226 
LADIES DEPARTMENT. 
Casks’ JDqjartment. 
CHOICE OF BUSINESS PURSUITS FOR 
CHILDREN. 
“ There is a frequent complaint among farmers, 
that their sons early manifest a distaste for agricul¬ 
ture.—that as soon as they are of an age to be useful, 
they seek other employments.”— Stone's Address, 1845. 
In the choice of business pursuits for our chil¬ 
dren, it is undoubtedly the wisest plan to conform 
as far as practicable to the natural inclination, or 
as it is familiarly called, suit the turn of mind ; for 
all are not alike, and he who would make a mise¬ 
rable mechanic, may rise to eminence as a lawyer ; 
while he who would find himself totally unable to 
defend a cause either for plaintiff or defendant, may 
be admirably fitted to be judge, jury, and whole 
■witness box, when rotation of crops, culture of 
roots, and subsoil plowing, are under consideration. 
But, unfortunately, there is too good reason for the 
frequent complaint that the sons, and daughters 
also, of farmers, who by mind and taste are consti¬ 
tuted for country life and labor, no sooner arrive at 
an age when they imagine themselves independent, 
than they turn their backs upon the farm, perhaps 
with scorn at the idea of following the honorable 
employment of their fathers. Among the many 
reasons assigned for this lamentable fact, I would 
now notice one, which may be expressed in a sen¬ 
tence, as the want of refinement among farmers’ 
wives. 
It may seem, at first sight, that here is no obvi¬ 
ous connection between cause and effect; but I will 
endeavor to prove that there is, not so much to up¬ 
hold the children, as to convince the parents that 
remedy for the evil is in their possession. 
Ambition is inherent in our natures, and we are 
all inclined to opinions that will advance or retard 
what we consider our best interests. If then we 
allow our children to draw comparisons manifestly 
to our disadvantage, we must expect they will 
shun a calling, the pursuit of which makes, in their 
estimation, such vast difference between ourselves 
and others. There is no doubt, that many a far¬ 
mer’s son, who loves the toil of seed-time and har¬ 
vest, enters a store or studies a profession, because 
fee thinks no woman of intellect and polish would 
become his wife, were he to remain a farmer; 
while his sister, with her whole soul yearning for 
the beauties of nature, refuses a home among them, 
and condemns herself to an unhealthy existence in 
the close and crowded city, because she cannot 
consent to become, what she considers a farmer’s 
wife must be, a mere animal drudge. So universal 
are these opinions, that when a merchant’s daugh¬ 
ter has left her father’s house, where she had been 
accustomed to comparative luxury and refinement, 
to become the mistress of a farm, I have heard her 
sorrowed for, as if she had sacrificed every earthly 
comfort and enjoyment. “ She, a farmer’s wife! 
What a pity that one so fitted to shine in the best 
circles, should, as it were, bury herself alive!” 
Again, when the son of a wealthy man, clinging 
perhaps to the recollection of boyhood’s happiness 
in country visits, has manifested a desire to follow 
the plow for a maintenance, I have heard arguments 
and entreaties used to dissuade him from it, that 
could not have been stronger had he desired the 
post of hangman. These things ought not so to 
be, and yet a change cannot speedily be effected un¬ 
til our farmers become less what they now are, a 
peculiar people. True, agriculture is making 
rapid progress, and fast becoming what it should 
be, a science and a profession; but it cannot reach 
the high point among the sciences and professions 
which it is most worthy to occupy, until the “ sons 
of the soil” more generally acknowledge for them¬ 
selves and families an intellectual as well as a 
physical existence; until they combine with hand¬ 
work, head-work, with the rough labor necessary 
for subsistence, the polish and refinement which 
gild the humblest home. I would not be under¬ 
stood one moment as an advocate for the follies of 
fashionable boarding-schools or expensive dress, 
but I would contend for my hardly tasked country¬ 
women, that they be allowed books to study, time 
for daily mental culture, even for the accomplish¬ 
ments (if they have a taste for them) which might 
have been attended to before marriage, that in their 
dress,—but here I must pause for a question or two. 
An English writer in some excellent advice to 
his daughters says :—“ It is a good rule, to follow 
the fashion in dress just so far that you shall not 
be marked as singular;” and as no woman who 
sufficiently respects herself, can wish to be consi¬ 
dered singular (unless for her goodness), I would 
ask, if there is not as much reason in wearing our 
dresses as far in conformity with the prevailing 
fashion as modesty and good taste will allow, as 
there is in making it questionable whether we have 
adopted the costume of the ark ? Or if, in pur¬ 
chasing our garments, there is not as much economy 
in procuring a pretty and becoming article, as in 
selecting one intolerably ugly, both being the same 
price and texture ? And as outward appearance, 
by conventional rules, is in some degree a standard 
of the station we fill, if it is not better to give a few 
minutes more to the duties of the toilet, or adopt 
some little distinction, whereby a stranger may not 
feel in perplexity whether he is addressing himself 
to mistress or maid ? The answer to these queries 
I must leave to wiser heads than mine, as there 
may be some good, unknown reasons for that love 
of the obsolete which prevails so extensively 
among a certain class of females. 
If we are “ never too old to learn,” we are cer¬ 
tainly never too old to amend; and I call upon my 
sisters of the craft, who have been induced by 
many cares and duties to lay aside the little refine¬ 
ments that characterize the lady, to shut up their 
books, and in losing the key of the library, lose the 
intellectual woman—I call upon them, though long 
wedded to mechanical habits, to rouse themselves 
for their children’s sake, to look for that lost key 
and those departed graces, and resolve to do all 
that in them lies, towards making the farmer’s pro¬ 
fession what it was intended to be, in the eyes of 
their children and the world, the noblest, the hap¬ 
piest. And let those just commencing, remember 
that, while they should consider no labor deroga¬ 
tory, it is yet possible to cultivate polished manners 
while attending upon necessary household affairs, 
ana that no one is so thoroughly accomplished, as 
she who adds to the attainment of learning, com¬ 
plete practical knowledge of all domestic duties. If 
