SCIENTIFIC RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The meaning of this expression, if it be a permissible one, is explained by the following, which we take from the Independent (N. Y. City), of November 7. It is an editorial description of Briarcliff Manor, a collection of farms situated not far from New York City, and owned by a wealthy resident of that city, who has devoted himself to the idea of securing scientific perfection in all that pertains to the running of his farms. And certainly this “righteousness” is not to be despised; for no person can be truly righteous while failing to strive for perfection in the particulars which are here described. Every farm owner who reads these lines should be stimulated by them to activity in this direction. The editor says:— “That a man of wealth should leave the country for the city is not a novelty, but that a man who has acquired wealth by trade or manufacture should leave the city to develop an ideal farm is something new and notable. This is what Mr. Walter W. Law has done at Briarcliff Manor. He determined to have a farm run absolutely on the highest principles—a farm where science should speak the first word and the last word, and all the time. “Science is nothing but accumulated experience—what we have found out to be best and truest; and so Briarcliff Manor farms were simply to do the best, instead of second best, or third best, or tenth best. The houses were to be models, the stables were to be ideal, the orchards planted and worked ideally, the gardens must show what possibly could be done in vegetables, and the corn crop and the oats and the wheat must not be left to any guesses of man or nature. Feeding must be done on scientific principles; barns must be as sanitary as houses; stables must be sunny and thoroughly ventilated. Water must be absolutely pure for the cattle, and their sanitary conditions as perfect as those for human beings. “Then it followed that the arrangement for human beings must be on the highest level. Men and boys who were employed must be looked after to produce a splendid human result. That is, they must not be left to act as so many mechanical appliances or brute force masters of the lower animals. The superintendent says: ‘I think we have now the noblest farm in the United States, and that we have good men, intelligent men—the very best men—is the reason that we have the best farm.’ It seems not yet quite familiar to us that a store should have the golden rule for a business maxim; but what are we to make of a farm where the superintendent says, ‘Not until we apply the golden rule to cows will we ever get the best from them’? The walls of the stables are hung with such mottoes as, ‘Speak gently; it is better far to rule by love than by fear.’ The application of this rule to cows ought to create a moral evolution in the stablemen, so that by and by it could be applied to human folk as well, and thoroughly believed in as a workable law of life. Prizes are distributed at Briarcliff of this sort: ‘Evelina Gatardy, most gentle with cows.’ ‘Theodore Anderson, most careful teamster in feeding his horses and keeping his stables clean.’ There are other prizes for ‘Cleanest delivery wagon,’ ‘Neatest house yard,’ ‘Best garden truck,’ ‘Best-kept room in Dalmeny.’ Emphasis is placed on the fact that all virtues have a commercial value. Commercial success and character may and should go forward together. This is a principle worth the study of everybody. “Do not misunderstand us that Briarcliff is a great charitable institution. It is par excellence a money-making establishment. It intends to show, not that ‘farming pays,’ but that ‘the best farming pays.’ In all ways success and righteousness are inseparable—we mean scientific righteousness. To do a thing rightly is the only proper way to do it, and a person who does a thing a little short of the right way is unrighteous. “Bulletins on impure milk and other topics have a twofold value; they advertise products, and they instruct the consumers of milk. We are deeply interested as a people in pure food products, in cleaner dairying, in scientific farming in every direction—that is, the largest production of the best possible products, in orchard, garden, field,—and the stable and house as well. This we call natural piety—to do the best with what God gives us for the good of our fellow beings. If this sort of spirit can be infused into agricultural work, we shall have great faith in that social reform which will make the golden rule the law of human society.”