1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



475 





MASSACHUSETTS FAKMEKS. 



A General Survey— Old Hats, Rajs and Pants in the Windows 

 —Condition of 'the BuiUlings-Ouraens— Shrubbery and Flow- 

 ers — Education — Manners— Dress— Religion. 



HE traveller 

 ■who loves the 

 country and 

 natural scene- 

 ry, who has a 

 quick eye to 

 detect errors 

 in the art of 

 farming, and 

 skill and ex- 

 perience from 

 which to sug- 

 gest improve- 

 ments, may 

 learn the con- 

 dition of the region through which he passes, 

 even though his journeyings are brief and his in- 

 terviews with the people few. There is a general 

 outline of the farm, a certain impress stamped 

 everywhere upon it, that indicates its degree of 

 prosperity, and the amount of skill and industry 

 that are expended upon it. 



In our late ramble through the tcestern portion 

 of this State several things were observed, a re- 

 ference to which may be of some interest to the 

 reader in a suggestive form, or in a statement of 

 facts. 



The first thing that arrests the attention of the 

 traveller, is the imjjroved condition of the build- 

 ings, as compared Avith their appearance thirty 

 years ago ; and as the house we live in seldom 

 fails to have an important moral influence upon 

 its occupant, the inference is natural that the 

 mind and manners have advanced with the exte- 

 rior things around them. And this is true. At 

 the period alluded to, a large number of the dwell- 

 ings that came to the view of the traveller bore 

 evidences of premature decay. The paint was 

 gone ; if they had blinds they hung by one hinge, 

 or some of the slats were missing. A clapboard, 

 here and there, was clattering in the vnnd ; the 

 mortar was out in the joints of the chimney, and 

 scattered bricks were resting on the moss-covered 

 roof. The windows rattled and screamed at every 

 blast ; on the front, broken panes were covered 

 with an old newspaper, either pasted on or stuffed 

 in, while on the ends or back side of the house, 

 cast-off pantaloons and old chip hats shut out the 

 cheerful light as well as the pitiless storms, and 

 gave the dwelling that patched and motley ap- 

 pearance that indicates the road to ruin, and makes 

 one sick to behold. If there had once been a 

 front fence, it was all awry ; a part of the palings 

 had been pulled out with which to beat the hun- 

 gry cattle and hogs away from the dooi'-yard ; the 



gate had its back broken, the posts were rotten 

 and leaning in every direction, and the trees and 

 shrubbery M'hich the women had tended for many 

 years, broken and despoiled ! 



Within the house, things were no better. The 

 once elastic and cheerful wife, moved like a spec- 

 tre about the rooms, haggard and thin, seeing her 

 family sinking day by day lower and lower, while 

 the farm that promised a permanent home, food 

 and happy employment, was wasting away like a 

 morning dew. These Arere no uncommon scenes, 

 and the moral degradation which accompanied 

 them was still more painful ! Thanks to the phil- 

 anthropic reformers, — who saw this evil and its 

 tendencies, — for a happy change. Comparatively 

 few of these appearances now meet the eye of 

 the traveller. If a depraved appetite for stimu- 

 lating drinks is indulged, it seeks that indulgence 

 in a more retired way, and with many modifica- 

 tions which seem to alleviate the crime. This re- 

 form has undoubtedly changed the face of the 

 country, and given the landscape a more cheerful 

 and prosperous aspect. Let us see how things 

 look, now. 



Instead of the old-fashioned, square house, two 

 stories high, with four or five large rooms on the 

 ground floor, and an enormous chimney in the 

 centre, with bricks enough to erect a citadel, — 

 and only two or three rooms in the whole house 

 so far finished as to be plastered, — a neat story- 

 and-a-half, or two-story house, with one tier of 

 rooms on the ground, is erected, and every part 

 of it thoroughly finished. The cellar is well 

 drained, the kitchen furnished with a bountiful 

 supply of soft water, a cooking stove with which 

 one person can perform as much service, as three 

 could in former times, a good wood-shed is con- 

 venient, the house is painted inside and out, and 

 most of the rooms papered. We do not mean to 

 say" that this is universal, — but it certainly de- 

 scribes the dwellings of the best farmers whom 

 we saw. But the next class is greatly in advance 

 of its condition thirty years ago. The new houses 

 are smaller and better arranged and finished in 

 every respect, while the barns are much larger, 

 and there is an air of thrift, neatness and enjoy- 

 ment about them, that were only exceptions to 

 the general rule at the time to which we refer. 

 These dwellings cost less than the old castles did, 

 and are less expensive to be kept in repair, as the 

 roofs — the most costly part of buildings — are few- 

 er, and are constructed upon true principles which 

 prevent rapid wear or decay. 



Such are some of the evidences of progress in 

 our farmers, in one direction, — the dwellings in 

 lohich we live. When the mind, however, has 

 been cultivated to advance to such a degree of 

 perfection in this particular, it has received a 

 quickening that will not allow it to rest contented 



