Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1859 — Farmer's Department. [ARTICLE]

Farmer's Department.

CONDUCTED BY AN AGRICULTURIST.

FARNEUN) Clil/iSSi.

The winter evenings are the farmers’ intellectual seed-time. It iB a period when the nature without is passionless and apathetic, but when the nature within is woo■ome aud winning. In those long dusky seasons when the sun, like the vigilauthusbandtnau, goes early to rest, how much of the wisdom and the intellectual beauty of the world has been developed! Burns, fresh from his meager fields, which were wearisome to him, in the .hours of evening summoned his companions of the day, the daisy, the mouse, the “atald mare Maggie,” J “Bonnie Jean” —invested them with poetic vitality, aud rendered them illustrious in verso that shall live so long as English , lasts. How many of the ambitious schemes of Napoleon and Cromwell; how many of the successful battles of the patriotic Washington; how much of the vigorous statesmanship that swung a new nation into being received existence after nightfall—how ; many noble thoughts, lofty aspirations,; grand ideas are then born, it would be im- j possible to tell land useless to conjecture. But no season is more' acceptable to the j anxious and inquiring farmer than the win- ; ter evenings. It seems as if Providence ; had designed them for his benefit, or, rather, as if it had fitted him especially to appre- j ciate and enjoy them. He is removed from the bustle and anxiety of the village and the ; city; lie is also debarred from many an in- j tellcctual feast. Still he has leisure and | quietude—necessary qualifications for mental effort. He can gather about his fire-side the masters of science, and sit down to pleasant conversations. Through the 1 hints they give he can spread his thoughts out upon his land, going below the surface and analyzing its minutest component; or lie! may turn the share in upon his own mind, plowing through and through, and sowing whatever seed he chooses. 11 is grain-fields may come to naught, his! mind-fields are always prolific; the seed sown therein is fceed Bovv'n upon good ground; it shall bring forth a hundred fold. He may do this, or with other farmers he may form an association to investigate scientific agriculture in a scientific manner. This is what we would urge home upon him. “Farmers’ Clubs” are the weapons we wield, and had we the, muscular development of the “Benicia Boy,” we would like to “start the ideas” of the agriculturalists in this vicinity to the importance of doing something for the profession to which they are bringing little honor. The arms, however, are legitimate, and may be made to do good execution for the husbandman. He can bring the procedure of legislative bodies and the power of antagonism to bear upon his* questions—harnessing the legislator and the debater to the plow, he can run it beam deep through every question presented. Let it not be said that the scheme is of j no benefit. The boys know better, ami | will wade through mud and rain to attend a | debating-society. The “Erudites” and the “Calliopeans” lock horns with one anather j across~questions which, in comparison, arc j but ropes of sand; and even the ladies, who are supposed to have little interest in the sterner qualities of the mind, are taking up the gloves and putting the blush on the ! brow of many an ambitious member of the learned and eloquent societies. And have ! the farmers iio interest herein,, especially when these gatherings may be made to i throw light upon questions of vital import- : ance to their calling! Give the plan a fair trial, and it will then be time enough to find fault. It is, to he sure, rather lat j to.ac-j complish much this winterbut it is a good time to get organized and ready for action. The members will thusihave a whole summer in which tu prepare questions, essays, &c. A thousand problems of practice will, in the meantime, arise, which can be preserved for winter consultation. Think this matter over, and see if there is not something valuable in the project. Rightly managed, the “Farmers' Club” will be, in the hands of the agriculturist, like the club to Hercules*, a powerful auxiliary in his labors.