106 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



giving ourselves no recreation or rest. We are so eager to 

 accumulate wealth that we give ourselves very little time 

 for recreation or enjoyment. We have not yet learned an 

 art the Germans might teach us, — that of enjoying a little 

 simple pleasure every day. 



We must make our children happy if we would make 

 them good. We should show them the bright side of life, 

 for there is a bright side to be enjoyed in every home. We 

 should provide them with entertainment, or they will provide 

 their own. Surround them with an atmosphere of affection 

 and enjoyment, if you would teach them to love their homes. 

 Improve and beautify your homes, fill them with good in- 

 fluences, let the members be refined and cultured. The 

 children in a home where politeness reigns will grow up 

 polite men and women. Habits formed in childhood are 

 permanent. The chief end of life with many is to gather 

 gold, and that gold is counted lost which hangs a picture 

 upon the wall or purchases a toy or a book for the eager 

 hand of childhood. 



We need money to make pleasant homes, but the worship 

 of the dollar does much to desfrade them and to cause dis- 

 content among the children. It is not necessary to adopt a 

 luxurious style of living, — it is not well to run into del)t for 

 that which you cannot pay for, — for every man and wife, 

 blessed with good health and who are of industrious habits, 

 there is enough to be won to afibrd them a generous and 

 comfortable living. Social intercourse and meetings of 

 neighbors and friends for mutual improvement should be 

 encouraged by every member of the famil3^ The years of 

 our life will be few at most. Then why should we not enjoy 

 "ihem as we pavss along, and take and use the blessings which 

 Heaven confers. We strive to accumulate beyond our needs 

 and beyond the needs of our families. In doing this, we 

 deny ourselves leisure, recreation and culture. When wealth 

 has been won the power to enjoy has often gone, and it soon 

 passes into the hands of our children, who do not appreciate 

 its value and to whom it is an injury, for it removes all in- 

 centive to enterprise and industry, and often leads to tempta- 

 tion and crime. 



