104 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



ing useless offend? To this end are there drains, con- 

 veying what is liquid in filth and offal to the barnyard 

 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 atten- 

 tion, his own and his family's comfort and accommo- 

 dation 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 fragments of abandoned domestic uten- 

 sils; if the deposit of the sink, settle and stagnate 

 under the windows, and is neither conducted to the 

 barnyard, nor has anything provided 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 

 animals 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. B. C. of his art. For the first 

 letters of a farmer's alphabet are neatness, comfort, 

 order. 



As we proceed to the farm we will stop one moment 

 at the barnyard. We shall say nothing concerning the 

 arrangements of the barn. They must include com- 

 fort, convenience, protection for his stock, his hay and 

 his fodder, or they are little or nothing. We go thither 



