No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 733 



then comes the dance. Byron appears to have regarded the waltz 

 as anything but proper. He says: 



"What! the girl I adore by another embraced; 

 What! the balm of her life shall another man taste; 

 W^hat! touched in the twirl by another man's knee; 

 What! pant and recline on another than me? 



Sir; she is yours; 

 From the g-rape you have pressed the soft blue — 

 From the rose you have shaken the dew. 

 What you have touched you may take, pretty waltzer: Adieu." 



After that Christmas comes again and so the years go on and the 

 daughter marries. Her sister of the city thinks it is a great picnic 

 to get married. They write silly letters, say soft things, and live 

 in sentimental atmosphere. Less than one-half find the new scheme 

 anything but the thing they claim it is cracked up to be. As a rule 

 the farmer's daughter does not rue her bargain and is not as apt to 

 make a mistake as the city girl, for she is not helpless and dependent. 

 If her husband meets with reverse she can take a hand and help 

 manage the affairs; or if he turns out to be worthless she can hustle 

 for herself. She does not expect to recline on a bed of roses when 

 she has a house of her own to manage, coiisequently she is not dis- 

 appointed when she finds the new life but little different from the one 

 she has left. Josh Billings says: ''Some people imagine they are in 

 love and wake up to find that it is only a fit of indigestion; and others 

 never, never wake up and remain happy." 



I now come to consider the farmer's daughter as she should be. 

 There is no picture of ideal excellence of womanhood that I can ever 

 draw that seems too high or too beautiful for our young hearts. As 

 "Brevit.y is the source of wit," and the advantages of the country 

 life are so great, I shall not attempt to treat of them fully. The 

 country influences have for years filled the cities with new blood, and 

 has filled the places of trust and honor both in state and nation with 

 men whose stronge characters were formed on the farms. The 

 country girl up to this time has been unable to share these hopes. 

 It seemed her life was to have been spent on the farm unless by ac- 

 cident. But her sphere is widening greatly. 



She should be healthy. An open out-door life conducive to good 

 health, and this the farmer's daughter has. The conventionalities 

 of society do not reijuire her to wear dresses which are injurious to 

 health, and her open air life free from restraint, gives her rosy cheeks, 

 good digestion and refreshing sleep. She should be a poet. Why 

 not? Can she not say with the Duke in the forest of Arden: ''Sweet 

 are the uses of adversity which, like a toad, ugly and venomous, 

 wears yet a precious jewel in his head." And thus our life, exempt 

 from public haunts, finds tougues in trees, sermons in stones, books 

 ii! running brooks and good in everything. 



To the recejitive mind, what poetic emotions are awakened by life 

 in the country. The scent of the new mown hay in summer aroused 

 Whittier to write the poem that is so familiar to ns all, "Maud Mul- 

 ler." The turning of the leaves in aritumn inspired Thomas Bu- 

 chanan Reed to write the finest American poem ever written: "The 

 Closing Scene." Old Mother Earth wrapped in a mantle of beautiful 

 white in wintcj'. and the l>ui'sting forth of new life on every hand in 

 the s])ring, all tends to make her nature more poetic, so that she can 

 feel with the poet who sings: 



"To me the meanest flower that blows, 

 Can give tho't that do often lie too deep for tears." 



