388 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



is this true of the farmer, so near is he to the heart of 

 Nature, and obedient to her laws and in unison with her 

 work ; her solitudes are vocal with a richness that is an in- 

 spiration ; the varied forms of beauty and fragrance and 

 utility minister benisons to their lives. 



Ah ! The old country home (now so flippantly named 

 " The New Heathendom " ), who can calculate its influence, 

 or its power for good? Distinct, indeed, it is from the city 

 home, yet its history is there written in living characters 

 drawn from every hillside home in New England, and their 

 withdrawal would mean weakness, decadence and loss in 

 every department , of its varied life. In every city how 

 many pictures are lovingly drawn of the early home. It 

 may have been a wood-colored, old farm-house with the well 

 near the door, over which the well-sweep stands guard, and 

 from which the bucket descends to bring the liquid nectar so 

 grateful to the thirsty family, father and sons, at the noon- 

 tide hour ; or it may have been the large, square, white 

 house with the green blinds, surrounded by the old and 

 graceful elms, wherein the oriole builds her nest, and from 

 whoso pendant branches ho swings and sings his welcome 

 notes ; or it may have been the one-story cottage, poor and 

 bare in all its appointments but in children, who are in suffi- 

 cient number to supply all deficiency in the other furnishings 

 of its rooms, — bright and happy and rich as kings, — its 

 belongings are no part of its happiness to the chiklish mind ; 

 and yet there has gone out from these homes an influence, 

 the power of which is beyond all calculation, and it is never 

 lost, hardly diminished by the on-rolling years, till in the 

 quiet of old age the mind goes back with relief and delight 

 to those early, formative days with their blessed associa- 

 tions, and we fully realize all that is sweet, restful and sacred 

 in home love. The sterling character, the loving thoughts, 

 the pure aspirations, all that man loves on earth or hopes 

 for in Heaven, rise with reflective vision of the old home, 

 for they were born there. 



