Webster Farmer Club 'public'

The first "public" of the winter under the management of the Webster Farmer club was held on the evening of Dec. 28. Mr. C. M. Starks' address was in the inain a strong plea for specialty in fanning, together with a more ready complince with the conditions under which the business must be pursued. The need of a stronger love of home was eniphasized and the American desire of ehange contrasted with the tenacious clinging of the adopted citizen to his freehold, in a manner not complimentry to the native. Radical chances in cropping and stoek-raitiii}; as the tide f prices go op and down was deprecated, the stayer being the man in the nd who gathered in the cash,besides adding to his experience valuable formation in the lines pursued. The district school as it is and as it ehould be in order to prepare our boys for the farm was noted. Home edueation was valuable in which its tendency was to keep both parent and child in sympathy, and preserved the best intellects for an occupation that was yearly losing its best by migration to cities, when if they could be imbued witta a love for agricultura they would find in its followinga wide field for active thonght. Dorr Queal and Mamie Blodgett both excelled In recitation, - Dorr as alaughter-provoking mimic ; Mamie as tbe delineator of the grander passion of the human heart ; the one convulsing the udience with laughter, the othcr to the contemplation of heroic dAeds. Miss Jessie Williams' essay was one of those thouglitful conlributions to ;the literature of the age that speaks well of the discernment of important facts and their bearing upon our lives by our young ladies. What is wealth ? brought out Ray McColl with a well digested statement of its theoretical bearing. In his argument heshowed himself a master of tb is economie problem, and though strongly impregnated with the theories of John Staart Mili and other leadint writers upon the subject, he was not without decided opinious of his own. Johnson Backus who followed liim looked at it through the eyes of the practical farmer who had met the conundrum in his business. In the developmentof the soil and its productions would he seek for all the benefits that ay accrue frora the terra, wealtb. Idle ■ïoney, currenoy hoarded away in banks or stockinps, while indicating poseibilities if used, was not wealth in its true aeceptiition. Circulation, emlloyraent of labor, growing crops or stock, moving merchandise and business enterprises was nearer his definition of the term. He was a lirm believer in that old bank, Mother Earlh, nd wished to see its resources more' fully drawn upon. Are the tendencies of the age helpful to the farmer? was answered ves and no by the Rev. G. E. Lincoln. "Yes, in that the labor-saving appliances aided une man to do tlie work of ten, cheapemng production. No, in that this ia destroyingthetypical farmer, concentratine capital into the hands of the few and pushing the small farmer to the wall English syndicatesare purchasing large blocks of lands in the west, monopolizing the arable portions; a system of ronsohdation is going forward in the -hast, and ït is only a question of time if thistendency iscontinued.before thé same situation will be brought about nere as exists in Ireland. Each succeeding census shows a diminution of land-holders to the per cent. of popularon, wbicb he regardedas unhealthful i. A. ï.ordman, who closed the discussion, said that the absorption of land by combination, trusts or syndicates must stop. Farmers wlio wislied to see theirsons soil-tillers, and who must go West soon, had better look a little oud ad make themselves heard in this matter. We have placidly seen the big nrm swallow all of our cattle interest! and corner the hogs, submitted to the abeorbing procesa of the railroads of lands that in the aggregate would make a whole state, and yet have voted the party ticket whether said party was accessory to the crime or not. The tenlencies of the age may be helpful to the farmer, but the farmers' tendency Íu H Ph m8iel j Was a? yet feeble '"" deed. He asked what are the granges, tanner clubs and stock organizations for uniese it i. to lcok after the interests tnat are vital to our prosperity. While he had uo desire to bring the discusBion of party platforms and performañ. ífnn f a pUre,'? agricultural associa}w'yif Í6 Culd not forbear the hint tpl-n6, y IS,not far distant wlen we will have to be a unit in demanding certain changes in class legislation. We must make a long pull andastrong pull anda pull all togetherfor our rights, forgetting we are Democrats or Republihpuefnxt me.eüne of the club will be held at the residence of President Backus, the second Saturday in January. ' ■::