THE GENESEE FARMER. 



367 



mau — aa honor to the paternal name. When the 

 son arrives at a i)roper age, books, treating upon 

 farming and subjects connected with farming, 

 should be purchased ; also, books that treat upon 

 the various trades and business — anything that 

 will fit him for a life of usefulness. If the mind is 

 fed, and thus kept from idleness, there is little 

 danger of the son being desirous of roaming." 



J. S. M., Mott's Corners, N- Y., says : 



"Farmers may render farm life attractive to 

 their sons by loving it themselves. So many pa- 

 rents are in the daily habit of repining at their 

 hard lot, expressing such a distaste for their chosen 

 avocation, that their sons soon think of the farm 

 and farm life as they would of a prison. These 

 impressions upon the youthful mind are lasting, 

 and if to these are added an entire want of taste 

 and ornament in and around the family home, is it 

 any wonder the sons early seek business in some 

 more congenial atmosphere, even at the risk of 

 life, in the 'pent up city V " 



A. G. M., Chesher's Store, Ky., writes: 



" The first thing to make farm life attractive, is 

 to have our sons know that it is profitable, return- 

 ing a fiiir compensation for labor, as no person will 

 be willing to engage in a business who does not 

 expect a competency therefrom. They should 

 know that nine-tenths of the successful men in 

 business have been farmers. Ten men have failed 

 in other walks of life, to one industrious, prudent 

 farmer, who has not met with success. 



"Farmers sons should also have a good educa- 

 tion, one having in view his future labors in life, 

 that gives him a knowledge of his business; for 

 what is done understandingiy, confers a double 

 pleasure. What should hinder our sons from cul- 

 tivating a taste fur the best literature, and being 

 conversant with Shakspeare, Milton, Addison, and 

 other writers, as well as the best literature, his- 

 tory, and science of our own day? — a knowledge 

 of the nature and power of manures ; how their 

 fertilizing properties are best retained and applied ; 

 how plants are stimulated by them ; how they 

 grow, and the use of the root, the leaf, and every 

 other part in the great economy of vegetable growtli? 

 If farmers prepare their sons in this manner, farm 

 life wi;l not only be attractive, but soon irresistible 

 as aifording the happiest occupation." 



In this connection, we have a very spirited com- 

 munication from '• M. S. B., Aurora," as " a voice 

 from the other side," very particularly asking, 

 •' what fathers and brothers can do to make farm 

 life more attractive to mothers and sisters," to 

 which it is responded : 



" Physicians say, that to discern the cause of 

 disease, is half the cure. Among the silly receipts 

 for making farm life attractive to husbands, broth- 

 ers, and sons, none have thought that making it 

 attractive to woman was a sure remedy. Young 

 men, it is said, prefer not a farmers life, because 

 young ladies of their acquaintance prefer mer- 

 chants, doctors, lawyei's, or mechanics, for hus- 

 bands. Why is this so ? if so. Young ladies are 

 fond of the country — of the beauties that there 

 evei'y where surround them. They admire a haud- 



some animal — they love the dairy, and all things 

 strictly appertaining to farming. 



" Then what can be done to make it more at- 

 tractive? Thoy are fond of flowers, and deter- 

 mine to deck the old homestead with beautiful 

 specimens of God's poetry. They appeal to father 

 f(jr help, finding it impossible to spade up the piece 

 desired. Oh ! he has not time, when perhaps he 

 spends hours smoking and talking with some neigh- 

 bor. They appeal to brothers. They have not 

 time for such foolery, when hours are spent at the 

 store, or some other place equally unimproving.— 

 It is given up in despair; but there is a chord 

 touched in her heart, as she sees her friend who 

 lives in a village, enjoying such a profusion oi 

 flowers, from a few feet of earth, spaded by a busi- 

 ness fatiier or brother, who finds time for this laboi 

 before .nn early breakfast. The farmer owns hun 

 dreds of acres, but there is no embellishment of life 

 Depend upon it, those flowers and fruits can hi 

 made to yield double and treble their cost, no' 

 only in beauty, but of reciprocated domestic aft'ec 

 tion, and home attachment. 



" Again, the mother has her cares and anxietiei 

 to overcome, and her tastes to gratify, and ii 

 neither does she receive the deserved or necessar 

 help from husband and sons, who have all the timi 

 some pet habit, or sheer laziness, as an excuse 

 What wonder that woman, as wife or daughtei 

 soon loses her natural love for country life, and 

 with her daughters, wishes for the more tasty, con 

 venient, and adorned home of the lawyer, physi 

 cian, or some thrifty mechanic? The daughters 

 as a matter of course, are far from partial to farm 

 ers sons who are thus driven from home to obtai: 

 the lovers their hearts most cherish. Will nol 

 then, attention to the tastes and wants of farmer 

 wives and daughters, by making farm life attrac 

 five to them, solve the enigma of making it th 

 place most loved and honored by farmers sons ?" 



ICE-HOTJSE-A CHEAP PLAN. 



EorxoRS Genesee Faemer : — Having read i 

 your last issue the description of an ice-hous 

 allow me to give your readers a desci'iption of or 

 that has been in use for several years, ajid has nc 

 failed to keep ice satisfactorily. 



The outside is twelve feet square, and tlie sid( 

 some eight feet high. The studs are poor pine ( 

 hemlock, worth three or four dollars per thousan- 

 and are eight by ten inches, with boards nailed ( 

 each side, thus leaving eight inches space for sa\ 

 dust all the way round. Tlie rafters are the san 

 size, boarded on the under side, and the space fill( 

 witli sawdust. • The studs are set in the groun 

 without sills, and it has no floor. Before puttii 

 in the ice, a floor is made of sawdust six inch 

 deej), and the ice is packed so ai5 to leave a spa^ 

 all around of five or six inches from the boarc 

 which is filled with sawdust. It has a door in oi 

 end, which is filled up by placing boards across 

 as the ice is put in. On the top of the ice, after 

 is all stored, is placed a coating of dust a foot thic 

 and the ice keeps, though the door be left opi 

 half the time. By boarding up under the raftej 

 there is ample room to put in the ice and sawdu; 

 To build sucli a house, twenty-five hundreed fe 

 of boards are all that is necessary. 



Little Genesee, Nw., 1858. D. EDWAEOa 



