21-i Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



city. If we must adopt English customs, in the name of all that 

 is sensible and sweet and sane, let us cultivate the English love 

 of rural life. To do this we must make our rural regions lovable 

 and attractive. English roads, and walks, and hedgerows, can- 

 not be made in a season, but not one of us is too poor or too- 

 busy to do something to improve our premises. Plant a tree where 

 shade is needed; set a shrub in that ugly corner; trim out the 

 undergrowth, and keep the grass cut. Lend a hand to help your 

 wife or your mother with her flower-bed, and praise it, too! When 

 I see a bright patch of flowers growing near a dull little farm- 

 house, I feel like lifting my hat to the woman within. She may- 

 be poor and plain, but in her soul there lives a love of beauty, and 

 color, and fragrance, to which I gladly do reverence. Everything 

 which makes for happiness and contentment adds a note of musie 

 to the harmony of life. 



The importance of keeping the w^omen of our households cheer- 

 ful and happy and healthy cannot be overestimated. If the 

 daughter of the house goes away to school and absorbs something- 

 of art, music, literature or science, let her be generous in bestow- 

 ing the riches of her attainments on the home circle, not in a way 

 to irritate and embarrass, by reminding them of their own defects 

 in education and opportunity, but with a heart-felt desire to give 

 them happiness, and to apply her accomplishments to improving 

 and beautifying the home. Many a hard-working, self-sacrificing 

 mother, doing her homely tasks day by day, is soul-starved for 

 sympathy and appreciation which her worldly minded daughter 

 is too thoughtless to give. Make the mothers happy. If the coun- 

 terpart of the " Man with the Hoe " exists in America, he is the 

 outgrowth of industrial and agricultural misfortune. Hard, un- 

 remunerative labor may always be depended upon to breed discon- 

 tent and degradation. If we would lessen the number of this- 

 class, we must cure conditions which kill and degrade a man, 

 whether his sphere be the mine, the mill or the farm. We must 

 encourage legitimate industries. We must establish agriculture 

 as a permanent and self-respecting profession in which the wisest 

 and strongest may engage with pleasure and profit. Agriculture 

 that is conducted by weaklings will decay and degenerate. The 

 hoe and the hammer, the pen and the paint-brush have each a 

 part to play in the world's work; and it is my hope and belief that 



