Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1876 [PAGE 216]

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216 It was claimed that when the tired laborer was sufficiently rested to turn over in bed it was time to turn out. I have known several who followed that rule and each 01 them became insane as might be expected. A pursuit that requires its followers to rise before daylight and to labor till after dark ; to deprive themselves of needed rest, recreation and time for mental and physical recuperation and improvement, is one that all sensible persons should avoid. I do not believe that any man was any more successful as a farmer wrho persisted in laboring out of season or compelled his hired help to do so. But my observation convinces me that the reverse is the fact. A man that labors ten hours in the field per day will' do more labor in a season than he would when compelled to labor more hours, and I am nof certain but this time might be slightly reduced with profit. The human organism is not an engine made of iron, nor a brute beast, valuable only for muscular strength, but a combination of muscular power, nervous energy and mental, social and moral intelligence, and deprived of the exercise of any of these lessens his efficiency. When overtasked, jaded and depressed, he is not half as valuable as when in the full possession of all his faculties. All the duties of the farm laborer needs to be directed by intelligence, and when exhausted by the day's toil he needs a time for. social, mental and physical recreation, and all the rest his feelings call for. Thus refreshed he comes to his duties fresh and vigorous; with all his faculties in the best condition, he will do more and better work, his feelings are more kindly towards all around him, he is abetter master, a better servant and more successful in all his efforts. But deprived of rest and all enjoyment he is but a slave everywhere, his hand will paralyze all it touches. I t is this ceaseless round of toil, "to eat, to sleep, to work," unenlivened by mental or social enjoyment that has made most of the agriricultural class that stupid, listless, unthinking people they have been. I do not ask that the laborer shall be released from the full and reasonable performance of all his duties, but I ask that the laws that made our natures and demands their proper discipline as a condition of health, enjoyment, and efficiency, shall be obeyed. And here as elsewhere I insist that compliance with all of nature's laws is the summit of human wisdom. The farmer that pays his help full wages, keeps them comfortable, makes them happy and cheerful and pays them promptly, will as a rule find them interested in his business, careful of his interests and trustworthy'—most important aids to success. The pursuit of agriculture in its diversified branches requires the existence of the household. I t is strictly a domestic institution. The influence and governing power over all the interests must radiate from a common center, and the gains must be collected and cared for at that center. The domestic animals need to know it, and these, with barns, out-buildings^ yards, gardens, fruit orchards, all so constantly require the supervision of some one interested, that a well organized household becomes a necessity in this pursuit. Adam would have made but poor headway among the bowers of Eden without his Eve.