|teur^(irfiltni)$ for tk |aniurs. 



THE present is a time of agricultural improvement and progress without a parallel 

 in this country. Improved implements, improved stock, better cultivation, better 

 fences and buildings, meet us everywhere in the country ; and farmers are growing 

 "rtc/t," in the common acceptation of that terra. We rejoice at this, and so must 

 every man who feels a lively interest in our national welfare, because agriculture is 

 our main stay. If it fails to prosper, we can have no prosperity. It is the produce 

 of our farms — the fruits of farm industry — that animate trade and commerce, that 

 build up cities and villages, construct railroads and canals, and cover our lakes and 

 rivers and the broad seas with fleets of vessels. What a calamity — what an uni- 

 versal panic and prostration of business would the failure of even one crop over the 

 whole country bring upon us ! 



Agricultural progress and prosperity, then, are subjects that no man, whatever 

 may be his calling, can regard with indifference ; and the agricultural classes them- 

 selves, as a body, by their intelligence, industry, energy, and manly indepdence, com- 

 mand universal admiration and respect. These are our honest sentiments — not the 

 fulsome flattery of a stump speech or holiday oration. Our sympathies are, and ever 

 have been, and will be, with the tillers of the soil. Our own life, so far, has been 

 spent in the country, and we have earned our bread by the cultivation of the soil. 

 We can speak of both its toils and pleasures from actual experience. AVe know that 

 some regard it as a vulgar and plodding pursuit, fit only for strong, rough, and uned- 

 ucated men ; but the number of those who think so is diminishing rapidly. Men of 

 taste and intelligence are now ambitious of being agriculturists; and schools and col- 

 leges for trainino; the sons of farmers are becrinninc: to attract attention, and will soon 

 work a change in public sentiment in regard to the respectability and importance of 

 the agricultural profession. 



This brings us to the point on which we proposed to make a few suggestions, when 

 we took up our pen. We wish to see the farmer's home — the farmer's life — made 

 more attractive. Hitherto, as a general thing, the improvements which have been 

 made are of the useful kind, having reference mainly to the supjily of man's phyt-ical 

 wants. Most of our farms must be regarded as mere manufactories of food and cloth- 

 ing; very little has been done to gratify the intellect, taste, or feelings — the higher 

 and nobler attributes of our nature. And this is one reason, beyond a doubt, why 

 many young persons who have, by means of education, reading, and society, acquired 

 a certain degree of refinement, become dissatisfied with agricultural life, and have sought 

 the city. Intelligent, educated men, can not surely remain satisfied with being mere 

 growers of grain and breeders of stock, — they must love their home ; and to merit 

 their love and attachment, that home must possess something of beauty, for the love 

 of the beautiful is an instinct of man's nature. A large portion of the population is 

 ually on the move; — the old home has no hold on their aflections — or at least 



^ovEMi;Er. 1, 1854. k 1 Ko. XI. 



