
capital. Men who had money could not loan it 
unless its use could be made productive by la- 
bor. The country was not ready for any such 
reduction of production and of income. The 
agitation of the question he thought was mis- 
chievous, and would only tend to embarrass the 
relations of capital and labor. 
• Last Sunday, Mr. Spooner preached a Sermon 
from St. Paul : " Neither did we eat any man's 
bread for nought, but wrought with labor and 
travail, night and day, that we might not be 
chargeable to any of you," in which he laid out 
the eight hour law in its grave clothes. Paul 
was a gentleman and believed in paying his 
way, which the eight hour folks don't. If we 
are going to have anything besides victuals and 
clothes, we've got to work more than eight 
hours for it. Quitting work the middle of the 
arternoon in haying time won't go down. 
Even Jake Friuk can see the bearing of that 
nonsense. 
Hookertown. Conn., 
June 15, 1S67. 
Yours to command. 
Tlmotht Bxtnkei:, Esq. 
Eaise Your Own Wheat. 
With the best brands of family flour at $20, 
aud a large importation of wheat from Califor- 
nia, it becomes the farmers of the sea-board 
States to inquire if they cannot get their flour 
cheaper at home. We know some farmers can 
do better than to raise their own flour, even at 
the present high prices, but the great majority 
cannot. Wheat, at $2 a bushel even, would 
pay as well as anything else they raise, if they 
would only prepare the soil properly. On 
many of these farms wheat has not been raised 
for the last 30 or 40 years, and the present own- 
ers have come to regard it as an unprofitable 
crop. Yet these same farms formerly produced 
fine crops of wheat, and this grain was a prime 
article for export in all the sea-board States. 
The soil and climate have not changed, aud the 
winters, as meteorological records clearly show, 
furnish about the same amount of cold and 
snow as they did a hundred years ago. With a 
suitable preparation of the soil, these old fields 
and meadows will produce this grain as well as 
they ever did. It is not true, as is too often sup- 
posed, that we must have a new soil to produce 
tins crop to advantage. Iu England, there are 
farms that have grown wheat for a thousand 
years, and the yield is as bountiful as ever. 
There they have a regular rotation, and bounti- 
ful manuring, and get 40 bushels to the acre. 
There are some farmers at the East that keep 
up the good old custom of making their own 
breadstuffs, and thrive by it. We visited such a 
district at the east end of Long Island, where, 
as a rule, the farmers grow wheat enough for 
the supply of their own families, and the crop is 
found to be about as sure as anything they can 
raise. Their soil is not particularly rich, or bet- 
ter adapted to wheat than other sections. Their 
only advantage is ready access to sea manures, 
especially fish guano and the refuse of the oil 
factories. But with auy other good manure, 
wheat may be raised to advantage. Try a sim- 
ple acre, and make yourself independent of the 
West for your flour. Do not sow upon poor 
exhausted meadow, aud fail, and say it is impos- 
sible to grow wheat. If your soil is not already 
rich enough to produce 50 bushels of corn to 
the acre, manure with fine compost. Get the 
