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The Farmer's Life and Duties. 



Vol. V. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Farmer's Life and Duties. 



Sir, — Permit me to transcribe from the 

 pages of one of the most interesting- works 

 in the English language, entitled " The Ru- 

 ral Life of England," by William Howitt, a 

 chapter for republication in the Cabinet: it 

 points to the evil from whence a great por- 

 tion of the distress which has befallen the 

 agricultural community has arisen in Eng- 

 land, and teaches a doctrine which can in no 

 country under heaven be so well appreciated 

 as in this, for here it can be carried out to 

 perfection. Subscriber. 



" Cobbett complains that the English farmer 

 has been spoiled by the growth of luxurious 

 habits and eifeminacy in the nation ; tJiat the 

 simple old furniture is cast out of their 

 houses ; that carpets are laid on their floors ; 

 that sofas and pianos are found where there 

 used to be wooden benches and the spinning- 

 wheel ; that the daughters are sent to board- 

 ing-school instead of to market ; and the sons, 

 instead of growing up sturdy husbandmen, 

 like their fathers, are made clerks, shop- 

 keepers, or some such "skimmy-dish things.* 

 Now, it is true enough, that the general style 

 of living and furnishing has progressed 

 amongst farmers, as amongst all other classes 

 of the community, and possibly there has 

 been too much of this; but it should ba recol- 

 lected that Cobbett was opposed to popular 

 education altogether — he would have the ru- 

 ral population physically well off; but it should 

 be physically only — he would have them feed- 

 and work and sleep, like their sturdy horses 

 and oxen — but is such a state of things desi- 

 rable? Is it not far more noble, far more 

 truly human, to have all classes partaking, as 

 far as their circumstances will allow them, of 

 the pleasures of the mind ? I would have 

 real knowledge go hand in hand with real 

 religious principle and moral feeling; and, 

 where they go, a certain and inseparable de- 

 gree of refinement of manner and embellish- 

 ment will go with them. But, would I have 

 the follies and affectation of the modern 

 boarding-school go into the farm-house 1 By 

 no means ; it is by the circulation of health- 

 ful knowledge that all this is to be rooted out, 

 and the race of finicking and half-genteel, and 

 7cholly ridiculous boarding-school misses, to 

 be changed into usefully taught and really 

 valud|)le women ; we should avoid one ex- 

 treme as we would the other. 



But amongst .farmers are to be found men 

 of all ranks and grades; farming has been, 

 is, and will be a fashionable pursuit; we 

 have Ducal farmers, and from them all de- 

 grees downwards ; many of them are per- 

 sons whose capital, employed in their exten- 

 sive concerns, would purchase the estates of 



nobles; all these, of course, live and partake 

 of the habits, general character and refine- 

 ments of the classes to which they really be- 

 long ; and amongst the medium class of farm- 

 ers we find as little aspiring after gentility, 

 as amongst the same grade of tradesmen. 



There are still a sufficient number of the 

 simple and really rustic, to satisfy such men 

 as Cobbett, and those who doubt it, have only 

 to go into the retirements of the midland 

 counties, where they will still find naked 

 floors and tables, straw beds and homely liv- 

 ing enough in all conscience ; they may eat 

 a turnip pie and oatmeal cake or pudding, 

 and bless their stars if they see a bit of 

 butcher's meat once a week ! 



But " they bring up their sons to be clerks 

 and such skimmy-dish things in towns;" this 

 we owe to the rage for large rentals ; to false 

 notions of improvement by the same; by 

 gentlemen making stewards of lawyers, who 

 have no real knowledge of farming interests, 

 and can, therefore, have no sympathies with 

 the small farmer, or patience with him in the 

 day of his difiiculty, and whose only object 

 is to get the greatest rent at the easiest rate. 

 But, above all, this we owe to the detestable 

 doctrine of political economy, by which a 

 dozen of moderate farms are swallowed up 

 in one overgrown one — creating a desert, 

 from which both small farmers and labourers 

 were compelled to depart, to make way for 

 machinery and Irish labourers at eight cents 

 a day ! Now, where were the farmers to 

 put their sons when they were brought up? 

 for the small farms, the natural resource for 

 divided capitals and commencements in agri- 

 cultural life, were, in a great measure, anni- 

 hilated, and a most useful race of men, as far 

 as possible rooted out.* Thank God, how- 

 ever, this abomination, this worse than Egyp- 

 tian plague is now seen through — and what 

 is better, is felt ; and we shall again have 

 farms of from fifty to a hundred acres, where 

 men of small capitals may try their fortunes, 

 and have again a chance of rising into the 

 respectable ranks of society, instead of being 

 thrust down into the hopeless condition of 

 serfs ! We may again have humble home- 

 steads, where a father and his sons may work 

 together; where, although labour may await 

 their days, an independent fireside may re- 

 ward their toil with the social hour of rest; 

 where a lowly, but a happy people may meet 

 together at Christmas, and the old games of 

 blind-man's bufl^, turn-trencher and forfeits 

 may long be pursued in the evening fire-light 

 of rustic rooms, by the younger branches, as 



*To this cause is no doubt to be attributed the in- 

 crease of crime which we now witness amongst the 

 young and educated class of a certain portion of the 

 community ; tliey have been driven in upon the towns; 

 they cannot dig, and to beg they are ashamed! 



