342 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



healthy intellects, with unimpeachable characters to back them. Yes, the world 

 is large for such, and great is the reward offered. 



The training for the laborers in this field must center largely around the 

 family fireside. It is here that youth must derive strength ; old age a 

 sure stay in declining years. The homes of the nation are the anchors of 

 State when storms overwhelm it. Here both young and old meet on unreserved 

 terms, giving and receiving instruction. Here is gathered and moulded for 

 use, material with which to arm ourselves for public duty. How jealously 

 ought we then to guard this vital spot; provide for its thorough tillage, that 

 it may bring forth an abundant harvest. 



Yet, farmers, are we fully alive to providing means and surroundings that 

 will furnish the highest results in our homes. Are we not too apt to look to 

 our fields with a single eye to garnering gold, laying it by for starting the 

 children in life? Losing sight of the fact that the development of a refined 

 moral and intellectual character is the only abiding treasure, the greatest 

 legacy we can leave the children at death? 



Having in view then what the farmer's home is too apt to be, and the 

 importance of zealously cultivating our minds as well as our fields, it yet 

 remains for us to inquire into what the surroundings of the home should be. 

 In other words, what are the best means to be adopted in bettering its condi- 

 tion, that it may yield the required returns. 



It would be folly for us to lay down rules that should bid you get this and 

 that ornament for the home ; plant such and such shade trees ; lay out your 

 walks on a curve so and so, or say you should read this and that literature. 

 No, we shall be wholly content if we can but set each to thinking seriously in 

 regard to the matter, thus, perhaps, tending into the right course of action. 



Let the ideal home be set up in the mind, and strive to attain the real as 

 circumstances permit. But let me urge above all things, to be active. Is the 

 front yard bare, destitute, unattractive? Then plant shade trees, shrubs, and 

 flowers. Is the back yard filthy, unsightly? Then clean up. Are the build- 

 ings shabby, the fences crooked and tumbled down? Then straighten up and 

 repair. Are your tables and shelves destitute of entertaining and instructive 

 literature? Then provide, and see that it is used. Let music find its way into 

 the home ; works of art, pictures ; in short, leave no stone unturned that will 

 tend to beautify, cleanse, and make it a place where intelligence, peace, and 

 love prevail. If the good farmer wishes, in this country and age, to raise 

 successfully a crop of wheat, it is hardly expected that he will loosen the soil 

 by spade, sow the seed by hand, and cover it by means of a three cornered 

 harrow. No, he must use improved implements. So in the field of the mind 

 there must be improved instruments to work with, and these applied skillfully, 

 that the home may produce an abundant harvest. 



There must be that in our surroundings to stimulate the sense of the beau- 

 tiful, if that part of the mind would develop. Kind words, love, and gener- 

 osity must be the instruments used if the good would prevail. Honesty and 

 justice must be awakened and nourished through precept, and if knowledge is 

 sought, there must be approved means for accumulating it. 



To secure the perfect home, money, time, and energy are required, and we 

 are prone to excuse ourselves from the duty of providing suitable means for its 

 culture. Yes, it does require money, time, energy, and so does a bushel of 

 wheat. And, yet, can one — yes, can ten thousand bushels of wheat redeem the 

 lost or degraded character of a son or daughter? Can money purchase 

 intelligence, love, and sympathy? Most certainly not. Why, then, hesitate 



