THE FARMSTEAD 



CHAPTER I 

 RURAL HOMES 



Man is made partly by heredity, partly by 

 environment ; both may be controlled and modi- 

 fied to a far greater extent than is generally 

 supposed. In speaking of farm life, its dis- 

 advantages aiie frequently emphasized, while its 

 possible advantages as an environment for the 

 development of the finest quality of human 

 nature are as often ignored or overlooked. 



Nature, with her ever- varying form and color, 

 beauty and symmetry, is forgotten in the city; 

 the shady forest, the meadow brook, the waving 

 fields, are unknown. There, instead, is incessant 

 noise, the clang and clash of trade, towering 

 and ugly buildings, skies darkened by the smoke 

 of factories, children who never saw a tree or 

 played elsewhere than upon a hard and filthy 

 pavement ; and worst of all is the nerve- destroy- 

 ing haste and unequal competition, wearing out 



A (1) 



