142 PLAIN AXD PLEASANT TALK 



If the question were put to manydistinguished village 

 patriots, What have you done for the public good ? — the 

 answer would be : " Why, I've talked till I'm hoarse, and 

 an ungrateful public refuse me any office by which I 

 may show my love of public affiiirs in a more practical 

 manner." 



FARMERS AND FARMING SCENES IN THE WEST. 



If any one goes to Holland they are all Dutch farmers 

 there ; if he goes to England he finds British husbandry ; 

 in New England it's all Yankee farming. A man must 

 go to the West to see a little of every sort of farming 

 that ever existed, and some sorts we will affirm, never had 

 an existence before anywhere else — the purely indigenous 

 farming of the great valley. Within an hour's ride of each 

 other is the Swiss with his vineyard, the Dutchman with 

 his spade, the "Pennsylvany Dutch" and his bam, the Yan- 

 kee and his notions, the Kentuckian and his stock, the Irish- 

 man and his shillelah, the Welchman and his cheese, besides 

 the supple French and smooth Italian, with here and there 

 a Swede and a very good sprinkling of Indians. 



Away yonder to the right is a little patch of thirty acres 

 owned by a Yankee. He keeps good cows, 0)ie horse only 

 (fit enough for half a dozen) ; every hour of the year, save 

 only nights and Sabbath-days he is at work, and neat fences, 

 clean door-yard, a nice barn, good crops, and a profitable 

 dairy, and money at interest, show the results. What if he 

 has but thirty acres, they are worth any two hundred around 

 him, if what a man makes is a criterion of the value of his 

 farm. But a little farther out is a jolly old Kentucky 

 farmer, the o^^^^er of about five hundred acres of the best 

 land in the county, which he tills when he has nothing else 



