THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Jan. 



I 



Cables' Pfpartnicnt. 



HOME-MADE TURNITURE. 



However much satisfaction some may derive from 

 costly furniture, the production o* tiie cabinet shop, 

 yet, there is far more real pleasurt; in having articles 

 around us, the work of our own hands, the results of 

 our own skill, or the production of those we love. 

 How we value some article, trifling in itself, perhaps, 

 yet more prized than its weight of gold, because the 

 work of some dear departed one. Let us furnish our 

 homes with the fruits of our own industry, as much 

 as possible, and thus leave behind us, on every side, 

 evidence of our skill. Any one who has money can 

 buy splendid furniture, (and it dont take much wit to 

 get money,) but it is not every one who has the pa- 

 tience and ingenuity to make a pretty chair from an 

 old barrel, or a neat footstool out of a few pieces of 

 board or a useless box. Yet this may be done — we 

 have seen it done — and we have had some little hand 

 in the work. Those who have not tried, will be 

 surprised to find what pretty articles of furniture they 

 can make, almost without cost. The following re- 

 marks, with the engravings, are from Doivning's 

 Country Houses: 



"The simplest and cheapest kind of furniture by 

 which an air of taste may be given to a cottage, consists 

 of a plain box or bench, made of boards, by the hands 

 of the master of the dwelling, stuffed with hay, corn- 

 husks, moss, or hair, held in place by a covering of 

 coarse canvass, and covered with chintz by the mis- 

 tress of the cottage. Seats of all kinds are made at 

 a very trifling cost in this way, so that, with a little 

 ingenuity, a room may, by the aid of a few boards 

 nailed together, a little stuffing and canvass, and a 

 few yards of shilling chintz, be made to produce 

 nearly the same effect as one where the furniture is 

 worth ten times as much. The next step is to add 

 square pillow* or cushions to all the benches, seats, 

 or couches, in order that any person sitting upon 

 them may have a support for his back without touch- 

 ing the wall. 



Fio. 1. 



Fto, 2. 





"Another of the cheapest and simplest seats for a 

 cottage, is the barrel-ehair. Fig. 1 is a large one, 

 stuffed in the seat and back. Fig. 2 is a low one, 

 for the chimney corner. These chairs are easily 

 made by sawing oflT a portion of the barrel — nailing 

 on a few boards to form the seat, and leaving part of 

 the staves a little higher than the others, to form the 

 back or arms. To make the high-backed chair, the 

 staves must be pircfd out a little, as in Fig. 3, the 

 outside or rim of the back being confined in its place 



by a piece of hoop, neatly applied. The seat and 

 back are stuffed with any cheap material, covered 

 with strong coarse canvass, and covered with chintz. 



Fig. 4. 



Fig. 4 is a cottage couch, of a somewhat superior 

 style, but made in the same manner, and' easily pro- 

 duced, when there is a little mechanical ingenuity in 

 the family." 



THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS. 



The following beautiful poem, by Brta>'T, many 

 have read, yet it is so beautiful that it should be pre- 

 served. We give it in the Farmer, that all our 

 readers may have it in a shape to preserve. 



The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, 

 Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown 



and sere. 

 Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the withered leaves lie 



dead ; 

 They rustle to the eddying gust and to the rabbit's tread. 

 The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrub the 



And from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy 

 day. 



Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately 



sprung and stood 

 In brighter light and softer n^s, a beauteous sisterhood ? 

 Alas! they all are in their graves ; the gentle race of flowers 

 Are lying in their low-ly beds with the fair and good of ours. 

 The rain is falling where they lie ; but the cold November 



rain 

 Calls not from out the gloomy earth the loTely ones again. 



The wind-flower and tlie violet, they perished long ago, 

 And the wild-rose and the orchis died amid the summer 



glow ; 

 But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood. 

 And the yellow sun-flower by the brook in nutumn beauty 



stood. 

 Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the 



plague on men, 

 And the brightness of their smile was gone from upland 



glade, and glen. 



And now, when comes the calm, mild day, as still such days 



will come, 

 Tocall the squirrel and the bee from out their winter homo. 

 When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the 



trees are still, 

 And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill, 

 The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late 



he bore, 

 And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no 



more, 



And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died. 

 The fair meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side : 

 In the cold moist earth we laid her when the forest cast the 



leaf. 

 And we wept that one so lovely should have a life .so brief ; 

 Yet not unmeet it was that one like that young friend of 



ours. 

 So gentle, nnd to beautiful, should perish with the flowers. 



(I 



