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THE GENESEE FARMER. 



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ADORNING AND BEAUTIFYING FAKMERS' HOMES.* 



" Should Farmers adorn and beautify their Homes and Farms 

 before ihey become wealthy? and if so, how may it be done in 

 the easiestmanner?" 



Evert fanner who owns the land npon which he 

 resides — every man who owns a house and garden, 

 should strive to make it as beautiful as possible. It 

 can not be expected that the man of small means 

 can procure the expensive adornments of the rich : 

 his house may be small and plain, but he can beau- 

 tify and adorn it, nevertheless. I say he can make 

 his home beautiful and attractive, even if he is poor, 

 and I will state the reason why I think he should 

 endeavor to make his home beautiful, and adorn it 

 as much as possible. 



When I think of the many reasons why farmers 

 should adorn their homes, I almost wonder that 

 every farmer should not see the necessity of having 

 a pleasant, attractive home. The moral influence 

 of an attractive and beautiful home is great, both 

 upon old and young. It tends to make them love 

 the pure and beautiful, wherever it may be found. 

 Nothing wUl banish vicious thoughts and feelings 

 from the mind, sooner than to be surrounded by 

 what is attractive and lovely. I have never known 

 but few instances where victims of crime had been 

 favored with pleasant homes, either in childhood or 

 manhood : every thing rough and unattractive, 

 makes the man the same. But few persons ever 

 leave a pleasant home, for the tavern or dram-shop. 

 Notice when you will, the first signs of reform in 

 bad men are usually the adorning of their homes. 



Nothing shows the refinement of the farmer more 

 than the adorning of his home ; it shows his good 

 taste, and that he is desirous of making all around 

 pleasant and comfortable. Beautiful and attractive 

 homes tend to increase all the good qualities of the 

 occupants, and remove the bad. Beauty and love- 

 liness in nature tend to all that is noble in thought 

 and deed, and make mankind better, both as con- 

 cerns their own happiness and that of others. 



Having shown why farmers should adorn their 

 homes, I will tell how to do it the easiest. 



If your house is poor and plain, it makes no dif- 

 ference ; if you can not afford to build a new one, 

 adorn the surroundings of the old one. In odd 

 spells build a neat yard, — it will cost almost noth- 

 ing ; set out some pretty trees in front and surround 

 the house with them if possible. Fill the yard with 

 flowers ; they will cost nothing but the trouble of 

 getting, unless rare varieties are procured, and your 



* Tour committee have read with a great deal of interest, the 

 Beventeen essays on this subject of Farmers' Homes. The task 

 of assigning to any one of them the precedence over all the oth- 

 ers, (when not one of the number is without decided merit,) is by 

 no means an easy one. Between nine of the seventeen, our 

 choice was some time quite evenly balanced, and was finally de- 

 cided by the brevity of the essay from "E. B." 



No task would be more plea sant to us, than to select sentences 

 from each of the essays, and combine them into one capital arti- 

 cle. We are sure it would be richly worth not only the perusal 

 but the repeated attention of your readers. 



The writers of many of these essays show an aptitude with the 

 pen, and a readiness of thought, which evincee talent that ought 

 by no means to be allowed to remain idle or hidden in a napkin. 

 Yery respectfully, C. P BISSELL, Chairman. 



wife and children wiU see to the cultivation — never 

 fear for that. Build a wood-house, if you have not 

 one already. Don't deface your door-yard Avith 

 wood-piles, old rails, sleds, cart-wheels, and other 

 rubbish ; remove the hog-pen from its conspicuous 

 position near the roadside to the rear of the house, 

 and build a neat frame structure instead of sticks 

 and slabs — 'twill pay for itself in a few years. 

 Have good neat fences, they look and are much bet- 

 ter. Remove all sticks, stones and stumps from the 

 fields. Build good barns and sheds, if not already 

 built ; they will pay for themselves, and look better 

 than the unsightly objects on many a farm. Don't 

 allow loose boards on your buildings ; they are very 

 unsightly. Have good yards around your farm 

 buildings. They add greatly to the beauty of the 

 premises. And above all, have the best books of 

 the day, where yourself and family can gain in- 

 struction in their leisure hours ; and take at least 

 one good agricultural paper. Strive to make your 

 home, farm, and family, a pattern one, — and in no 

 way can it be done so effectually and easily, as by 

 adorning it externally as well as internally, e. b. 



THE DUTY OF KINDNESS TO DOMESHC ANIMALS. 



While kindness to animals is an acknowledged 

 duty, there are few who do not sometimes, in mo- 

 ments of anger, forget these obligations. If there 

 is anything which wiU convince us of the folly of 

 so doing, it must be a view of those cases (unhap- 

 pily not very rare) in which cruelty is the rule, in- 

 stead of the exception. 



An acquaintance of mine, who keeps but one 

 horse, has had within a dozen years, I should think, 

 upwards of half a;^ozen different horses, each of 

 which has in turn become so completely worn out 

 or so vicious as to become almost worthless. They 

 have been driven almost constantly, hitched to 

 loads whicli they could not possibly draw, and then 

 abused because they could not draw them. In this 

 way, spirited horses were soon rendered ungovern- 

 able, and those which would yield to such treat- 

 ment were soon utterly broken down. 



Another acquaintance had a very valuable mttire, 

 which was accidentally injured. By neglect she 

 became poor and weak, and finally was so much 

 reduced that she could not rise upon her feet. In 

 this condition, rather than to liave her die in his 

 hands, the owner traded her away, getting scarcely 

 a consideration for her, — when, upon being prop- 

 erly cared for, she began immediately to recover. 



Now, to say nothing of the cruelty of the thing, 

 it is plain that both of these individuals suffered a 

 pecuniary loss by their unkindness. The former, 

 by good keeping, fair loading, and kind treatment 

 generally, might have performed nearly, perhaps 

 quite as much work with one good horse as he did 

 with six — saving the purchase money of five; the 

 other might, by a httle careful nursing, have saved 

 several hundred dollars upon one animal. 



Those animals which are treated the most kindly 

 are the most gentle and obedient, and also thrive 

 the best ; hence, no one can afford to use them un- 

 kindly. By kindness, mingled with firmness, the 

 most ferocious animals are subdued, and it is vain 

 to suppose that the same means would not be effect- 

 ual in training domestic animals. Surely, no one 

 should degrade himself by continuing a practice 

 which is both unprofitable and inhuman. l. h. 



