212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



slighting of work. In occasional drives you will see much to encourage yon in this 

 course. Your corn looks better than that of neighbor Brown, who works from five 

 o'clock in the morning until eight at night, who hires his men to put in every hour, 

 except when eating or sleeping. His labor is hard, he turns the farm crank with 

 his eyes shut, thinking work is work any way, and does not realize he is knocking 

 off profits here and there by unintelligent labor. He plows his corn too deep, lit- 

 erally tending it to death. He has a light yield, and can't understand it. His 

 family are thin and sickly in the fall, and he has doctor bills to meet. He whistled 

 and whittled last winter away, and don't know any better. He has yet to learn that 

 moderate and intelligent labor pays. The mother and daughter on their drives 

 see blue chickens io Brown's yard where flowers ought to be, the washing just on 

 the line at 4 p. M. What did these women do last winter? They knit — mittens, 

 stockings and socks, they sewed shirts, aprons and frocks ; and now they won- 

 der why your work is done, how you can ride, fish, or swing lazily in the ham- 

 mock at even tide. No wood-house, no cistern, but back-breaking tubs, a dasher- 

 churn, and rickety stoves at Brown's, and he is but one of hundreds. Fill your 

 yard with hammocks, the boys can tie them, with chairs and seats where the family 

 can read and swing at will. 



BETWEEN THE CORN-PLANTING AND PLOVIMNG, 



Gather up girls, wife and all, and go fishing ; before harvest have a picnic, and so on 

 through the summer vary the programme. In the autumn comes the fairs. The in- 

 telligent man attends them to learn and to rest. The family have something to 

 exhibit, and are interested in the several departments. The whistler and whittkr 

 takes it in as a great show for his benefit. He is the man who patronizes the side 

 shows and catch-penny games, if you admit them; he learns more profanity and 

 vulgarity, buys more tobacco and beer, goes home no whit the wiser, and thinks 

 the association is getting rich. The intelligent man takes his family to the city 

 and State fair, or exposition, and with broader views of life they return to the 

 home as a rendezvous of rest. 



We have filled the year with recreation which can not all be called amusement 

 while all amusement is recreation, and hence is secondary, but no less the proper 

 portion of the well-regulated family. Games entertaining to both old and young 

 are to be found at the stores at low prices. The time-honored backgammon and 

 chess have their place, and legion only names the instructive games for children. 

 Authors and Logomachy are always good, especially the latter, for poor spellers. 

 Then, on account of their numerous diversions, we admit playing cards, believing^ 

 contrary to popular prejudice, that in perversion alone lies the trouble. Because 

 they are the gambler's tools, it does not follow that cards contaminate. Because 

 we abuse our appetites, the blame should not fall on the inoffensive food. Admit- 

 ting, for the sake of argument, that they carry a little extra fascination, it only 

 strengthens my belief that the family should be acquainted with them, in order 

 that temptations to excess may be curbed at home. Shut them out, and the per- 

 verse nature in every breast, which demands self-experience, and will not listen to 



