182 



THE GENESEE FAKMER. 



pies, we noticed that under the chamber windows 

 drawers are let into the stone walls, for shoes, kc ; in 

 the library is a concealed umbrella closet; and be- 

 tween the book-cases a long closet in the pilaster Cor 

 drawings, or spy-glasses, &c. Both hydrant and rain 

 water are j)lcnlit'ully supplied to the house and 

 grounds, in which are also two pumps, a gardener's 

 lodge, convenient stables and coach-house, A'c, ifcc. 



The spot on which this house is erected was two 

 yeare ago a stable-yard. The visitor will be struck 

 with the transformation that has been already effect- 

 ed. AVhen Mr. Hmiths numerous fruit and ornamen- 

 tal trees have had a few years more growth, we hope 

 to visit it again, and have no doubt of being able to 

 call it one of the handsomest and most convenient 

 places in Pennsylvania, where, by the way, much good 

 ta.ste is growiitg apparent. 



The house was designed by an English architect to 

 combine all the comforts collected in a compass of 42 

 by 36 feet; the design was carried out and improved 

 1 ly TuoMAS U. AYalter, Esq., the architect of Girard 

 College, and now superintendent of the Capitol ex- 

 tension at Washiuffton. — Horticulturist. 



FAKMING IN ILLINOIS. 



LETTER FROM UOX. EDWARD BATES. 



St. Louis, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 18.53. 

 To Bronson Murray, Esq., Corresponding Secre- 

 tary State Agricultural Society: 

 Sir: — I ought long ago to have acknowledged the 

 receipt of your very gratifying letter of Aug. 12th, 

 inviting me to attend, as a guest of the Illinois State 

 Agricultural Society, their lirst Annual Fair and Cat- 

 tle Show, to be held on the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th 

 of October next, at Springfield. 



I heartily thank you and the society for the invita- 

 tion, and especially for the kind feeling and good opin- 

 ion (as expressed in your letter) which induced the 

 society to extend to me that valued courtesy. My 

 inability to attend the fair Mill be a serious loss to 

 me, in pleasure and information; but I connot come. 

 At the very time of the fair, official duty will con- 

 fine me in St. Louis, where, instead of viewing the 

 rich products of the land, and interchanging views 

 and opinions with intelligent and still advancing j^ro- 

 ducei-s, I must be engaged in the austerer duty of 

 investigating the titles and deciding upon conflicting 

 claims to the land itself. 



Perhaps, in me, agriculture is a theory only — more 

 a fancy than a fact. Yet, from childhood's state, it 

 has always had strong hold upon my affections; and 

 my judgment tells me that it is the fonndation of all 

 our national prosperity, the sohd platform on which 

 all the gi-eat interests of the country must rest. It is 

 a science; if by that we mean art reduced, or capa- 

 ble of being reduced to known rules, it is more enti- 

 tled to the name than law, physic, geology or astron- 

 omy; for its operations are more 0]3eu to observation, 

 and its results more readily applied to the practical 

 uses of man. And for this very reason, perhaps, as a 

 science, even as an art, it is neglected, if not despised. 

 It is not taught in our schools and colleges, though 

 Sir William Blackstoxe assures us that, in Univer- 

 sities, everything ought to be taught which it bene- 



fits a gentleman to know; and in the industrial de- 

 partment of life it is not acrpiired, as all other valua- 

 ble trades and callings are, by long and laborious ap- 

 prenticeship. 



It seems to be a very common opinion that agri- 

 culture is as natural to man as eating and sleeping; 

 or, if not exactly so, that it may be caught by simple 

 contact,- as men catch diseases and bad habits; that 

 it needs no study, no learning, no talents. And hence 

 the pursuits of agriculture (except as an occasional 

 amusement and costly plaything for the rich) has 

 been unwisely and unjustly consigned to a low place 

 in the scale of social life. We cannot cast off from 

 ourselves this foUy and injustice, and saddle it upon 

 our government rulers, as we do most of the evils 

 that beset us. The fault is at home. It is a noxious 

 weed that gi-ows spontaneously in almost every gar- 

 den. Let us look into the domestic circles that sur- 

 I'ound us (to examine our own might be rather a pain- 

 ful search, and we shall be very apt to find that nine 

 men in ten — unconsciously, it may be, without any 

 premeditated wrong — place agriculture below most 

 other respectable occupations. 



Observe that worthy farmer. He is a man whose 

 good sense, sound judgment, and skilful industry have 

 made him the owner of broad fields, fat cattle, and 

 the breeds of sheep, hogs and horses. He has earned 

 a high reputation for practical prudence and wisdom, 

 by the good management of his own affairs. He has 

 three sons. Tom is a very smart fellow, quick of 

 thought and prompt of action, with a confident man- 

 ner, and a ready gift of gab. Now, a hundred to 

 one, the misleading vanity of the doatiug father \vill 

 overcome the prudence of the wise father, and he 

 will make Tom a lawyer, with the confident hope of 

 seeing his brilliant son, after winning the honors of 

 forensic warfare, shining in a higher sphere, as a flam- 

 ing patriot and an oflice-holding politician. Dick has 

 not the taking way of his brother Tom; he is not so 

 quick to perceive a thought, nor so ready to speak it, 

 but he is a clever, promising boy, of excellent parts, 

 and, in the opinion of his father, has quite too much 

 talent to be wasted on corn and cattle, so Dick is 

 made a doctor. Harry, j^oor fellow, is a good- 

 humored, dull boy, who never thinks until his mind 

 is jogged, and is very slow to get his lessons. In 

 short, he is an oaf, and his good father comes to the 

 conclusion that he is not fit for any of the higher call- 

 ings, and so he \n\\ let him follow farming. No at- 

 tempt is made to educate him for the business of his 

 life, and, in all likelihood, he will never learn more 

 than the crude elements of his profession, and that he 

 will five and die without a higher thought than to 

 talk of oxen and delight in the goad. 



Men seem to forget that there is as much difTereucc 

 between a mere plowman and a well-taught farmer, 

 as between a wood-chopper and a master builder. As 

 a trade to live by, agriculture is surely the best and 

 safest of all occupations, for by it, even ignorance and 

 dulhiess, with moderate application, can insure a de- 

 cent livelihood. And if, in the pursuit of that call- 

 ing, taste and learning were added to industry, we 

 might well hope to witness in another generation, as 

 many and as great improvements in the cultivation of 

 the earth, as the present generation has witnessed in 

 the thousand wonders of chemistry and mechanism, 



