Agrarian Nation: —1864—Agriculture as a Duty

25 July 2011

—1864—
Agriculture as a Duty

#34

Rev. T. S. King, in an agricultural address delivered in California, says: “In dealing with land, man is called to be a coworker with the Infinite Mind. This is the foundation of the nobleness of the farmer’s office. In fact, we shall not reach the right point of appreciating the eminence of agriculture as a duty, a profession and a trust, until we see the earth is not yet finished. The Creator has left part of the fashioning to man, or rather waits to work through man in perfecting it. Rejoice all you that are called to the dignity and trusts and delights of the farmer and the horticulturist! Rejoice that you belong to a class through whom God is finishing his creation, and who are enlarging the divine bounty, and adding to the beauty of the world. Whether an acre, a garden spot, or a section, is under your charge, feel more deeply your commission, be glad in the responsible honor of your lot. Resolve to add to the fertility of your domain.
[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

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As I've mentioned before, Thomas's Farmer's Almanac was a secular publication. Nevertheless, it was not unusual for such publications in the early to mid 1800's (and certainly before that) to reflect Christian ideals. That's because the Agrarian Nation of America's past was clearly Christian.

The Christian-agrarian culture respected and honored biblical concepts of what was right and wrong. Biblical morality was the foundation for living a well-ordered life and having a well-ordered society. That is, of course, no longer the case. America is now a post-Christian nation.

So, what is the dominant religion of America today? That is a topic that could be discussed at length. For my part, I believe that America now worships at the altar of industrialism. The industrial religion includes a host of supporting idols, some of which are science, government, the wisdom of men, profit, leisure and amusement.

Even the vast majority of people who call themselves Christians these days love, hope and trust in the ungodly industrial idols. That is the way it looks to me.

And as for the biblical responsibility for Christians to till the soil, grow food, and care for creation, as co-worker's with God (as today's excerpt explains), this is now a completely foreign concept to the vast majority of modern christianity.

End of editiorial.

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3 comments:

Nancy said...: Well said!
In a conversation a couple of days ago about whether or not someone should prepare, this person informed me that they didn't need to because if things did get bad their neighborhood would plant gardens and even get a cow if it came to that. None of these people garden now. They said that they were going to enjoy everything while they could and they would know what to do when and if the time came. They were trying to discourage us from being in agriculture at the same time. When I pointed out that the people that lived in the city during the Great Depression had a hard time providing for themselves they said that it was because they just didn't know about gardening and things back then like people do now.
Flabbergasted would be an understatement.; 26 July, 2011 10:33
Herrick Kimball said...: Biblically speaking....

"The prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it." (Proverbs 22:3)

On another note, it is too bad that some people do not equate gardening with enjoyment. I've been gardening since I was a teenager and consider it one of the great joys of my life.; 27 July, 2011 06:37
Nancy said...: Good point. I have always encouraged people when they ask me about doing things that some would describe as "more self-sufficiently", by telling them to not do anything out of fear but, do things for all of the good reasons to do them. Only after becoming completely frustrated by this persons' negative comments about farming, I asked them if they thought having land would be a good idea if things were to get worse.; 27 July, 2011 10:32

Welcome To Agrarian Nation

How did people in rural New England live and work before electricity and tractors arrived on the scene? This web site will seek to answer that question by looking at the old agricultural writings of 1825 to 1900.

Join me on a historical journey of discovery into America's agrarian past. We will get advice from the old-timers about the art of farming, gardening, and living a good life.

Like archeologists studying an ancient culture, we will look at excerpts from original-source documents (primarily almanacs and agricultural journals) to better understand how people thought and lived their lives in pre-grid America.

Herrick Kimball
hckimball@bci.net

"From the beginning it was always possible to find farmers who were intuitively suspicious of the industrialization of agriculture. Perhaps they objected to the increased authority of suppliers and experts. Perhaps they felt the discord between machinery and living creatures. Perhaps they had a rational fear of toxic chemicals. Perhaps they disliked paying cash for energy and fertility that they had previously received in kind from their farms and their good work. Among at least a few, for whatever reasons, there was a persistent distrust."
—Wendell Berry

This field, which when the owner took it over eight years previously was barren, now was bursting with life. As I passed alongside of it on the cart, getting a good view of it as a whole, I often thought of the latent power that lay there till released and channelled by man. Nothing to see on that former dry and barren field, save tangled yellowish grass: yet holding within it the force to throw upward what I now beheld. A farmer is a liberator of the energy in the earth, ceaselessly creating what is good, and adding on a vast scale to the beauty of the world.
.....

John Stewart Collis
The Worm Forgives The Plough

"Through World War II, farm life in my region (and, I think, nearly everywhere) rested solidly upon the garden, dairy, poultry flock, and meat animals that fed the farm’s family. Especially in hard times farm families, and their farms, survived by means of their subsistence economy. The industrial program, on the contrary, suggested that it was “uneconomic” for a farm family to produce its own food; the effort and the land would be better applied to commercial production. The result is utterly strange in human experience: farm families that buy everything they eat at the store."

Wendell Berry
(Renewing Husbandry)

A love for the soil and all the pursuits of outdoor life is one of the most healthful signs in a people. Our broad and diversified land affords abundant opportunity for the gratification of every rural taste, and those who form such tastes will never complain that life is losing its zest. Other pleasures pall with time and are satiated. We outgrow them. But every spring is a new revelation, every summer a fresh, original chapter of experience, and every autumn a fruition of hopes as well as of seeds and buds. Nothing can conduce more to happiness and prosperity than multitudes of rural homes. In such abodes you will not find Socialists, Nihilists, and other hare-brained reformers who seek to improve the world by ignoring nature and common sense. Possession of the soil makes a man conservative, while he, at the same time, is conserved.

E.P. Roe