—1881—A Farmer's Creed

#10

According to the Canadian Farmer, the agriculturists of Canada met in convention not long ago, and adopted for themselves the following creed: 

“We believe in small farms and thorough cultivation; we believe that the soil lives to eat, as well as the owner, and ought, therefore, to be well manured; we believe in going to the bottom of things, and therefore deep ploughing, and enough of it, all the better if it be a subsoil plough; we believe in large crops which leave the land better than they found it, making both the farm and the farmer rich at once; we believe that every farm should own a good farmer; we believe that the best fertilizer of any soil is a spirit of industry, enterprise, and intelligence; without these, lime, gypsum and guano would be of little use; we believe in good fences, good farmhouses, good orchards, and good children enough to gather the fruit; we believe in a clean kitchen, a neat wife in it, a clean cupboard, a clean dairy, and a clean conscience; we believe that to ask a man’s advice is not stooping but of much benefit; we believe that to keep a place for everything, and everything in its place, saves many a step, and is pretty sure to lead to good tools and to keeping them in order; we believe that kindness to stock, like good shelter, is saving of fodder; we believe that it is a good thing to keep an eye on experiments, and note all, good and bad; we believe that it is a good rule to sell grain when it is ready; we believe in producing the best butter and cheese, and marketing it when it is ready.” 

The farmer’s almanac commends this creed to the farmers of Maine as “sound doctrine.”

[Maine]

###

First of all I'd like to thank Mr. Grant Wood of Iowa for the wonderful rural paintings he has provided for today's Agrarian Nation excerpt.

As for the excerpt itself, I must say it is a delightful declaration of what farming was once all about, and what it should be about in any healthy Agrarian Nation. Please note that the creed isn't focused on just growing crops and making money. It's about responsibly stewarding the land. It's about the home and children—a whole family working together. It's about economy, and order, and kindness, and a clean conscience, and producing a top quality product. 

I like that so much that I think I will edit it a bit and put it on the sidebar of this web site as the official Agrarian Nation Creed.

 .

###

.
If you have not read my most recent monthly blogazine essay at The Deliberate Agrarian, I recommend it to you. I discuss this web site and I tell the story of finding the "Rosetta Stone of the Agrarian Nation." Here's The Link (scroll down the page about half way to read the story).  
.

###
.

In the next installment of Agrarian Nation, I will post Farmer's Calendar excerpts for the month of May from farm almanacs of 1840, 1851, 1857 and 1858. 
.

###

==========

If you appreciate  Agrarian Nation, please consider supporting this web site 

with a modest donation of $4.95 a year.  Click Here For Details

==========