1884] FARM LABOR IN NEW ENGLAND. 109 



as an art, and, if it be an art, it deserves the treatment of an art. 

 By this, I mean that the farmer and the farm laborer is bound, if 

 he honors and respects his occupation, to conduct all its operations 

 with a due regard to the great artistic rules of proportion, har- 

 mony, and finish. Shakespeare says, "There is an art which doth 

 mend nature,'' and this is the art which I would commend to far- 

 mers and farm laborers. It applies to all farm labor, the lowest as 

 well as the highest, to the building of a stone wall, the setting of 

 a wooden fence, the running of a boundary line,- the digging of a 

 ditch, the planting of an orchard, — in a word, to all the items of 

 labor which make up the work-day life of a farmer. It costs no 

 more to do all these things well, with proper regard to symmetry 

 and correct design, than to do them hap-hazard, in the slovenly, 

 careless manner we so often see. And while it costs no more, it 

 adds directly to the value, the money value, of a farm, if all these 

 things are done artistically. 



But I will not put this duty on the sole ground of pecuniary 

 advantage. I would have the farm laborer work in the spirit of 

 an artist, because the eye and heart of man were made to delight 

 in the fitness and harmony of all outward objects. The simplest 

 farm labor, that most primitive art of plowing, as we all know, 

 may be done so as teach all our own youth valuable lessons in the 

 duty of doing all things in the best possible manner. The lot and 

 life of that farmer who has felt no sense of taste in farming is 

 needlessly hard and uninteresting. No man need be so rude and 

 untaught as not to take pleasure in a smooth and well laid field of 

 grain or grass, in a trim, well-kept yard or garden, in preference 

 to the shabby, neglected, forlorn fields and enclosures which pre- 

 sent no sign of cultivation in the great art of agriculture. 



But the life of the farmer is not wholly in the field. The sense 

 of art, of which I now speak, wiU find expression in the home of 

 his family, and hired laborers, and in the buildings which shelter 

 his stock and his crops. Here art will concern itself to secure 

 health, comfort, and entertainment for man and beast. Here art 

 and true economy go hand in hand. The ''stitch in time" that 

 " saves nine " is the dictate of art as well as economy. How 

 much of sheer waste to the farmer comes every year from the 

 want of that taste which is offended at the sight of a fallen fence- 

 post, an unhinged gate, or a loose clapboard. To be artistic is to 

 be truly economical. The cultivation of such a sense of art not 



