300 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
[COPYRIGHT SECURED.] 
RETURNING FROM 
THE HUNT .—Drawn by Wm. M. CARY. — Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
]y cursed by brush and brambles, and meadows 
seeded with rank growing weeds for the next 
generation. It is of the highest importance to 
the man himself, and to society, that he should 
have something in his mind better than what 
he sees in his farm, when he takes it in hand. 
Even if he never fully realize his ideal, he 
w T ill be striving for it all the while, and will ac¬ 
complish more for himself and for society. If 
he get but ten bushels of wheat to the acre he 
should see thirty just ahead. If he have swales 
yielding only sour grasses, he should see tiles 
underneath discharging copious streams at the 
outlet, and sweet fields of living green above 
the swelling flood. If he have that vision in his 
mind it will keep working until it is realized. 
Every time he mows over that swale he will be 
thinking of the clover and timothy that might 
be, instead of the poor stuff he is gathering; of 
the fat cattle that might be on his ideal fodder, 
instead of the lean kine that starve and shiver 
on tl»e bog hay and moss. He will feel a pang 
akin to the lialf-fed brutes, and not rest until 
the tiles are down. If the roads that approach 
his dwelling are treeless, he should see long 
rows of elms, maples, or oaks adorning the 
street. They will be planted by and by. If 
the wife and mother have hard •well-water to 
wash with, he should see a cistern to catch all 
the rain from the roof, and a pump to bring it 
into the room where it will be wanted. There 
are a multitude of worthy wives suffering dis¬ 
comfort a lifetime for the want of a few practical 
ideas in the heads of their husbands. Their 
labors might be made lighter, their whole life 
brightened if there were conveniences for doing 
the necessary work of the household. They 
cost very little time or money, but they do cost 
a considerable thinking and a little sacrifice of 
personal ease after the chores are done. To 
stir up ideas there is nothing better than a good 
agricultural paper. If the wife is wise she will 
keep one around when the lamp is lighted. 
Returning from the Hunt. 
In several drawings that we have published 
Mr. Cary has given us reminiscences of a far 
western sojourn. Life upon the frontier pre¬ 
sents curious and interesting phases. Here not 
only do civilization and savage life meet, but 
they, so to speak, lap over upon and modify one 
another. The white man picks up much worth 
knowing from the savage, and the red man is 
only too apt to adopt all the vices of the white. 
The result is, that we have at our frontier settle¬ 
ments and far off military posts a people as 
much unlike the mass of our citizens in charac¬ 
ter and customs, as are sailors unlike landsmen. 
In the sketch of “ Returning from the Hunt,” 
the artist has represented one of the Penimba 
half-breeds in his characteristic costume. These 
Penimbas are a mixture of several Indian tribes, 
with French, Irish, and other European nation¬ 
alities, and present a curious combination of the 
■wild and the civilized. These people get a good 
part of their living by buffalo hunting, going 
out in parties with small carts built entirely of 
wood and drawn by a single ox. They encamp 
in the buffalo region and follow their game up¬ 
on horseback. When an animal is killed, the 
meat is cut from the ribs, and the legs disjoint¬ 
ed; the remainder of the carcass being left as 
valueless. This meat is put upon the horse, 
the saddle strapped down over it, and, mounted 
thus, the hunter makes his way back to camp. 
In the present case a cow buffalo has been kill¬ 
ed, and the young calf follows the remains of 
its dead mother. When the buffalo calf has 
lost its mother, it often helplessly follows the 
hunter’s horse, and in this way is easily captured. 
