FOll PROMOTING AGEICULTUKE. 87 



the farm-house. What do we see? Are the fences on 

 the road in good condition? Is the gate whole, and on 

 its hinges ? Are the domestic animals excluded from im- 

 mediate connection with the dwelling house, or at least,, 

 from the front yard ? Is there a green plot adjoining, 

 well protected from pigs and poultry, so that the excel- 

 lent housewife may advantageously spread and bleach the 

 linen and yarn of the family ? Is the wood-pile well lo- 

 cated, so as not to interfere with the passenger, or is it 

 located with especial eye to the benefit of the neighboring 

 surgeon? Is it covered, so that its work may be done in 

 stormy weather ? Is the well convenient, and is it shel- 

 tered, so that the females of the family may obtain water 

 without exposure, and at all times, and in all seasons? 

 Do the subsidiary arrangements indicate such contrivance 

 and management as that nothing useful should be lost, 

 and nothing useless offend ? To this end are there drains, 

 conveying what is liquid in filth and offal to the barn- 

 yard or the pens ? Are there receptacles for what is solid, 

 so that bones and broken utensils may occasionally be 

 carried away and buried? If all this be done, it is well ; 

 and if, in addition to this, a general air of order and care 

 be observable, little more is to be desired. The first proper 

 object of a farmer's attention, his own and his family's 

 comfort and accommodation is attained. Everything 

 about him indicates that self respect which lies at the 

 foundation of good husbandry, as well as of good morals. 

 But if any of us on our return home should find our 

 door barricaded by a mingled mass of chip and dirt ; if the 

 pathway to it be an inlaid pavement of bones and broken 

 bottles, the relics of departed earthen ware or the frag- 

 ments of abandoned domestic utensils ; if the deposit of 

 the sink, settle and stagnate under the windows, and is- 

 neither conducted to the barnyard, nor has anything pro- 

 vided to absorb its riches and to neutralize its effluvia ; if 

 the nettle, the thistle, the milk-weed, the elderberry, the 

 barberry bush, the Roman wormwood, the burdock, the 

 dock and the devil's apple, contend for mastery along the 

 fences, or flower up in every corner ; if the domestic ani- 

 mals have fair play round the mansion, and the poultry 

 are roosting on the window stools, the geese strutting 

 sentry at the front door, and the pig playing puppy in the 

 entry, the proprietor of such an abode may call himself a 

 farmer, but, practically speaking, he is ignorant of the A. 



