ESTHETICS IN AGRICULTURE. 37 



For a number of months after I first went into agricultural 

 journalism, many of my old acquaintances, on meeting me would 

 look at m}' feet and exclaim in a semi-jocose, semi-sneering tone : 

 " This will never do. There is no manure on your boots." That 

 remark was typical of a too general feeling in regard to agricul- 

 ture ; a sentiment that drives many a youth from the farm. Of 

 course there is dirty work in farming, as in every other business ; 

 but the feeling that it is distinctively a degrading, filthy occupa- 

 tion is wrong and ought not to exist. Let the boys and girls 

 understand that nowhere but on the farm can there be found such 

 a free and happy life ; so many little refinements ; so much atten- 

 tion to little matters of looks ; so much close communion with 

 nature ; so much that is educating and elevating, and they will 

 be less apt to leave it. When they grow up in the most beautiful 

 of homes, amid the most charming surroundings, environed with 

 the highest influences, the result will take care of itself. 



Home ! The place about which centre all the warmest attach- 

 ments of the heart, the focus of all our thoughts, labors, and 

 ambitions. It is a spot to love, and being such should be made 

 as attractive and lovable as possible. Labor for beautifying 

 country homes is of incalculable value, reall}^ more important 

 to the nation than the contentions of politicians and more chris- 

 tianizing than the bickerings of theologians. The American 

 people, as a rule, have given undue prominence to matter-of-fact 

 material subjects and not enough to the refining and aesthetic. 

 But money is only a tool, and should not be regai'ded as the end 

 and aim of existence. Two friends of mine — one an excellent 

 artist who never succeeds in getting ahead flnanciall}' ; the other 

 a shrewd business man without many interests beyond his ledger or 

 balance sheet — once met and fell into conversation. The artist 

 enthuasticall}^ discoursed of the lofty principles of beauty and 

 belittled sordid greed for money getting. The business man 

 retorted that money was a mighty handy thing to have. "Well 

 yes," said the artist, " it is, especially if a man has'nt anything 

 else." If we cannot have both, an appreciation of the beautiful, 

 a love of communion with nature, a desire to pattern after her 

 ways, and bring her right into the homes of the people, is cer- 

 tainly to be preferred. Carljle traces a connection between a 

 love for such things and reverence for order and goodness, while 

 Burke considers them of no small importance in the regulation 



