No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 663 



exchange the view of the hills and the river in their ermine winter 

 cloak of ice and snow for the sight of the seemingly interminable 

 sky-scraper with its dingy roof-garden covered with patches of gray 

 snow? Who would exchange the glorious quiet of one of God's own 

 moonlight winter nights, when every snow crystal reflecting back its 

 particular moonbeam lending an air of enchantment to the scent, 

 making this old world of ours seem a fairy creation just from the 

 hand of the master of magic, for the electric lighted, hustling, bus- 

 tling city street with its air surcharged with impurity, loaded with 

 disease germs and filled with an infinite sense of unrest and pulsat- 

 ing inquietude? God made the country and placed man in it, sur- 

 rounded by Nature's peace and quiet; man made the town, with its 

 unceasing discontent, its disregard of human life and happiness. 



Man feels the necessity of returning to the natural life. A longing, 

 an intense yearning seizes upon him for the cool forest and the mur- 

 muring brook, for the whisper of the wind among the tree-tops and 

 the gentle caresses of the soft breeze an(J, leaving the confines of the 

 city, he hies him away to the country to recuperate his wasted ener- 

 gies, refresh his mind and draw in inspiration from the broad out- 

 look and renewed force of nature for a renewal of his daily combat 

 in the artificial civic life. 



Oh! much is the man who lives among the fields and in the sun- 

 shine of the Almighty to be congratulated. His robust health, his 

 bronzed cheek and brawny muscle are to him of more value and 

 enjoyment than all the millions of a railroad or steel magnate. His 

 children born and reared in the proper natural conditions with their 

 full share of pure air and life-giving sunshine recruit the ranks of 

 the drudging list of bloodless city incapables whose life-blood, drop 

 by drop, has ebbed away in the stifling crush of the mad city life. 

 He lives near to Nature's heart and Nature gives him of her bounti- 

 ful store 'of all that he requires in this woild, and along with it the 

 freedom which can be acquired in no other way, nay, not even with 

 the help of filthy lucre. Veritably, the happiest, freest and most use 

 ful life is lived "near to Nature's heart." 



BOYS AND GIRLS ON THE FARM. 



By MISS NETTIE R. SPICHER, Thompsontown, Pa. 



When we come to think candidly of a farm without boys and girls, 

 we are soon led to see that, under these circumstances, the farm 

 would soon come to grief. Boys and tji;irls are important factors 

 in the make-up of a farmer's home. Could we, for one moment, 

 think farm life complete were it not for the good natured, sunny 

 boys and girls? The life of the farm is very much what the boys 

 and the girls do. Their lives are lich in toil; and they fully realize 

 the value and dignity of labor, and, that it is the lever which turns 

 the value and dignity of labor, and that it is the lever which turns 

 the world. 



