482 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



tainly is now. Adam is here and I have seen sev- 

 eral Eves ! It is Eden where we make it such. If 

 men had no more expensive habits than women, 

 and were as much attached to home enjoyments 

 and their native soil as they are, Gardens of Eden 

 might be found all over our prolific land, and beau- 

 tiful Eves, like ministering angels, ever in sweet 

 concord and sympathy with man ! 



Some lonely hours there are with every mortal 

 ■who rambles, — the poet said, "He who strays, tastes 

 a thousand ills unfelt at home." With me, such 

 hours are few ; I impart freely such as I have re- 

 ceived, and never find the "barrel of meal" entirely 

 empty, and in return, the "cruise" of others flows 

 freely with facts which I shall endeavor to transmit 

 to your readers. No aspect of agricultural life is 

 more cheering than that found in the sentiments of 

 the young women of the country, wherever it has 

 been ray good fortime to meet them. There are 

 two phases in rural life, widely different, one of 

 which too many of our friends have rarely seen; 

 that which prevails is the hard, and apparent ne- 

 cessity for daily, unremitting toil — days of toil which 

 eventually bring* nights of grief, premature age, dis- 

 affection with life, and too often, early death. I 

 say apparent necessity, for I do not think it a real, 

 inexorable necessity, for that would be equal to a 

 doom upon the race, which would make life bur- 

 densome, if not intolerable. We make this neces- 

 sity ourselves, by our artificial wants ; our real 

 wants are few, and generally, easily supplied. When 

 we allow our desires to run riot and revel in ex- 

 travagances, — to covet larger herds and broader 

 lands, (obutstrip in splendor our neighbor's equip- 

 age or furniture, or surfeit on costly and unwhole- 

 some dainties, then we create wants that are not 

 congenial to our natures, and hurtful alike to our 

 moral and^physical being. It is the cultivation of 

 such wants, these unsubstantial and delusive dreams, 

 that give distate to the homely, invigorating, and 

 permanent charms of country life and rural per- 

 suits. These cause the desolation of paternal 

 homes, and make gray hairs go sorrowing to the 

 grave. In my intercourse with the world, I find 

 much less of this sentiment with young women than 

 with young men ; they are content to stay at home 

 and occupy the soil, if their brothers would re- 

 main ; they look at their condition with more ra- 

 tional views, and could they fix them in the minds 

 of the young men, there would be fewer hearts 

 broken by separation, fewer crimes impelled by pov- 

 erty and want, and less starvation, wretchedness 

 and disease in our crowded and festering cities ; the 

 converse of this would be a highly cultivated soil, 

 dotted with fresh and cheerful homes, whose hearths 

 ■would be lighted with warmth and love, and popu- 

 lous and thrifty villages would spring up, with 

 churches, and school-houses, and lyceums, and a 

 natural and wholesome traffic ensue, all tending to 



that equality of condition which alone can afford 

 permanent prosperity and happiness to any com- 

 munity. 



I feel it a duty to say, that I find a large propor- 

 tion of the young women favoring this condition of 

 things ; they are willing to remain upon the farm 

 so long as brothers will stay, and society is made 

 up of two sexes instead of one. On their part, they 

 are fitted to adorn society, — are usually well edu- 

 cated, read papers and current books, and are often 

 acquainted with classical literature ; they are quick 

 to "catch the manners living as they rise," and 

 prove that Paris is but a step from their rural 

 homes. Honitons, and talmas and crinolines, rus- 

 tle on the hills or by their crystal streams with' 

 more unaffected grace than on the dusty pave of 

 Boston and New York, while there fair occupants 

 are buoyant with health and elastic spirits, and fit- 

 ted to dignify and bless existence. Such should 

 become the mothers of our land. In all my ram- 

 bles I find aged parents left childless upon large 

 farms, deploring the absence of sons at California 

 or the West, and the once productive acres and tidy 

 buildings, neglected and going to decay. I said to 

 the only child remaining at home, of a large and 

 prosperous family, "the farm has its advantages and 

 charms as well as the city, and there are less temp- 

 tations to err." "Yes," said "Rebecca," "the farm 

 has its attractions, but it lacks society — it is a life 

 of confinement, too ; the dairy demands constant 

 attention, and hard work, and hired men are some- 

 times difficult to please after we have labored care- 

 fully to provide for them. Society is broken and 

 meagre, the young men flee to the city, or wander 

 to distant lands, leaving the young women in the 

 charge of the farm, and to soothe and comfort the 

 declining days of their parents." Such was the 

 language of a highly intelligent, affectionate and no- 

 ble woman, and it represents the sentiments of a 

 large class. Who has eloquence and persuasien, 

 sufficient to arrest the attention of young men, and 

 convince them that in leaving the homes of their 

 fathers and of their own childhood, they leave priv- 

 ileges and advantages already established which it 

 may take a life of labor to acquire in distant lands ! 

 But, bless me, what a long homily I have written 

 upon the fair, and not the agricultural fair, either. 

 I must commit this to the mail, and give you some 

 account of the second day of the Exhibition in 

 another letter. 



Truly yours, Simon Brown. 



Joel Noursi,E8Q. 



OC?* Hop picking has commenced in New York 

 State, and will be continued for about three weeks. 

 The crop will prove as good in quality on the av- 

 erage as any which has been picked for some yearsc 

 In amount it will come somewhat .short of a full 

 yield — the number of acres devoted to hops being 

 less than in 1854-55. 



