THE GENESEE FARMER. 



19S 



Iessus. Editors : — During a four years' residence 



owa, I have watchod with some interest the ways 



doings of our western farmers, comparing them 



. the same class at the east. Though most of 



n have emigrated h°re from the eastern states or 



0, candor compels me to say they have degener- 



1 from neat and thrifty farmers, to shiftless and 



euly ones, and for this there must be a cause. 



y come here with a desire and determination to 



rich, even at the sacrifice of those social qualities 



:h are so essential to the well being of any com- 



lity. They take up large tracts of land which 



• cannot possibly cultivate. Break up and fence 



I portion for immediate use; the rest lies a bar- 



;nd unoccupied prairie — making of course a wide- 



lattered population. Even when this is not the 



■and men are content to live without owning all 



d that joins them, there is a lack of desire for 



improvements. This mania for large farms 



IS to be on the inci'ease. Men are wishing to sell 



;• farms of one or two hundred acres, and go 



ler west, where they can get more land, when 



they now have, has nes'er been half cultivated. 



, it seems to me, is a great error. The west is 



niably a country of vast extent, unequalled fer- 



of soil, and unbounded resources for wealth, to 



ho choose to emigrate hither. Its beautiful un- 



ing prairies actually seem to woo the plough, 



if men could or'Iy be content to own but one or 



hundred acres of land, and cultivate it well, the 



would indeed in a few short years be the garden 



merica. But notwithstanding the natural ad- 



iges the western country possesses over the east 



01 j he purposes of gardening, such as a rich and 



y soil, freedom from stones, &c., few avail them- 



Ej| 3 of the privilege which nature has thus thrust 



them. A good garden here I have never seen, 



will understand I am speaking of the country 



if towns.) It is true you will now and then see 



ill spot fenced off with rails perhaps, planted with 



age, a few beets, and may be a few vines, strug- 



with the weeds for the mastery, and the weeds 



■ally come off first best in the contest. Now 



3t every farmer will concede that a good garden 



! most productive part of the farm; why then is 



strangely neglected? Is not a neat yard filled 



shrubbery, and a well kept garden, indicative of 



and refinement in its owner? But our western 



;r3 seem to have little idea of the influence that 



attractions have on the minds of their families. 



forget that the little ones they are rearing will 



be men and women, with as little cultivation as 



)rairies given them as an outfit. We have not 



aciUties of the eastern states for education, for 



chools are as yet in their infancy; where then are 



) look for the training of our future men and 



^n of the west, to habits of taste and refinements 



, at home. Then let me iterate and reiterate to 



irmers of the west, and those who mean to emi- 



here, choose a location you mean to make a 



, plant trees around the homestead, help your 



} and daughters to cultivate flowers— protected 



the cows and pigs by a good fence, drudge 



k'few shillings for choice seeds; spend an hour 



be* 



A 



occasionally with them in the garden, suggesting new 

 improvements, aiding them by advice, and what will 

 be more ellectual, a little digging with the spade; 

 and rest assured in a few years there will be a new 

 era in the life of the western farmer. The comforts 

 of home are not to be weighed in the balance with 

 your uncultivated acres; and if you are in haste to 

 be rich, choose that best of earthly riches, springing 

 from a well balanced, well culTivatcd mind, for with- 

 out this, the best filled purse only jilaces you a little 

 above the scale of creation, with the brutes that perish. 

 Clay, ffashingivn Co., Iowa. Yiola. 



THE CULTIVA TION OF FLOWEKS. 



Messrs. Editors: — Since the earliest history of 

 the world, the mythological goddess. Flora, has had 

 her worshippers, and has probably contributed more 

 real happiness to mankind than has sprung from al- 

 most any other source. She has been the means of 

 refining the human heart, and rendering it suscepti- 

 ble of all the softer emotions of our nature, and has 

 a language peculiarly her own — speaking in accents 

 soft and low — of brightening our pathway through 

 this vale of tears, and causing our thoughts to turn 

 toward the great God who created such exquisite 

 and diversified beauty for our enjoyment, and renders 

 the world in one sense a prelude to what we may 

 expect In a brighter and better sphere. 



If I ever am inclined to feel sad or troubled, and 

 there are flowers dispensing their fragrance near me, 

 I go among them, and in admiring so many of the 

 Creator's blessings bestowed upon me, soon dispel any 

 unpleasant thoughts, and forget that they ever existed. 



The cultivation of these sweet emblems of purity 

 and innocence, is well calculated to render our hearts 

 happier, and make us wiser and better. It begets a 

 kind of enchantment — a feeling which those only who 

 love flowers can fully appreciate. It makes me sad 

 to think that any one should ever grudge a little spot 

 of ground on which to grow those lovely companions 

 of prosperity or adversity. We know there are some 

 such, but hope for humanity's sake they are few, and 

 that as refinement advances all such will be converted 

 to the loving of flowers. For what were they cre- 

 ated, unless to adorn this earth, and command our 

 admiration and reverence for the exquisite workman- 

 ship and manifold design of their Maker ? It seems 

 as if the person who would spurn a flower, would 

 spurn the richest blessing as a gift of Heaven. 



Lockport, J\\ Y. A Lover of Flowers. 



Forest Flowers. — In vol. XIII., page 288, of the 

 Farmer, an authoress of Canada asks, " Where are 

 the lilies of the woods, the lovely and fragrant Pyro- 

 las, the Bloodroot, the delicate and sweet scented 

 Milchella repens, the spotless Monotropa, with Orchis 

 of many colors ?" I can tell you where some of them 

 are, and they seem to be perfectly at home — not in 

 Canada, but in Saratoga county, N. Y. The north 

 side of our garden, a little lower than the other part, 

 is a soft black soil, the depth of which I have never 

 fathomed. Currant bushes are growing six feet from 

 the fence; close to the fence I have planted every 

 known wild flower that was an inhabitant of low 

 woods that I could get. The soil, with the constant 

 shade from the currant bushes, makes as good a spot 

 for them as could be desired. Tney want no ma- 

 nuring or hoeing; merely weed them by hand, if any- 

 thing intrudes upon them. A Farmer's Wife. 



