OUE HOMES. 103 



are more suitable for occupancy than many buildings that 

 are called homes in the West. My advice to the young 

 men would be, " Go West"; not, however, for permanent 

 abode, but only to visit the country and associate with the 

 people, then return and make for themselves homes on the 

 hillsides or in the valleys of their own New England. Let 

 us have home comforts and social life in the country, leav- 

 ing the dazzling elegancies, showy pretences and imposing 

 wealth to the cities where they belong. Life in the country 

 is not given wholly up to style and excitement. Home in 

 the country signifies comfort with abundance. 



One ffreat trouble with those enf>:aged in cultivating the 

 soil is want of confidence. They do not work together. 

 There is not that hearty fellowship that is pleasant and de- 

 sirable. Those of other callings meet together and agree 

 upon scales of prices for their services or products, while 

 the farmer will not even tell his neighbor what he obtained 

 for his apples or his last crop of wool. There are not as 

 many farmers elected to the Legislature as there should be. 

 They do not claim all their rights and are too easily discour- 

 aged. The weather is objectionable, the temperature is not 

 satisfactory. It is too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry ; 

 nothing appears to be right. 



The elements have very much to do with the success of 

 those engaged in agriculture, for they need and must have 

 both sunshine and rain. There is really no reason for com- 

 plaining, since we have the sure promise of " seed time and 

 harvest." There are those born and reared upon the farm 

 who look upon the shovel and the hoe as tools fit only for 

 the day laI)orer. They consider the occupation of cultivat- 

 ing the land as beneath them, — not honorable or genteel. 

 They would have white, delicate hands, like the clerks and 

 counter-jumpers of city stores, who handle the pen, the tape- 

 measure or the yard-stick. They believe that if they follow 

 these occupations money will flow into their pockets like a 

 river. But, alas ! how easy it is to be disappointed ! 

 Farming at the present time is a more popular pursuit than 

 it was twenty-five years ago ; the laws of progress appear to 

 be that the returns for labor shall increase. 



In all business pursuits there are pleasures to enjoy, diffi- 



