722 



We want no imported guano to make our iigbt sandy soils productive 

 — DO phosphate, superphosphate or hyper superphosphate of lime at a 

 heavy expense — the elements of vegetable wealth are always produced 

 in considerable abundance upon them, and only need to be carefully 

 preserved and judiciously applied. And if more is needed than can 

 be thus obtained, fevf farms are without rich vegetable deposites of peat 

 or muck, precisely what such lands require ; or, perhaps marl, which is 

 equally valuable. 



In conclusion let me say that the first business of the famer is to 

 make his home pleasant to his family — to preserve or plant trees around 

 it that shall not only add grace to its appearance, but shall soften the 

 heat of summer and modify the rigors of winter — to plant fruit trees in 

 variety, and interest his sons in the various modes of planting, grafting 

 and rearing them, to sui>ply his home with reading, and especially with 

 agricultural reading ; taking care that for this they shall have one or 

 more good agricultural journals like the Cultivator or our own excellent 

 Michigan Farmer. And to do this he does not require a large or ex- 

 pensive house ; a log cabin may be as cheerful, and far more attractive 

 in appearance outwardly, than the vast majority of expensive farm houses, 

 if a little care is bestowed in keeping the yard about it neat, and clean, 

 •and shaded ; v/ith a few perpetual roses, that cost nothing but a little 

 care, showering down their fragrant leaves through the season, and an 

 Isabella or a Catawba grape vine running up the old logs and loading 

 them with the delicious fruit. 



A pleasant home is everything, for there the principal portion of our 

 lives is to be spent, it is around the home of youth that the affections 

 of after life principally cluster — and if we would have our children 

 love their homes, and proud of the business they are expected to follow, 

 m must take some care not only that that business shall interest their 

 active minds, but that home shall be the most pleasant place in the 

 world to them, and from which neither improper amusements nor bar 

 room yams or revels shall have power to attract them. We hear fathers 

 talking to disobedient or runaway children about their duty to their 

 parents, and their duty to love their home, to avoid dangerous places of 

 resort, when they themselves have neglected the first and greatest duty, 

 and instead of making home attractive to them so that they can love it, 

 act all the while as though they meant to make it as repulsive as pos- 



