36 



and store bills, and doctor's bills, of pnny children and 

 sickly women folks, and deserves to toil hard all his life 

 long and lay up nothing. Why, man ! there is more than 

 half your fjimily's living in a good garden ! Then there 

 is the beauty and glory, the refreshing delight, that comes 

 of vines and fruit trees, that farmers ought to enrich and 

 cultivate and till round as they would their corn, and not 

 merely suffer them to grow as it happens, as they now so 

 often only do ; but as I have the honor to be Chairman of 

 the Fruit Committee, and shall inflict on you a Report on 

 Fruits, I will spare you the discussion of this topic here 

 and noiv — like the man in the story, who forgave his ene- 

 mies, at priestly suggestion, on the sick bed, with the 

 reservation that if he ever recovered he should have ' ' a 

 lick at them." 



The farmer has also the delight of a pleasant landscape 

 about him. It has been said that to a denizen of the city 

 ' ' a single tree and a little grass plat is a beautiful land- 

 scape," and a farmer is never without these. For the 

 enjoyment and health of the senses, as well as for the 

 delight of mind and soul to them that live on it, I would 

 always make scenery one of the first elements in selecting 

 a farm ; — the fine extensive prospect enlarging to the 

 thoughts, the picturesque view, the pleasant lay of the 

 land, the romantic grove, the artistic grouping of the 

 trees ; — I would pay a good price for these things to cul- 

 tivate and rejoice my own soul, and the souls of my chil- 

 dren after me. To some, this food of beauty to the inner 

 man is more than nourishment and clothing to the body. 

 And here let me utter my love and my prayer for the 

 beautiful trees, that should fleck with their shadows the 

 pleasant walks and roadsides ; that should delight the 

 dewy valleys, and wave gracefully their flitting branches 

 over the hills. A new mansion, in the finest architectural 

 style and coloring, seems ! so stiff, hard and desolate. 



