FARM ARCHITECTURE. 133 



But doubtless tlie awakening of artistic tastes, especially 

 the application of art to industrv, is a fever that will change 

 the current of our life-blood, making the generation that is 

 advancing different in many respects from that which is 

 passing away, affecting directly or indirectly all our activities 

 and national interests. 



The love of outward beauty and the desire to create and 

 own it are positive elements in human nature, whose demands 

 insist upon gratification. 



I look upon this general awakening interest in art as one 

 of the most important and permanent allies in promoting the 

 welfare of agricultural communities. 



At first glance the connection between art and agriculture 

 — pictures and potatoes — may seem remote. It is, in fact, 

 most intimate, most beneficent, and so natural, that we shall 

 ultimately declare it to be just what might have been 

 expected. 



Art is a sort of universal social solvent and panacea. 

 More than any thing else, except practical piety, it coun- 

 teracts and compensates for what we call the drudgeries of 

 daily labor, — the monotonous routine of toil which is not 

 and can not be interesting or satisfying for its own sake. 



It is precisely this compensation which those need above 

 all others, whose life and labor are t:pent in comparative 

 isolation, and with slight changes of outward surroundings. 

 It is the material blossoming, the visible charm of every- 

 day life. 



Now, if farmers' homes and farming communities are to 

 hold the enterprising, intelligent, cultivated people who 

 alone make any community worth living among, these homes 

 and communities must keep up with the rest of the world in 

 making life as full, as earnest, as beautiful, without and 

 within, for old and young, — especially for the young, — 

 upon the farm as it is in town. 



This is the service which art will render if rightly taught 

 and applied. 



Of course, if we cannot have but one, — bread and butter, 

 or the beautiful house, — we must have the bread and butter ; 

 but "these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the 

 other undone." 



Without the visible beauty, life is but half full ; and full 

 living is better than half living. 



