COUNTY KEPORTS. 485 



use its light. The old adage that " knowledge is power " is more 

 than words to us. Of what use are the elements of nature if we 

 lack the skill to mould them to our uses and wants? What the 

 iron, and coal, and timber, unless we bring the science to make 

 them into houses, machines, engines, and so on? "We must 

 avail ourselves of the ideas and researches of others, in order to 

 further our own affairs. But never adopt their views until we 

 have applied our own reason in the premises. Reason is OUR 

 sheet-anchor, and he who undertakes to extract agricultural 

 knowledge either from nature or books without it, will have 

 nothing but disappointment. 



The first object which should engage the attention of the farm- 

 er and mechanic is a home, for without one, or without one in 

 contemplation, his life will soon be as useless and aimless as 

 that of the savage. Here he may spend his leisure time and grat- 

 ify his taste in ornamenting and improving his house or lands. 

 So strangely sympathetic is human nature that the scenery which 

 surrounds us has a wonderful effect on our minds, and we grow 

 up with nature strangely analagous to its character. What an 

 inducement then to make the house and its surroundings pleas- 

 ant — to give the farm an appearance of neatness and conveni- 

 ence. Thus might we not exert a greater influence for the good 

 of society than does the fear of prisons? 



The monotony of our prairies might be entirely changed by 

 planting by the road-side shade trees, such as the Butternut, 

 Black Walnut, Locust, &c., generally selecting those which 

 would be most valuable for timber, which, besides the moral in- 

 fluence they would exert, would pay a thousand per cent upon 

 the expense of planting, in timber in after years. This is a mat- 

 ter that the farmers of Racine county ought to attend to. The 

 expense would be trifling, and the ladies, whose smiles are ever 

 the crowning bliss of life, would not cease to thank us for the 

 investment. 



To every home should be attached a garden, and that should 

 be well attended to. In Yankee parlance it is decidedly " a pay- 

 ing institution," affording luxuries for the table; and, by its 

 beauty, adding another link to the chain which so firmly binds 



