farmers' institutes. 709 



FARM ADVANTAGES'. 



MRS. L. F. CRONKHITE, HEDRICK, IND. 



[Read before the Farmers' Institute, West Lebanon.] 



"Advantage," what is it? Webster defines it as "favorable circum- 

 stances." What more favorable circumstances could there be than living 

 on a farm with all the surroundings that a modern farmer has at the 

 present time? A large residence with all the modern improvements, fine 

 outbuildings, barns and granaries of mammoth size that shelter all his 

 stock, and in which he can preserve all he produces on his farm; beautiful 

 groves surrounding these buildings, a nice vegetable garden from which 

 the vegetables come nice and fresh for the table, a well kept lawn with 

 hammocks hung here and there, flowers of all kinds in every conceivable 

 droves of sheep and swine and nice flocks of pure-bred cattle, large 

 droves of sheep and swine and nice flocks of pure-bred poultry. These 

 and many others constitute the advantages of farm life. What more 

 higher calling is there than the farmev has? 



Agriculture is the greatest among the arts, for it is first in supplying 

 our necessities. It is the mother and nurse of all other arts. It creates 

 and maintains manufactures; gives employment to navigation and 

 materials to commerce. It animates every species of industry and opens 

 to nations the surest channels of opulence. It is also the strongest bond 

 of well-regulated society, the basis of internal peace, the natural associate 

 of good morals. 



We ought to count among the advantages of agriculture the charm 

 which the practice of it communicates to a counti-y life. That charm 

 which has made the country the retreat of the hero, the asylum of the 

 sage and the temple of the historic muse. 



The sweet occupations of culture, with her varied products and 

 attendant enjoyment, ai*e, at least, a relief from the stifling atmosphere 

 of the city. We deplore the dispositions of young men to get away from 

 their farm homes to our large cities where they are subject to difficulties 

 and temptations which but too often they fail to overcome. 



We have among our present advantages many that our forefathers 

 never dreamed of. While they would put in days harvesting their grain 

 with a sickle and have eight or ten men for their wives to cook for, 

 we can, with our improved binders, harvest ours in one-third the time 

 and have only two or three to help. And while it would take them one 

 day to thresh out fifteen or twenty bushels of grain by tramping it out 

 with horses, we can, with our modern threshing machines, thresh out 

 three thousand bushels per day. The American of the Revolutionary 



