THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



163 



CULTURE OF THE SOU. MORE HEALTHY THAN OTHER PURSUITS. 



Farmers are by no means exempL from the thou- 

 sand ills of Hfe. They sicken and die, as well as 

 other people. Husbandry, as a calling, is a healthy 

 one ; yet there are exceptions to the general rule. 

 Farmers may overwork themselves, may wear un- 

 suitable and insufficient clothing, may be uncleanly 

 in their persons and habits, may indulge undue 

 anxieties about their affairs, and may give them- 

 selves up to the control of passions which are fatal 

 to the health of every man. And if ihey trans- 

 gress any of these laws of health, the fact that they 

 are tillers of the soil will not save them from the 

 penalty due to their misdeeds. 



We maintain, however, that this pursuit is emi- 

 nently favoiirable to health and longevity. It fur- 

 nishes exercise in the open air, which is one of the 

 chief promoters of good health. . All professional 

 authorities, and the experience of mankind at large, 

 agree as to the value of this medicine. Abundance 

 of the choicest food, the finest clothing, superb 

 dwellings, education, polished society, and all 

 other good things of life combined, are no substi- 

 tute for this. With them all, and yet without this, 

 the poor body will wither away, and fall into a 

 premature grave. 



The business of the farmer calls him into the 

 open air at all hours of the day. If there is any 

 virtue in early rising and the morning air, he gets 

 it. If there is any evil in the damps of the night 

 air, he generally escapes it ; for his labours com- 

 monly close with the setting day. It is a rule of 

 health to expose oneself to the open air every day 

 in the year, regardless of clouds and storms. A 

 faithful farmer can hardly shut himself within 

 doors an entire day, unless confined there by sick- 

 ness. Even in the most leisure seasons of the 

 year, and with abundance of hired workmen, he 

 wishes to be abroad, looking after the welfare of 

 his stock, his buildings, and crops. 



The labours of the farm furnish exercise of the 

 best kind. It is not labour in a confined shop, 

 nor the use of one set of muscles exclusively. The 

 arms, chest, feet, legs, all come into requisition ; 

 and the labour is so varied from day to day, as to 

 afford a pleasing alternation of exercise and rest to 

 the several members of the body. As a general 

 rule, too, this labour is not exceedingly wearisome. 

 Farmers, like other men, may lose their balance, 

 aud toil imprudently at times, as in haying and 

 harvest; but they need not overwork themselves. 

 The general fact still remains, that the labours of 



the farm are pleasant, not burdensome and in- 

 jurious, and are well adapted to invigorate the 

 whole frame. 



Temperance in living has much to do with the 

 preservation of health. And by this we mean, 

 not only temperance in drinking, but also in eat- 

 ing; abstinence from unwholesome food, as well 

 as from alcoholic liquors. It cannot be denied 

 that the use of intoxicating drink is much less 

 common among farmers than among other classes. 

 The circumstances of their life seem to forbid such 

 indulgence. They are away from scenes of temp- 

 tation; their passions are little excited ; their work 

 cannot proceed if body and mind are not under 

 control; they must either give up their calling, 

 or renounce the cup. The diet of the husband- 

 man is generally simple and wholesome. The 

 rich and highly concentrated dishes of fashionable 

 and epicurean tables, the mysteries of French 

 cookery, seldom find their way to his board. In 

 their place, he has the fruits of the earth in their 

 natural state, and in abundance. He is not without 

 luxuries and delicacies; but they are, for the most 

 part, those which his own industry and skill have 

 produced from his farm and garden. He has them 

 in great variety, and in their highest state of per- 

 fection and freshness. His food is eaten, too, at 

 suitable and regular hours, and under the impulse 

 of a healthy appetite, not one created by artificial 

 stimulants. 



Mental excitement is a prolific source of ill- 

 health. It is a common saying that a fit of anger 

 is about as bad in its influence on a man's lon- 

 gevity, as an attack of fever. Excited expecta- 

 tions or great disappointments are well known to 

 wear upon the nervous system, and to derange 

 the health. The constant anxieties and cares of 

 trade, manifestly operate in the same way. From 

 wearing excitements of this sort, the agriculturist 

 is mostly free. He is not, indeed, without his 

 cares. Late springs, and early autumnal frosts, 

 untimely rains, droughts, and the uncertainties 

 attending the ingathering of crops, give him no 

 little anxiety. Yet these do not corrode the heart, 

 like the cares of trade, the thousand annoyances 

 of intercourse with selfish men ; they are not so 

 constant; they are almost remitted during the 

 winter season ; and they are mitigated, if not 

 wholly counterbalanced by the scenes of quiet 

 and repose, amid which the farmer's life is 

 passed. 



We have often contrasted the history, in this 



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