248 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Oct. 



PREMISES OF AN UNLUCKY FARMER. 



Here is a very expressive and comprehensive 

 picture, the counterpart of which we have seen 

 in more States than one ; and we fear that many 

 of our readers have observed the same, even 

 among the far-famed agriculturists of Western 

 New York. Perhaps the owner of the original 

 premises from which this graphic vieiu is taken, 

 may be a kinsman of the Allegany farmer whose 

 manure heap was so spacious that he was com- 

 pelled to remove his barn, in order to give the 

 former "ample room and verge enough." But 

 our distant readers may claim the original as a 

 portion of the fee-simple of some unlucky anti- 

 book farmer in their neighborhoods, and there- 

 fore we won't insist upon the location. In fact, 

 as the politicians say, his fame does not belong 

 to any district or State, but to the whole country. 



The engraving is from Bement's Journal of 

 Agriculture — and its most prominent features 

 are well 'taken' by our spirited cotemporary of 

 the Prairie Farmer. He says : — 



"The first thing observed in running the eye 

 over the cut, is the general appearance of the 

 whole — the impression produced by taking in 

 the picture at a glance. It must be conceded, 

 even from this first impression, that the occu- 

 pant of this farm is a hard-handed, hard working 

 farmer. How could a man keep such a place 

 in order without hard work ? In fact the owner 

 is at this moment hard at work. There may be 

 some difference of opinion, it is true, as to the 

 industry of his habits ; but the doubter would do 

 well to consider whether a man so actively en- 

 gaged does not give indubitable proof of industry. 

 Another idea at once strikes the mind in this 



general survey. The occupant is an unlucky 

 man. Proof of this is afforded in several circum- 

 stances. His stock is evidently unruly, partic- 

 ularly the pigs ; and though it would be hard to 

 tell why that hog might not as well be one side 

 of the fence as the other, since no mischief is 

 apparent for him to do, yet the attitude of the 

 man with the pitchfork plainly shows that his 

 swineship has mistaken his position. Then 

 again, though he must have been living there for 

 a dozen years or so, he has always had so much 

 to do that he has never found any time to " fix" 

 that fence properly. His barn too has been 

 sadly racked by the wind, and now stands 

 "coming" at the rate of some feet out of per- 

 pendicular. His ill luck and misfortune are ap- 

 parent on every hand. Some window glass 

 "never will " stay whole ; and our farmer's win- 

 dows were of this sort, and he has been obliged, 

 as one pane after another has disappeared, to fill 

 their places with the remnants of old clothes. — 

 As to anything like a shrub, tree, or flower grow- 

 ing about his door, there was no such thing to 

 be thought of, because the cows and pigs would 

 destroy them at once ; and like a sensible man, 

 our friend has never risked his labor and patience 

 by putting any there. His barn door is always 

 getting off the hinges — or rather it got off once, 

 and has always staid off since. The roof of the 

 barn has the appearance of being leaky, and 

 many of the boards have somehow got loose, and 

 he has never had time to put them on again. 



In the way of implements, he has had no bet- 

 ter luck than in other matters. Broken plows, 

 carts, and harrows, lie slrovvn about the yard — 



