THE FARMER'S HOME. 7 



tion, and ends in the familiar decision of the l)oy, that he also 

 " will 2;o through the mill." 



Wc do not think it advisable that every farmer's son should 

 bo persuaded to spend his whole life in agricultural employ- 

 ments exclusively, in the face of adaptation to other business. 

 Nor should they be longer suffered, in their childhood and 

 youth, to imbibe disgust or even distaste for country life, by too 

 severe toil and drudgery ; or by comparing the slovenly, dilapi- 

 dated condition of their homestead, with the trim and orderly 

 appearance of a more tidy neighbor's. If advantage is taken 

 of the susceptibility of tender years to permanent impressions, 

 by presenting every thing that is pleasing in rural life and 

 home, a love will be created, which, though latent for years, 

 while other duties engaged the attention, from pecuniary or 

 other considerations, will be revived in after years into as active 

 life and enjoyment as if in constant exercise. With such 

 impressions, arguments will be the most effective and often 

 detain the young man at home. 



The difficulties in the way of inducing an adequate number 

 of young men to attend to all the duties appertaining to the 

 cultivation of the soil, are much less than formerly. Up to the 

 era of manufacturing by machinery, and transportation by rail- 

 road, most country families wore home-made clothes and carried 

 their produce to market with their own teams. Among the 

 first trips of the young lad to the country village or city with 

 his father, he compared tlie loose frock of the latter with the 

 broadcloth coat of the merchant or professional man — con- 

 trasted their manners and deportment, and felt the difference in 

 his own dress and that of the boys around him. As he 

 approached the town he noticed flowers and foliage on trees he 

 had not seen before — houses neatly painted, front yards decked 

 with beautiful colors of nature and art ; and as he entered the 

 parlor of the parish parson, its ornamented and mirrored aspect 

 almost bewildered his young eyes and fancy. On his return all 

 these wore in his thoughts, and he frequently alluded to them, 

 often to the disturbance of the father, who began to think his 

 boy had already seen too much of the world. 



Now here is the critical point in the management of the son, 

 from which the father too often takes a repulsive, instead of an 

 attractive course, to secure his love and attachment to home. 



