1857.] Wliy is not Farming more attractive? 345 



Yet, in truth, agriculture is not a profession to bo followed suc- 

 cessfully by the ignorant few, but really requiring vastly more 

 " head work" than is often used by ordinary pettifoggers or M. D.'s. 



Are not these professions, then, so frequently chosen by the 

 young and ambitious because the farm-life is too often associated 

 with ideas of coarse manners, discomforts and bad taste ? And is 

 it not too often the case, that farmers — especially those of the 

 West — -though proverbially liberal in providing for the wants of the 

 body, are too apt to neglect those of the mind ? 



Look at the majority of farm-houses in Wisconsin ; how bare and 

 comfortless within. Look at the front yard ! A miry sty where 

 odious swine root at will, and cattle spend their nights in undis- 

 turbed tranquility. No roses, or lilacs, shed their " perfume 

 on the desert air" — no verdant grass dare creep over the filthy mire, 

 for what were the use ? It would soon be trodden to death by 

 merciless hoofs. 



Within doors there is often as great a dearth of books as of 

 strawberries in December. Perhaps, if the good man is not totally 

 opposed to " larnin' " of all kinds, he takes the county paper, but 

 even this is too frequently condemned as a useless luxury. 



Farmers, if you desire to attract to your ranks the ambitious, 

 the educated and refined, see to it that while you provide for the 

 wants of the body you neglect not those graces and refinements 

 which help to distinguish man from the beast. Turn out those 

 marauding cattle ; fasten those in their proper sphere. Let the 

 green grass come creeping around your door ; plant fruit trees about 

 your dwelling, and long before the first crop of fruit the birds 

 among their branches will repay you with their songs. 



Do not say that you are too poor to buy a few books and to take 

 a newspaper or two. Throw away your tobacco, and if need be, tea 

 and coff"ee, and spend the money they have cost in buying reading 

 matter for yourself and family. 



And you, good wife, pray take a little time to plant flowers, to 

 gladden the hearts of your children with their brilliant perfumes. 



So shall your homes become a green and flowery island in the 

 rough sea of life, around which fond memorials shall cling when 

 the hands that planted them are mouldering beneath the sod. — Cor. 

 Wis. Farmer. 



