PHASES OF FARM LIFE 221 



feeble. A fresh stream of humanity is always set- 

 ting from the country into the city; a stream not 

 80 fresh flows back again into the country, a stream 

 for the most part of jaded and pale humanity. It 

 is arterial blood when it flows in, and venous blood 

 when it comes back. 



A nation always begins to rot first in its great 

 cities, is indeed perhaps always rotting there, and 

 is saved only by the antiseptic virtues of fresh sup- 

 plies of country blood. 



But it is not of country life in general that I am 

 to speak, but of some phases of farm life, and of 

 farm life in my native State. 



Many of the early settlers of New York were 

 from New England, Connecticut perhaps sending 

 out the most. My own ancestors were from the 

 latter State. The Connecticut emigrant usually 

 made his first stop in our river counties, Putnam, 

 Dutchess, or Columbia. If he failed, to find his 

 place there, he made another flight to Orange, to 

 Delaware, or to Schoharie County, where he gener- 

 ally stuck. But the State early had one element 

 introduced into its rural and farm life not found 

 farther East, namely, the Holland Dutch. These 

 gave features more or less picturesque to the coun- 

 try that are not observable in New England. The 

 Dutch took root at various points along the Hudson, 

 and about Albany and in the Mohawk valley, and 

 remnants of their rural and domestic architecture 

 may still be seen in these sections of the State. A 



