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NEW ENGLAND FARlSfER. 



Nov. 



The well-regulated Farmer's Home. 



Instead of tlie season bringing gloom and 

 discontent to the mind, November clouds and 

 storms, and decaying life, will afford such a 

 contrast to the flush and energy of summer, as 

 to give us a deep interest in all these changes 

 and processes of Nature. 



If the farmer compares his position with that 

 of any other class, he will find sources of con- 

 solation and joy peculiarly his own. During 

 the growth and the securing of his crops, there 

 was constant labor, together with anxieties as 

 to the results. But now, the harvests are 

 completed, and enough is laid away in store for 

 man and beast for many months to come. 



In every age, this season has been attend- 

 ed with more rejoicing than any other. In 

 these seasons were the feast days in Bible 

 times, when they not only had devotional ex- 

 ercises, but their public thanksgivings called 

 for expressions of joy, and acts of kindness 

 and festivity. The Scriptures emphatically 

 speak of the "joy of harvest." 



With food and shelter and clothing, with 

 fuel for fires, with the pleasant care of the do- 

 mestic animals which are dependent upon him, 

 and that regard for progressive knowledge 

 which is incumbent upon the farmer, why 

 should not his home become the abode of con- 

 tentment and peace, at all seasons ! lie 

 is not subject to high rents or frequent 

 removals, as many mechanics are, but has a 

 secure and comfortable home, conveniences in 

 fuel, clothing and shelter, which thousands 

 have never enjoyed ; has the sweets of good 

 society, the mental luxury of books, which in- 

 troduce him to all the peoples of the earth. 



To these may be added another charm, and 

 that is the study of books which are devoted to 

 his own business. This exercise will not only- 

 make November evenings instructive and de- 

 lightful to himself, but will e(pially entertain 

 •the' family around the social fire, and greatly 

 ina-ease the profits of the farm. We lose in 

 many ways, because we do not understand the 

 operation of laws about us, and which directly 

 affect all our labors. 



He who has not become interested in these 

 laws has little more conception of their power 

 and beautiful operations, than he could have of 

 our gorgeous autumnal scenery from a mere 

 description of it. He must see tltat, in all its 

 infinite colors and lights and shades, in order 



to have any appreciative sense of its beau- 

 ties, — so he must study the natural laws under 

 which he labors to gain a living, or he never 

 will know many of the pure delights which 

 ought to come to the cultivator of the soil. 



No one can be long discontented, or gloomy, 

 who reads the books which treat of the breed- 

 ing and growth of our domestic animals. He 

 will soon learn the wonderful progression 

 which has quadruj)led their size, and equally 

 increased their productive powers for labor, 

 for milk, butter and cheese ; and in sheep, for 

 a similar increase in flesh and in the production 

 of wool. 



He will learn that many of our most valua- 

 ble vegetables were once unfit for human food 

 — such as the potato and cabbage, for instance. 

 The former being a wild plant in the woods of 

 America, with a small, bitter bulb at its roots, 

 which, for a long time, was considered as 

 poisonous ; and the cabbage was another wild 

 plant growing on cliffs near the sea coast in 

 England. Other vegetables, now considered 

 indispensable on our tables, have come from 

 plants once rejected by man and beast as un- 

 wholesome and worthless. 



So it has been with many of our most highly- 

 valued fruits, — the apple, pear, peach, and 

 plum. The great perfection which they have 

 reached has been gained by study and experi- 

 ment. Strike these articles from our list of 

 edibles, and it would be considered as an un- 

 speakable calamity. 



It admits of a question, too, whether any 

 course of study in the schools could so thor- 

 oughly educate the farmer's family as the study 

 of our agricultural literature around the fam- 

 ily fireside. That study would include, in 

 some degree, almost every branch of knowl- 

 edge which the farmer needs. Something of 

 science and the arts, to help him in his me- 

 chanical labors ; something of geograjjliy, to 

 accpiaint him with the features of the earth, 

 and of geology, to inform him of its changes ; 

 something of natural history, to enable him to 

 discern between friend and foe among the 

 living organisms by which he is surrounded ; 

 something of figures, to prepare him for the 

 mercantile duties which will devolve upon him 

 as a buyer and seller, — and something of 

 chemistry, to show him some of the infinite va- 

 rieties of changes which the matter with which 

 he deals is constantly assuming, and the 



