X94 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



size, some proportions, some decent laying out; is neatly fenced, 

 fruitful, clean as paradise, when Eve hurried her husband out of 

 bed early to grapple with the weeds. According to Milton, wlio 

 knew all about that first name, she arose and went out to help 

 him, partly, it may be presumed, as a standing example for her 

 daughters. And then the house; in how high a state of preser- 

 vation is it ! Nothing there is going to decay. The barn, why, 

 you would almost wish to be one of that man's cattle. You will 

 not steal his fruit of course, but he would gladly give you some, 

 if he knew how your mouth waters. The whole farm would 

 excite your envy, if you are a bad man; your pride and your 

 patriotism, if you are a good one. What a combination of the 

 beatiful and useful ! You may gaze as long as you please, and 

 your perception of beauty, of fitness, of propriety and of utility 

 will not be offended. Now if you think that man is rich, you 

 may be wrong; if you think he has a competency^ with qualities 

 more precious than riches, you are probably right. If you think 

 he has a wife as true to her position as he to his, you are proba- 

 bly right again. If you predict that the sons and daughters, 

 after being educated in mind and hand, and after exercising a 

 joint care and helpfulness with these parents, will be qualified 

 to take care of themselves, or to go into another joint concern, it 

 is probable that your predictions will come to pass. How beautiful 

 is such a farm and its appurtenances ! But after all it is beauti- 

 ful chiefly, as an indication of the taste, refinement and high 

 civilization with which enlightened Agriculture is compatible. 

 There need be nothing low, ill-bred, or vulgar about it. There 

 were hundreds of such farmers' homes fifty years ago; there are 

 thousands now; let us thank God that there is room in our 

 country for millions fifty years hence. 



In view of the difficulties to be overcome in a new country, of 

 the comparative poverty of new settlements, of the deficiency of 

 working capital on our farms, and above all of the fact, that in 

 our colonial, non-manufacturing condition, and for long years 

 after we had escaped our pupilage, there was no adequate home 

 market for farm produce, it must be confessed that the farmers 

 of this country have done well. The country has owed them 

 more than they have owed it. If, as an art, American agriculture 

 does not yet equal European, it certainly comes as near to it as 



