MAKE FARM LITE ATTRACTIVE. 



chiirity, we are expected to bcliere that these tourists 

 and newspaper " letter- writers,' who generally furnish 

 the data, would knowa Jieid oftrhcat if they skouM 

 see it. One thing is certain, — it requires a practiced 

 eye to form eren a tolerable jiulgment of what the 

 vield will be from a casual survey. In the spring, the 

 inre grounnd obtrudes itself upon our attention — a 

 little later, "copious showers ' make it all right, 

 I<ook again — the surface is uneven. Get over the 

 fence — the taltet wheat makes the most show ; a bold 

 front has shut out of view much that is small and 

 this. Add to this, the leading roads generally pass 

 through the best cultivated country, and of course 

 travelers are liable to be too favorably impressed. 



"Of other sections I know nothing except from 

 "hearsay," but of (he State of New York I believe 

 I do know something from actual observation and 

 careful inquiry. I am satisfied that the yield in this 

 State will be one-fifth less than a "good crop.'' Why 

 is (his matter slurred over in "harvest reports?' Is 

 the failure, marked and decided as it is, in the fine 

 wheat section along lake Ontario, west of Rochester, 

 of uo account? Can important portions of the fine 

 oountieg of Monroe, Livnugston, Genesee, Ontario, 

 Arc, ifcc, be cast out in our reckoning? Or has it 

 coma to this, that "pure Genesee" is brought eTclu- 

 sively trom Wisconsin and Georgia? So, too, of the 

 corn crop. Why is it not staled — for sensible men 

 have known it these three weeks at least, — that the 

 corn crop of New York will be one-third less than an 

 average. 



" Look in almost any public journal, and see how 

 the article on " crops " is made up. In tch-eat mat- 

 ters sections that export very little, and that of a poor 

 qiiaUty, are quite as conspicuous as the noted wheat 

 regions; in their list of authorities, the Sundown 

 Chronicle and the Catamount Express are quoted 

 with as much unction and emphasis as the Ohio State 

 Journal and the Rochester dailies. As in patent 

 medicines, it is the number of certificates that is reli- 

 ed upon. 



"The buyers of wheat and flour, like "our party" 

 in politics, have a "clear majority," and it is observa- 

 ble that there is a disposition to write and talk down 

 the price of wheat This a'-ticie is written not to in- 

 fluence any man's judgment as to the quantity or 

 value of the crop, but to ask farmers to examine all 

 the facts for themselves, and then form opinions of 

 their own. Of co\irse the price must come to the 

 worlds standard. London and Liverpool will settle 

 the question. With icar and universal scarcity to 

 begin with, nothing short of a concurrence of good 

 crops in all or nearly all wheat growing regions, can 

 bring the price to a low figure, — a concurrence that 

 tliere is now not the slightest reason to expect Pri- 

 ces being up, it is a very different matter from what 

 it would be if they were duu-n. As it i.s, it will re- 

 quire a decided surplus to bring them down — a sur- 

 plus that exists, in all proljability, only ia the excited 

 imagination of ctjnsuniers of flour." 



The crop of potatoes in this part of the State will 

 be large. On high, or well drained land, potatoes 

 look exceedingly fine; but uiiless we very much mis- 

 take the signs, we are again to be troubled with the 

 Folato Rot. 



MATTR FARM LIFE ATTKACTIVE. 



To all our readers who wish to make farmers of 

 their sons, we commend the following extract from 

 an address delivered by Rev. F. D. Uunti.ngton: 



" Why do your young men run, as by some univer- 

 sal instinct, from the farm, where they were born, to 

 the city, where they so often learn to wish they had 

 not been born any where ? Chiefly — whatever ex- 

 planation they may put forward as having a hand- 

 somer look — chiefly because on the farm there is sup- 

 posed to be an inevitable doom to hard, monotonous, 

 wearing bodily toil, from daylight to sundown, lift- 

 through, with no room for mental expansion, or gen- 

 erous tastes, or social recreation; and secondly, be- 

 cause after all this labor, the farmer makes too little 

 money. Nor will my faith in young men's natures 

 suffer me to believe this is always a sordid c^^lculatioI] 

 with them. For, in thinking of money, they think ol 

 it oftener as a means than an end. They want it for 

 what it brings. On the farm, very frequently, are 

 rooms without books, walls without pictures, manners 

 without grace, clothes without fitness, and ground,- 

 without shaping or decoration. On the contrary, the 

 city merchant buys a library and works of art, sends 

 his children to schools where they learn to move with 

 elegance as well as to cipher and parse, gets garments 

 that are finer and fit, and is not so exhausted physi- 

 cally at nightfall as to prefer sleep to any company or 

 book. He comes back into the country and lays out 

 a beautiful estate, sometimes with statelier animals, 

 and seleeter fruits, and tidier fences and hedges, and 

 more blooming gardens on it than his neighbor, who. 

 has all the while been staying there and making farm- 

 ing the business of his lile. Now, it would be a hard 

 task in persuasion to convince most young men thai 

 these things arc not good, not desirable, and that thi- 

 dollars which command them are not of the nature oi 

 an advantage. I confess I should be a bad subject 

 lor such persuasion myself. Besides, these things art 

 all of the nature of picture-work; the boy cannot 

 help seeing them; they work upon him while he stopi> 

 on hij way from pasture under the fragrant shrubbe- 

 ry, or peeps through the pickets at the mellow peaches 

 and pears. 



I know perfectly how apt his sanguine blood, and 

 his ignorance of the uiusty-odd failures in a city f'oi 

 every single success, arc to put a fallacy into his plans 

 and cheat his choice. But none the less it is true, 

 what he goes to the city for is a chance, though 

 but a chance, for certain means of refinement, hhe 

 rality, and width in the whole style of life, such a^ 

 scarcely a mere farmer about, in the old way of farm- 

 ing, has displayed. Who ever knew a confident and 

 chivalrous youth to doubt he should be one of th( 

 five that su.;ceed, though five hundred fail ? And 

 moreover, many young men at that aspiring perioi. 

 of life, before the charm and glory of early ideal.' 

 have faded oW, thirst honestly for more stimulus tu 

 mental action, more enlarging ministries to thought, 

 than they have found in rural places. This they 

 dream of finding in the presence of crowds and tht 

 sharp collisions of traflc. Perhaps they dream delu- 

 sions; but this is the feeling. Depend upon it,if yov 

 would hold yoar sons and brothers back from roan ■ 

 JDg away into the perilous centres, you must steadily 



