No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 229 



become narrow and selfish. We are all placed liere to help one 

 another, and you will always find most happiness in a community 

 that has a free social life. 



The very best way to foster and maintain a free social life in a 

 farming community is by the organization of an active Grange, 

 having for its object the advancement of scientific and profitable 

 agriculture, and the establishment of a freer and better social life 

 among the members. Some one recently spoke of Penn township 

 as being one of the most intelligent and progressive farming com- 

 munities in the State, and remarked, "I suppose it is all due to the 

 longer school term" (it is eight months). "No," replied the other, 

 "it is all owing to the Grange." And that is true; wherever you 

 see a good Grange, you will find broader intelligence and greater 

 unselfishness, and a freer social life, and an interest in the work 

 of the Farmers' Institute. Where there is no Grange, good liter- 

 ature will do much to promote the social life, and make the family 

 life brighter and happier. A good library is a source of pleasure 

 and profit. Devote at least a small part of each day to reading 

 the standard authors, and keep abreast of the topics of the day; 

 thus you will keep heart and mind active, and be in touch with things 

 outside of the daily routine of farm work. Discuss them with your 

 family and your friends. A frequent exchange of visits should be 

 encouraged in any community; have, if possible, a set day each 

 week for receiving your friends and going visiting. So arrange 

 your work that you will have time for social pleasure. Always 

 be cordial in manner if unexpected company comes in near meal- 

 time, or the husband brings home a friend without warning to 

 dinner. Do not change your meal, but give them the best you 

 have in such a gracious manner that they will feel they are welcome, 

 and will want to come again. Take time for the social visit to 

 your neighbors, and in helping others you will find that you have 

 been helped yourself. If you come home w^ith new ideas, the 

 monotony has been broken, and you can take up your work again 

 with renewed courage. 



To many the life of the farm means isolation. This is a mistaken 

 idea. True, we work hard, but what. vocation does not work hard? 

 Think of the many delightful surroundings we have, compared with 

 many others. Nature is a great teacher, and we have her ever before 

 our eyes, and instead of the noise and hum of machinery, we have 

 the music of the babbling brook and the singing of birds; we have 

 the beauty of the budding flower, the green grass and the blue 

 sky — the starry skies instead of the electric light of the city. The 

 life of the country is the life of the spirit, and it gives us not 

 only a love of the beautiful now, but we feel that when we leave 

 this world, the soul will rise to a higher land of beauty. Without 

 the uplift of a love of nature, and the study of her teachings, we 

 make our lives a tread-mill; we malce our work drudgery, and we 

 become slaves. 



The love of reading is another thing which helps to pass many 

 otherwise heavy days on the farm. Let us aim to have a small 

 library of well-selected books in our homes, and if we can get only 

 one or two books a year, let us do so, and economize in some other 

 way. To bring one's heart and mind into contact with the best 

 books is the best you can do for yourself. You may think you have 



