*c4rjfe;N V \> :■ mm^^ GEL5 v'lS TO tVf FARM N FLORIDA by Golden Lights^* CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY PS 1924.H73" ""'"''"^ '■"'"^ *"9i?jifiiiiiYiui{r!!i,j8.'''Y '*'■"' " Florida / 3 1924 022 251 130 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 924022251 1 30 ANGELS' VISITS TO MY FARM IN FLORIDA ANGELS' VISITS TO MY FARM IN FLORIDA BY GOLDEN LIGHT ' Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand ; Rin^ out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be," NEW YORK UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY SUCCESSORS TO JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 142 TO 150 WORTH STREET Copyright, 1892, BY UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANV, [A /I rights reserved.\ To the Rev. JOHN WESLEY BROWN, D.D., Rector of St, Thomas^ Protestant Episcopal Church, New York City. I take the liberty of dedicating this little book to you in fragrant memory of the many happy days we spent together under the old home roof near the little Trappe Church in Harford, Maryland, before the war, I do not ask you to endorse all the sentiments and lessons set forth, but to accept the book as a token of love which has not diminished toward you since the day we parted, so lo?ig ago, I am sure you will remember how, in youthful confidence and spiritual ardour, we used to open our hearts to one another, and how, with those who are now exalted among the blest in heaven, we used to sing — ' ' Out on an ocean all boundless we ride. We're homeward bound, homeward bound," Golden Light. Florida, November 22d, i8gi. ANGELS' VISITS. CHAPTER I. A TRIFLE PERSONAL. I AM not a farmer by the law of heredity. My father was a very capable mechanic, and taught me his trade before I was fifteen years old. Old-fashioned was father. He used to say that every boy should be taught a useful trade, so that when the inevitable emergency came along he could turn to with vigor and make his way cheerfully. How often during the past twenty years have I had occasion to remember father's words, and not ■without gratitude for his wise forethought ! For, here, on my farm in Florida, I must not con- fine myself to the ordinary hold or drive work of the farm, but always there is occasion for the application of the mechanic's skill as well as the philosopher's wisdom. Farm life in Florida is the ideal life. In the great productive West, — to which El Dorado the illustrious 6 ANGELS' VISITS. farmer, journalist, and statesman, Horace Greeley, used to point the way in this characteristic manner : ' ' Go West, young man ; go West, " — there are immense iields of wheat and corn, annually yielding their golden bounty in the mere routine of plowing, sowing, and reaping. I have heard them called "the harvest fields of the world, "and several other comprehensive and poetical abbreviations, and what an enviable, glorious person- age is he, who with skill, labor and patience, not to speak of wisdom, guides the subtle powers which slumber in the earth to such beneficent achievements ! But is he a farmer, and are those vast plains of wav^ ing corn farms ? In a sense — yes. According to "Gunter" — yes. Judged by the activity of the grain market — yes. And so forth. But from a Florida point of view — doubtful at least. I say "doubtful" timidly, but deep down in the pro- found depth of my agricultural consciousness with a Florida bias — by no means. No 1 This is not envy on my part. If I might indulge myself, I could easily demon- strate my point and clearly show, that, while any or- dinary, not to say raw, foreigner, just landed on our shores, can plunge headlong, and in any language, successfully into such farming, it takes an accorqr ANGELS' VISITS. 7 plished coparcener of nature — a polyglot and polyg- onal man, so to speak, to seduce from the richer, and more subtle, raw acres of Florida soil the cor- responding and seasonable harvests. Farming in Florida is farming. I intend no joke. I mean to say that, given knowledge, skill, devo- tion, patience, well seasoned with the cardamom of common sense ; and given likewise a flat-woods farm in Florida, the divine pleasure of farming is re- alized, — the original meaning of the original' commis- sion, given to the original human being, as he stood gazing upon the original farm in the sunshine of the first morning, is understood as it never was in the worn-out glebes of England, and as it never can be in the one-crop blizzard-blasted plains of the West ! "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it." Alas ! if the record be true, he, the man, did not keep it long, — I guess he went West. But Paradise is rapidly being restored, and now all inspired sign- boards read : " Go South, young man ; go to Florida." ANGELS' VISITS. CHAPTER II. LOCATION. There is much in location. One grows into surroundings — and the place and the man come to complement each other. Where the coveted Alpine flower grows would be a poor place for the cultivation of strawberries or of pine-apples, or of suppadillos. Hills and high lands for homes and observation ; but flat lands, low lands well drained, for gardens and fields. For the past quarter century, in Florida, the rage has been, under the fostering care of land agents, for ' ' high, rolling, pine lands. " Every advertising circular describes such lands for homes, orange groves, farms, etc. , and the language of puff has long been exhausted. Thousands of earnest toilers have been swamped, so to speak, in the " high, rolling, pine lands," and, if there are any surviving settlers within one hundred miles of where I am writing, they are looking with wistful eyes towards the long despised bottoms, or " flat-woods," lands, just now proving their value and productiveness. In passing through this (South ANGELS' VISITS. n Florida) country, before it was discovered by "boom- ers," I was greatly impressed with the fact, that every settlement, every old settler, every " cracker " farmer, and every cattle ranger, lived on some gentle plateau in the flat lands. Settlements were few, and far apart, but when found, they would invariably be found on comparatively low lands, and the growing corn, sugar cane, orange trees, potatoes, peas, and rice would testify to productiveness under the prevailing system of "cowpenning." Every wild orange grove in Florida will be found in the low, flat lands — and not on the ' ' rolling, high, pine lands. " It it quite safe to drive your stake firmly down on any abandoned "patch," once the temporary home of a " cow-boy," or a " cracker " farmer. They knew good land, and never made a mistake in location. I can now see from my window just such a "patch." When I saw it for the first time it was surrounded by very low, flat lands, which, during the rainy season, were much flooded. At times, over portions of it, one could easily paddle his canoe. But a system of drainage has made it available for planting all the year round, and for miles, in every direction, there is no dearth of available land for homes, farms, and gardens. The soil is sandy loam underlaid with clay — the best of soil. This clay is within five inches, twenty inches, two lO ANGELS' VISITS. feel, eight feet, ten feet, as the case may be, of the warm surface, but there it is, and it forms the basis of successful farming — holding moisture, oxi- g«n gas, retaining fertilizers, and contributing con- stantly back-bone to the genial surface under cultiva- tion. Nature's secret springs of action are here in har- monious abundance ; and the sunshine, the rains, the dews, and the human co-operation complete the pic- ture. The question of drainage is simple enough. The frequent and abundant lakes are almost invariably lower than the flat lands, and drains cut towards and into them, sufficiently drain, even during the rainy season, as a rule. But an occasional flooding out does no harm, for here we can so rotate and regulate crops, as to be able to lose one or two in a season occasionally. ANGELS' VISITS. u CHAPTER III. REMINISCENT. I HAVE no very special object in view in writings this book— no grudges to pay off, no enemies to punish, no speculation to boom, no pet theories to ventilate. I am getting along in years and am an old Flor- idian, a genuine "carpet-bagger" from "way-back," for a generation has passed on and out since I planted my stafE in this goodly heritage. If I am a little garrulous, I hope my manifest sin- cerity will find charit)'' and patience with my kind reader; and if I become prosy here and there, it will not be difficult for you to put yourself in my place, and so condone the offence in accordance with the sweet spirit of the golden rule. Out of the quiet orderly life of nature, I fancy ray- self speaking to the rushing, pushing, energetic, rapid- transit man of affairs, in the pulsing heart of highest civilization ; and if I halt in my speech or lose my breath occasionally, I am sure of gentle treatment, for the burden of my speech will bear very close re- semblance to the vanished picture of your dreams, 12 ANGELS' VISITS. may be, and — who knows ? — perhaps the voice may sometimes sound familiar I I was going on to say that I came into this land many years ago, in easy stages, from the frigid, rigid North, mainly in search of health and balmy breezes. I have found what I have sought — and several in- cidentals besides. I have taken active interest in all current matters from the beginning. I have even dabbled a little in politics, as every good citizen should, and have firmly held to my convictions — prejudices too, perhaps — ex- pressing them in all convenient, and sometimes inconvenient occasions and places. In a word, I have, in a sense, forced myself into Florida conditions physically, morally, and politically. Inheriting a positive nature and a few convictions, with a decided tendency to see the hopeful side of things, I have had a sufficiently varied experience, and have walked through several haunted paths. If you will pardon me, I will say that I have per- sonally known every prominent public character, of all shades of ambition and opinion and skin, who has appeared upon the surface of affairs in this State during the eventful years of the past generation. This knowl- edge fills me with conflicting emotions as Hook back. A few persons who were active and potent in public matters when I planted myself here, still live, and are still active and progressive. ANGELS' VISITS. 1 3 The majority answer here no more when the long roll is called. It is a sadly interesting review that forces itself upon me at this moment, and I will not yield to the tempta- tion to second the thoughts that naturally arise. Only this I must say : justice and humanity, in the long run, gain upon Selfishness and the evil purpose. Beneath the surface of things throbs the great law of rightwardness, and, day and night, in all seasons and under all outward seeming, pulses on, and on, and on. The evil doer, the schemer for temporary advantage for self or party, the dishonest, and the bitter pessi- mist, whether working with intelligent intent or in blind servitude^^all come to grief in the conquering time. At bottom, the law of Right prevails, and, soon or late, will announce itself in all languages, and to all ears, and along all lines (having the right of ■ way) on tcfp. Five and twenty years' retrospect must include many alternations in human affairs, and here, in Florida, no less than in the older settled States of this Union. Doubtless you have heard of "carpet bag rule" in terms of bitterness and reproach, of derision and em- phatic denunciation. Speaking for Florida, and without going into particulars, I will say that it was not in all respects a perfect and desirable " rule," nor was it in any respect wholly bad. No man living or dead, can, with justice, contradict 14 ANGELS' VISITS. what I here say : — that the great, the mighty impulse on whose widening and abounding wave we are all coming into fine havens of material and intellectual prosperity to-day, was created and first fostered and recognized by the "Carpet-baggers," so called, in Florida. Those who went down in the struggle of material and political reconstruction, earnestly contending for the faith that was in them, do not, in the mind of justice, sleep in unhonored graves, — while those who still live are found in the front rank of honorable, respon- sible, progressive, and prosperous citizen. The sons of the "Veterans," hold the Forts both of principles and possessions so hardly established and vicariously vindicated by their fathers. The New South is planted in the just purposes and heroic endurance, and unfolds out of the glorious pro- phesies, of these worthy pioneers of the new age. And as the years tell their tale, it will appear as part of the brightness of every day, that the "carpet-bag " era and those who responsibly possessed it in Florida, was an era of parturition, and the best things of to- day, of to-morrow, and of many to-morrows, are but the legitimate offsprings thereof Mark you, I do not speak as a partisan, nor for purposes of controversy. I state, in the quiet shade, after stormy years of experience and observation, with sufficient participa- tion in events to give impartial character to my testi- ANGELS' VISITS. 15 mony, the plain and unquestionable truth in deduction, and in simple justice to the dead and to the living of all shades of complexion and opinion. As I am not writing a political history, nor setting up a vindication of any particular course of public pro- cedure, nor entering up final judgment on any class of offenders in the struggle vi^hich ends in progress, — nothing I have said can rip open old sores, nor call up "Banquo's ghost," before you, or you, or you, good sir, no matter whether you agree with me or not. At any rate you cannot refuse to me the satisfaction, as I look back over all the eventful years since the alarms of war ceased among us, and we were bap- tized into the new spirit of nationality with very vague intuitions of salvation somehow, of bowing head un- covered, in respectful memory, to the brave and true men and women who, from the chaos and incongrui- ties of the dark days of reconstruction, evolved and projected forth the marvellous achievements and pos- sibilities that so beautify and commend our State of Florida to-day. Let us imitate the immortal brothers Cheeryble who, when they were about to engage in a particularly en- joyable affair, said : " For these and all other blessings, brother Charles, " said Ned. "Lord make us truly thankful, brother Ned," said Charles. 1 6 ANGELS' VISITS. CHAPTER IV. SOWING THE SEED. Our staples hereabouts are sugar cane, rice, and hay, yet I suppose I may class myself as a truck- farmer — one who attends to the cultivation of vegeta- bles for the early northern markets. The truck-farmer of our country must be reckoned among the most industrious, wide-awake, and in- ■ teJligent cultivators of the soil. Theirs is the most dif- ficult and, sometimes, the most precarious task. They are most liberal in the treatment of mother earth, and, in the nature of things, come to understand the deepest secrets of nature. Their constant study is to improve in all directions, and the fascinations of their daily occupations are subtle and unspeakable. To produce for observation and public approval, a new succulent, a fresh type, a richer expression of garden triumph, is the ambition of every enthusiastic trucker from Long Island to Key Biscayne, and the joy of discovery and successful rivalry are matters of universal participation. Florida is unequaled for right conditions both of ANGELS' VISITS. 17 soil and climate ; and in the coming years the experi- ments and triumphs of ourintelligeni farmers, in close confidence with most generous nature, will be the lily work on the top of the pillars of husbandry, for the delight and admiration of the world. It is now the first week in October, and we have just made our first seed-bed for the season, the seed being cabbage. If you are a practical gardener you may pass this chapter by, but if you have just settled in Florida, or contemplate doing so soon and are looking about you, prospecting for a place to alight on, just read on, please. The most important part of the farm, to the trucker, must be the seed-bed. Mine is just one acre square, and a nice job we have had in bringing it into condition. It is a sandy loam with clay not far beneath, a little rolling toward the south, and handy to running water. The chief gardener has taken great pains in plow- ing, harrowing, re-plowing and re-harrowing this precious bit of mother land. Every rootlet has been taken out. Every lump has been pulverized, the hand doing the finishing touch. Every inch has been vitalized with proper fertilizer, thoroughly distributed, and the long beds, reaching clear across from side to side, running north and south 209 feet or thereabouts, 1 8 ANGELS' VISITS. have been firmed down and raked over with care ar.d perfect skill. The fertilizer has been distributed with intelligent regard to the natural condition of each portion of the field, taking into the account also the last production. The satisfaction of the farmer, as he leans a moment on his rake, glancing up and down the long parti- tions, is something contagious. He smiles and nods to each beautiful subdivision as though in reciprocal recognition, and caresses in his thought each bounti- ful mother-to-be. He does not begrudge the time and labor spent in bringing into responsive readiness this choice field. Time is very important in this particular work. I mean that one should begin in time and not trust the seed to the germinating bed too soon, nor until you are sure that the fertilizing elements are thoroughly incorporated. A cold seed-bed is unproductive, and nothing will reach perfect maturity in time from it. One too hot with fresh fertilizing matter is quite destructive, so that the happy mean, the perfect con- dition, must be sought, labored for, waited for, and must be found ; and the genuine farmer will not grow impatient, lose courage or temper, while, under his gentle manipulations, the fruitful condition is ap- proaching. Well, we are ready, and to-day, farmer Dan is whistling consolingly to himself and encourag- ANGELS' VISITS. ip ingly to the earth as he pushes the seed planter before him, depositing the seed, covering- and rolling in, as he goes. This is the era of reciprocity, and I felt that our chief statesmen might learn a lesson from farmer Dan and the beautiful seed-bed, as they so cordially com- plimented each other. Mazzini used to say that co-operation is the method of the future. This is the future. There is always a question about seed, and the desiderata are : — true to name, vitality, and freshness. Here, sometimes, the very best farmer is caught, for your true farmer is easily victimized along this line, and a much lauded seed will haunt him nights until he learns wisdom by experience. " I misdoubt this seed, sir," said farmer Dan as he reached the end of the drill where I stood. " For what reason .? " I asked. " Well, sir, it feels light, and looks oldish, and is not well graded, I doubt. '' My head farmer is a Scotchman, and has a keen eye for signs for and against, besides being enthusiastic in his profession. I suggested that he increase the quantity in the drill as an easement of his fear. The drills are beautifully finished. They are over 200 feet in length, 18 inches apart, straight and clean. 20 ANGELS' VISITS. How many crops have failed, not for lack of right conditions in the soil, nor because of skimp labor, nor for want of proper fertilizer, but because the seed was poor. Thousands of dollars are lost every season through the dishonesty of seed vendors, who, sometimes with high reputation, palm upon the too confiding farmer, their old stock. The seedsman is a most trusted fellow-citizen, and when the millennium of labor and civilization comes, he will deserve to be. But as yet, quite a few play sad tricks, for it is easy to say that the seed was all right but the man and the land were all wrong. Moral : get your seed from the most trustworthy seedsmen, men who cannot afford to lose their good name, and whose business is such, both in extent and character, as to inspire with confidence and courage. Be shy of "novelties" with flaming descriptions and burning prices. Don't be carried away by some unprecedented result obtained in some mythical paradise of luck, and spend your scarce dollars for something too new to be known. Go slowly along here. With you it means a year's labor lost, an increase of debt, a bitter prospect, and an incurable grievance, ANGELS' VISITS. 2 1 Stick to well-known and well-proved varieties for your chief dependence, and deal lightly — very — with the "futures " of the seed chevaliers. My neighbor Jencks could a tale unfold here-anent, if he would, for it was only last year that he was "sold" in a new and glorious tomato, which was to increase his product at least three-fold, and his bank account by many figures. It proved to be an old and discarded acquamtance brought round again with a fine flourish of words and promises under a new name. 1 do not blame Jencks, for he is one of your gener- ous, progressive fellows who is always keenly alive to every real improvement, and who uses on his little plantation the most approved labor-saving tools. It is your warm, generous, go-ahead fellows who are oftenest taken in by the sharpers of the trade. ' ' There ye are, " shouted farmer Dan, as he looked back over the finished beds. ' ' Now do yer duty, an' it plaze ye, and God bless ye for luck." I thought I heard a warn "amen" arise from the congregation of seed-beds — but I suppose it was all in my fancy. 22 AAGELS VISITS. CHAPTER V. SIXTH NOVEMBER. An important day this, and one to be remembered by no less a personage tlian the President of the United States, for on this day in the year of political strife, 1888, Benjamin Harrison was elected to that high position. Some one has made the odious comparison of a President's induction into office, and his retirement therefrom. It is a cruel thing to do, because few men can bear the ordeal. It is an unjust thing to do, because time is all im- portant in estimating character, and the effect of actions and administration. Hasty conclusions are apt to be overturned by time, and we have had few Presidents of whom it may not be said — "well done." Of our present President it must be said at this juncture, his term being but half served, that he wisely hides his personality behind very broad, deep, and brilliant acts of statesmanship — giving honor, and ANGELS' VISITS. 23 fame to an impersonal administration, and shedding glory upon the American age. All nations beyond seas, and all citizens within our State borders, are feeling mighty pulsations and the national spirit as never before. A sense of progress, safety and secu- rity, like an all-pervading atmosphere, is omnipresent and inspiring. Ozone is dominant in the political atmosphere. Peace is emphasized. Progress is on the stretch and bound — the home-stretch so to speak. We are facing about toward each other from all extremes, and somehow there is a hallowing light on every countenance — a sign of deeper fellowship, and true brotherhood. Reciprocity is the new word for the old evangelism of humanity, and the distant zones respond. I see it stated that Mr. Harrison, who must have something to do with all this, is not possibly visible, because he is hidden beneath his "grandfather's hat 1 " Good, say I. Perhaps also he is covered with his grandfather's mantle ! and perhaps he is inspired with the invinci- ble, loyal, progressive American spirit of all our grandfathers ! . It is doubtless so. Well, five weeks ago we sowed cabbage seed, and to-day we begin to set out the plants. On time, you see. 24 ANGELS' VISITS. The interval has been busy, you may believe, for the land must be prepared, if we would realize the bounty of harvest. I am an advocate of deep plowing and intensive farming. Shallow plowing is the rule hereabouts, because, for the most part, the soil is light, sandy and dry. But it so happens that ours is not so, but is stiff, with a strong clay sub-soil. So we plowed once as deeply as we could, then went over it with the cuta- way harrow, then after a few days cross-plowed, going a little deeper. Upon this preparation we scattered the fertilizer : — first, crushed cotton seed, then bone meal and potash at the rate of i,ooo pounds and 200 pounds per. acre respectively. This we harrowed in thoroughly with the cutaway and smoothed it down nicely with a Meeker harrow. It would rejoice your rustic heart to see the field after this treatment, level, smooth, soft, warm, expect- ant, and throbbing with life. And what a subtle fragrance ! Nothing gratifies your true farmer like a well prepared field, unless it be taking from it the abundant harvest. Well, the one precedes, and is answerable for the other. I wish I could remember my dear old friend Sidney Lanier's poem on Jones of Georgia, who made the discovery, after much travail and failure and ANGELS' VISITS. 25 hopping about like a dissatisfied, predatory grass- hopper, that "There is more in the man than there is in the land." Don't fail to read it should it ever fall under your eye. Sidney was a favorite child of nature, and in all his moods lay close to her great heart and drew thence his almost matchless inspiration. " There is more in man," who properly considers, appreciates, pre- pares, and cultivates his land than in the land per se; and the lesson is, that if you want your land to break forth in seasonable benedictions, you must give it seasonable co-operation, attention, and help. Just so. You must come into close, confidential relations with your land. What a luxury it is to work in prime, responsive soil ! And what a delight it is to see and feel the mellow earth, enriched by your care and labor, yielding up its thank-offerings year by year ! A man will grow to his land, until it will seem to him that a new and heartier welcome is breathed and exhaled out toward him every time he approaches it, and the growing harvest to be, speaks, in sweetest tones, of fellowship and genial relationship to his ready ear and responsive heart Some farmers I have known first abuse and beat 26 ANGELS' VISITS. their land, and then set out to starve it into product- iveness. I dare say you have noticed it yourself, as you have considered the strange ways of men. Well, the dogs came and licked the beggar's sores as he lay, helpless and friendless and neglected, at the rich man's gate ; and so come the weeds and sedge and vermin covering all the neglected and starved land, out of a pitiful fellow-feeling, perhaps. I have in my mind's eye at this moment, a certain field owned by farmer Noshucks, and every time I pass by, it seems to look ashamed and disgraced as though it were responsible for its forlorn and base appearance. You can't blame the land. The man is unworthy of it, and is always mad when he plows it ; abusing it as worthless when it is simply the victim of his stinginess. Every year Noshucks plants it to corn (without one ounce of fertilizer), and every year the nubbins grow fewer and fewer and wretchedly less. Last year he didn't have com enough to breed a worm. I pity that land, for it would prove its worth if there was more in the man. Like priest like people, Like man like land. There is a spirit in nature that responds sympa- ANGELS' VISITS. 27 thetically to the caresses and approach of man, and every true farmer who is on good, familiar terms with his land, and doesn't let it out to mere croppers, is conscious of a sense and relationship Other than that of mere ownership. There is a conscious relationship — a deep, subtle, spiritual affiliation, too real for words. In this, most of all, lies the pleasure, and the profit too, of farming, especially here in Florida. My idea is not' new, for here are some words of Goethe, conveying in ampler sweep, the same : — "With every green tree whose rich leafage sur- rounds us, with every shrub on the roadside where we walk, with every grass that bends to the . breeze in the field through which we pass, we have a natural relationship — they are our true compatriots. "The birds that hop from twig to twig in our gar- dens, that sing in our bowers, are part of ourselves ; they speak to us from our earliest years, and we learn to understand their language." Farmer Dan has just called to say that, on account of the prevailing drought, we must needs use water in setting out the tender plants. "It's no in reason," continues farmer Dan, "that thae plants should take ony parteeclar an' growsome likin' till the sile (tho' mun but she's in foine fettle), 'thout a wee drap to sustain thae faybers (fibers) in the transeetion." 28 ANGELS' VISITS. Quite right, farmer Dan, for as the new-born child turns to its mother's bosom for nourishment and does not fail to find the life-giving drop, so these tender plantlets must not find mother Nature's breast dry and moistureless when transplanted — ^born again — to her. So the lads were called, and as e&ch planter made the opening in the warm earth in which to set the plant, a cup of water was poured into it, simulta- neously with the setting of the plant. It was deftly done, and each plant lived of the entire 4,000 set out during the day. " It's a gude start," said farmer Dan, as we Walked homeward through the fields. ANGELS'' VISITS. 29 CHAPTER VII. NOSHUCKS. I HAVE already mentioned one of my fellow-craft — farmer Noshucks. He is what farmer Dan calls a "Ne'er-do-well." He was not born a farmer, as you would at once surmise, should you see him tramping over his un- fortunate fields. To whatever trade he was born, it seems evident that he quarrelled with it soon after. 1 have nothing to do with that, and for fear that I might do him or his ancestry injustice, I will con- fine my reflections strictly to his sad, shiftless, aim- less, and profitless method of farming. One thing I must say — he is not a " cracker." Neither is he a "cow-boy,' nor a "cattle king," nor even an "orange grower.'' He is a sort of squatter, in the inoffensive sense, and has settled on the land in a sort of blighting way. To do him justice, I must not make the impression on your mind that he is quite ignorant, uneducated, and vagrant. He is a busy old fellow. In his farming operations, he is constantly guilty of being loo early or too late, and holds to the pernicious 30 ANGELS' VISITS. doctrine that, as God made the land, He put every- thing (except, perhaps, seed,) into it that should be there, and hence to bother with fertilizing compounds is to "go agin natur. " As a consequence, alas ! poor old Noshucks is land- poor, and his land is man-poor. They are ill-mated. He confines his regular farming to raising corn, but, as I have already shown, his achievements in this direction are noteworthy only on account of their barrenness — as to com. Some years he attempted beans, but he was unfortunate in that he planted late in November; and as we had asmart frost in January, just as his few beans were maturing, one morning he beheld such desolation as only frost or fire can in- flict. Not a bean-stalk remained — and his loss was total. Being quick ol temper, he lavished several en- comiums on the climateandgavehispoor bean patch, that was, "particular fits,' as a sympathetic neigh- bor, who had strolled in to condole with him, de- scribed it. The next year, I remember, he set out to compass success, and planted his beans late in March, the danger from frost being past ; but, alas ! when his beans were ready to gather, some six crates, I believe, the niarket was glutted from all points of the compass, and his commission-merchant sent him a bill for $1. 50 expenses. The bill was not collected. ANGELS' VISITS. 31 These are little matters to you, Madam, no doubt, yet do they suggest a very important factor or princi- ple in our line of life — namely, seasonableness. There is a time. The good book tells us that in plain words, — a time to do this, that, and the other, and so Florida climate and Noshucks' land tell us that there is, a .time to plant beans so as to avoid the frost and take the market — or vice versa. When your husband fails in business, and his latest speculation bursts asunder leaving him more than bankrupt, and you sell off the bric-a-brac to raise the wherewith to bring you to Florida, and, like Noshucks, you descend upon a coveted bit of land whereon to dwell and sit "under your own vine and fig tree," etc., etc., in the bright perspective, so to speak, and, in the quiet meantime you find it necessary to raise beans — you will thank me for holding up before your contemplation the sad mistake of farmer Noshucks — Mr. Jonah Noshucks, late of the hill region of Montana. What, then, do you ask .' Shall we give up beans ? Noshucks would say that the best way to raise beans is to let them alone ; but I do not agree with him. There is a time, and if you will honor me with your company to the end of my gossip about my farm, I think I can promise you a mess, fresh, crisp, tender and meaty for our mutual repast, and an abundant 32 ANGELS' VISITS. supply for the distant markets at remunerative prices — and— seasonable. Has farmer Noshucks then given up, abandoned the free, the healthy, the independent life of the farmer ? By no means. On the contrary he is following the example of statesmen, philosophers, politicians, governors, and candidates for the presidency, more than ever a horny-handed, etc. , —a farmer of farmers, so to speak. He has joined the Alliance, and has applied— in his zeal for the good of the order— for the arduous labo- rious thankless, responsible, yet honorable position of Lecturer at large ! Should you ever have the pleasure of listening to farmer Noshuck, his eloquent vindication of Nature's bountifulness, his insinuating and convincing defense of the claims of the oppressed, yet responsible constit- uents of our nation, the bread-Mrinners of the human race, the oft-fleeced, long-suffering tillers of the soil — the downtrodden farmers "one of whom he owns himself with pride to be," — you need not for a moment suppose that his knowledge of farming, and his suc- cess thereat, did not amount to — bean