1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMEK. 



19 



DUTIES OF THE FARMER TO HIS 

 FAMILY. 



Order and neatness are among the marks of good 

 farming. Where these are -wanting in the arrange- 

 ments about the house and farm buildings, they 

 will be wanting on the farm. The farmer is bound 

 to train up his family in good habits, and habits of 

 order, by which everything shall be kept in its 

 place, and everything done in its proper connection 

 and habits of neatness, which shall lead to the 

 instant detection and removal of every nuisance, 

 are among the good habits in which children 

 should be brought up from their infancy. The 

 health, the comfort, and the respectability of his 

 family demand this at his hand. 



Among the provision which the farmer should 

 make for his family, are all those arrangements and 

 utensils which are calculated to save time, labor 

 and strength. There is much hard work to be 

 done in the family of the farmer, and on certain 

 days and at certain seasons, the females are tasked 

 to the full extent of their strength and powers of 

 endurance. Now, I would not recommend that 

 you should get every new pattern of cooking stove, 

 or churn, that you may see advertised in the news- 

 papers. But I would have you to keep those in 

 good order that you have, and in a condition al- 

 ways ready for use. Have them in a convenient 

 place, and so arranged as to save steps and strength 

 as much as possible. 



Provide for the happiness of your family. Many 

 little attentions to their comfort, and arrangements 

 by which their labors may be facilitated, contribute 

 much to promote their happiness. The mistress of 

 the family has many things in the care of her family 

 to exhaust her strength and try her feelings, and the 

 good wife will not fail to appreciate all the arrange- 

 ments you may make for her relief, and increased 

 patience and sweetness of temper. 



Never require the females of the family to do 

 those things which belong to the other sex. They 

 should not be required to split the wood, or even to 

 carry it into the house ; to shovel the snow from 

 the clothes yard, or to sweep the paths and alleys 

 around the house, or carry pails of food to the hogs, 

 or dig potatoes for dinner. ISIany a farmer's wife 

 has been, and now is, subjected to drudgery of this 

 sort. But it is to be hoped that the days of such 

 service are nearly ended. All such labors should 

 be considered a part of the daily business of the 

 farm, and should be attended to in their season. 

 The man who loves his wife, and wishes to make 

 his home a happy one, will regard her feelings, and 

 never subject her to mortification or degradation. 

 Nature has implanted in the heart of every woman 

 a desire to appear well in the eyes of others ; this 

 desire should never be opposed unless it oversteps 

 the bounds of propriety, but should be indulged 

 so far as your means will justify. It is associated 

 in her mind with the feeling of self-respect, which 

 is one of the safeguards of virtuous character*. Nev- 

 er, by unremitting toil, render that fair and open 

 countenance and those delicate features coarse and 

 narsh, and cause that beautiful, active, symmetrical 

 form to become bowed, crippled, and distorted by 

 incessant drudgery. Kemember that woman is not 

 endowed by nature with the same masculine 

 strength and power of endurance which was given 

 to man. Her strength consists in her weakness, 

 ■which appeals to you for support and protection, 



and in her beauty and gentleness, which appeal to 

 your love and affection. And in all the arrange- 

 ments of the household, you should remember 

 that the duties of woman are not to be accom- 

 plished by muscular power and brutal force, but 

 rather by skill, by tact, by perseverance ; and in 

 proportion to the extent of her labors and cares, 

 should be the facilities and aids supplied to her. — 

 Thus will her strength be spared, and her time 

 saved for the cultivation of her mind, for the in- 

 struction of her children, and for the performance 

 of those gentle charities that so beautify and adorn 

 the female character. And how much more cheer- 

 ful, aye and successful too, will be the labors of 

 the field, when the sweet and happy smile of the 

 contented wife meets you at the threshold, and 

 sheds sunshine throughout your dwelling. 



Another more high and important duty which 

 the farmer owes to his family, is to supply them 

 with the means of moral, religious and intellectual 

 culture. Let your children be trained from their 

 earliest infancy to be kind, obedient, truthful, in- 

 dustrious, and as fast as their intellect is developed 

 let it receive appropriate culture. Never grudge 

 the cost of books, periodicals or papers, or taxes 

 for institutions of learning. Money paid for the 

 education of your children is the best investment 

 you can make for them, and remember that as the 

 world advances in knowledge, and the comforts 

 and conveniences of life increase, the standard of 

 education must be elevated from generation to gen- 

 eration. It is not enough that your children are 

 instructed in those things that you learned in the 

 schools of your boyhood. They must be taught 

 those that you now, in your manhood, feel that 

 you need to know. There has been, as you all 

 know, a great revival of interest in the cause of ed- 

 ucation within a few years past. Catch this spirit 

 and let it enter into all the arrangements for the 

 education of your children. But I must cut short 

 my remarks upon this copious theme, and will only 

 add, that you cannot afford to dispense with the in- 

 stitutions of religion, for to these we in New Eng- 

 land are greatly indebted for our wordly prosperity. 

 Teach your children to reverence the sacred word, 

 to remember the Sabbath, and to do to others as 

 they would that others should do to them ; and 

 never forget that in all these respects, your own 

 example is the most efficient teacher, and that the 

 lessons they are thus taught, will make the deepest 

 impression upon their minds.— JVorthern Farmer. 



HOW TO FEED YOUNG HORSES. 



The adult horse does not require so much of the 

 flesh-making principle as the young and growing 

 animal, but he seems to require a greater variety. 

 The adult merely requires enough to replace the 

 waste — the wear and tear of his system. If he ob- 

 tains more than this, the surplus is either excreted 

 from the body, or else stored up within the same 

 in the form of fat ; and everybody knows that a 

 fat horse, or a fat man, are not best adapted for a 

 race, nor for hard labor ; but of all others (except 

 those in a state of debility) they are most subject 

 to acute disease. With the young and growing 

 animal the case is different. Here we require 

 bone, muscle and nerve. Oats, corn and pollard 

 furnish the same. The colt obtains from its moth- 

 er's milk all the elements of its own organizatioa 



