NEW ENGLAND HOME-LIFE. 65 



according to the wisdom, or rather the folly of the times, and 

 needlessly subjected to hardships. No wonder that such 

 fiirms are deserted by those born and reared on them. They 

 seek in some other land a home which they are sure cannot 

 be worse than that which has ground all enjoyment and 

 almost the life out of them. We are glad to feel that much 

 of the austerity of the New England farmer's home has passed 

 away ; but too much of it still remains. And the first thing 

 to be done, if we would build up the New England farmer's 

 home, is for the fathers and mothers who now rule in them to 

 throw around them all the beauty and refinement which a cul- 

 tivated taste can give, that the childhood of our children may 

 be pleasant, so that only the restless shall willingly wander 

 away. There is wisely implanted in man a desire to go out 

 into the world, to settle in new places ; and the scattering of 

 New England men has been a blessing to the country. But 

 the tendency is strong enough without our giving it strength 

 by marring the beauties which nature has lavished upon New 

 England, or by making the home simply a place in which to 

 eat and sleep, when it should be the centre of every refined 

 enjoyment. 



It is claimed that New England has too severe a climate for 

 comfort or health, and so many are driven from it who would 

 gladly make there a permanent home. That the climate is 

 severe we cannot deny, and the inroads of certain forms of 

 disease have been too marked to pass unnoticed. But the 

 very process that beautifies the earth will render it more 

 healthful. The farmer has but begun to learn what draining 

 will accomplish for the improvement of soils, and this same 

 draining, removing the surface-water, is the best of all means 

 for securing health. In fact, the statistics of consumption 

 are found to vary as the amount of undrained lauds in every 

 town. 



I think it may safely be asserted that such cultivation of 

 the earth as shall make it most productive in the great staples 

 of human food, and most beautiful to the e3^e will render it, 

 at the same time, most healthful. Life and health are the 

 condition of all enjoyment, so that with our abundant prod- 

 ucts we must seek for the conditions of the best physical 

 activity and the greatest longevity. That these can be 

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