AGRICULTURE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 19 



the ground — intelligent husbandry. The greatest hindrance to 

 entire success in this department, at this time, is the indisposi- 

 tion which constitutes, to a great degree, the inability of farm- 

 ers to live on and from their farms, — to so abridge the luxuries 

 as to multiply the comforts and moderate the labors of home. 

 Large and often expensively furnished houses are the farmer's 

 curse and the mechanic's bane. Snug, neat, convenient houses, 

 filled with smiling faces and song, are better than large mansions 

 of unoccupied rooms, requiring expensive repairs, occupied by 

 indebted, and hence peevish families. As I travel about the 

 country, and see from one thousand to three thousand dollars 

 expended in rooms which are not occupied, almost never opened, 

 — and this is wise, for it saves wear, both of furniture and house- 

 wife, — I am pained at the waste of means which add no comfort, 

 and hardly minister even to the pride of the owners or occupants. 



