620 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



country impose, is a serious cause of nervousness and morbidness, and it has been stated by 

 some of the highest medical authorities, that much of the insanity among farmers wives 

 which is more frequent, in proportion, than among almost any other class of persons may 

 be directly traceable to excessive hard labor and this isolation and monotony in life. &quot;With 

 nothing to divert from the dull and monotonous routine of labor, day after day, and year 

 after year, the mind is apt to prey upon itself with the consequent evil effects. 



Our surroundings have much to do in making up the sum of happiness in life, and no 

 thing that contributes to it, even in the least, should be overlooked. 



Country life is, of necessity, devoid of much of the variety which the village or city 

 afford, but it need not be rendered doubly isolated and the home a lonely hermitage for that 

 reason. The most pleasant location possible should be chosen for the home, at a convenient 

 and desirable proximity to the public road, on a slight elevation if practicable. In sections 

 where the land is low and nearly level, a slight elevation can be made artificially by carting 

 earth and building up the surface. This involves considerable labor, but will well repay in 

 some locations by the better drainage thus secured, as well as improving the appearance of 

 the grounds. 



Influence of the Dwelling upon Character. In the construction of all farm 

 buildings, they should be adapted to the purposes for which they are intended. As the house 

 is designed for the protection, comfort, health, and happiness of the household, it should be 

 constructed in a manner suited to subserve these purposes; hence, it should be convenient, 

 roomy, and of sufficient size to meet the wants of the family. It should be well lighted and 

 ventilated, pleasant and tasty in arrangement and design. 



It should be borne in mind that &quot; home &quot; is not merely a place of shelter from the 

 storms and cold of winter, and the heat of summer a place in which to sleep securely at 

 .night, and labor by day; it is all this, and something vastly more. It is a place where the 

 children receive their first and most lasting impressions, those that go far in molding and 

 forming the character of the man and woman in after life. A tasty, orderly home has a 

 refining, educating influence upon its inmates, while an unattractive, gloomy-looking, and 

 poorly-furnished house has an influence which is the reverse from elevating. Where there is 

 nothing to cultivate a refined taste, and there is necessitated a constant association with 

 things that are meager and mean, the mind naturally is warped in the same direction. A 

 pleasant home will not only prove an attraction to the children of the owner, keeping them 

 from places that are debasing in their influences, but will also attract better associates for 

 them, who will come and visit where they find the same refining and pleasant surroundings 

 to which they are accustomed in their own homes. 



Things that may seem small in themselves are often vastly large in their influence, and 

 determine the whole course of many a human life. We are apt to speak of &quot; destiny &quot; in 

 life, and regard it as something mysterious and inevitable an indefinable power that 

 determines the fate of mortals, and over which they have no control. But the fact is, our 

 destiny is in our own hands, and is what we make it; consequently, our own lives, and the 

 lives of those depending upon us, are, in a great measure, what we make them. 



&quot;We are more or less influenced by our surroundings, and too little attention and im 

 portance is generally given to this fact in the construction and furnishing of our houses. 

 But some farmers will say: &quot;Such talk is all very well for those that have plenty of money 

 and can afford to have nice homes, but we are not able to make our homes tasty and attract 

 ive; we are poor, and we and our children must work for a living. We have neither the 

 means nor time to bestow in beautifying our homes, and the idea of farmers of such limited 

 means, that they can scarcely make a living from their farms, embellishing their homes, is all 

 nonsense! &quot; 



To be sure, &quot;bread&quot; is, indeed, the &quot;staff of life,&quot; and the material wants must receive 



