PHASES OF FARM LIFE. 145 



jaded and pale humanity. It is arterial blood when -^? 

 it flows in, and venous blood when it comes back. 



A nation always begins to rot first in its great cities, 

 is indeed perhaps always rotting there, and is saved 

 only by the antiseptic virtues of fresh supplies of 

 country blood. 



But it is not of country life in general that I am to 

 speak, but of some phases of farm life, and of farm 

 life in my native State. ^ 



Many of the early settlers of New York were from 

 New England, Connecticut perhaps sending out the 

 most. My own ancestors were from the latter State. 

 The Connecticut emigrant usually made his first stop 

 in our river counties, Putnam, Dutchess, or Columbia. 

 If he failed to find his place there, he made another 

 flight to Orange, to Delaware, or to Schoharie County, 

 where he generally stuck. But the State early had 

 one element introduced into its rural and farm life 

 not found farther East, namely, the Holland Dutch. 

 These gave features more or less picturesque to the 

 country that are not observable in New England. 

 The Dutch took root at various points along the Hud- 

 son, and about Albany and in the Mohawk valley, 

 and remnants of their rural and domestic architect- 

 ure may still be seen in these sections of the State. 1 

 A Dutch barn became proverbial. " As broad as a 

 Dutch barn " was a phrase that, when applied to the "y> 

 person of a man or woman, left room for little more 

 to be said. The main feature of these barns was 



