APRIL 24 
fiural Copies. 
MAKING FARM HOMES HAPPY. 
HON. BEN PERLEY POORE. 
The pioneers of civilization in the territory 
now known as the United States of America, 
uearly all came from the rural homes of the 
Old World. A few were denizens of the large 
eities, but the greater portion of them were 
from the cattle ranges of Scotland, the broad 
fields of England, or the orchards of Normandy. 
The gallant cavaliers of the French Court 
emigrated to Canada, which they hoped was 
on the highway to China, through the great 
lakes, and tho eonquixtadoree of Spain sought 
gold among the mountains of Mexico, but the 
Scotch and tho English and the Normans, who 
came to the Atlantic Const and founded its 
settlements between Mount Desert and Cape 
Hafcteras, were nearly all yoemen. Crowded 
ont from their own homes, whore they could 
not become land-holders, they sought a country 
equal to Palestine in its palmiest days, when 
Israel’s kings had “herds of cattle both in the 
low country and on the plains”—granaries for 
their abundant crops—“husbandmen, also, and 
vine dressers in the mountains.’’The sacred light 
of Biblical history was not to them like the 
stein light of a vessel, illuminating only what 
had been passed over, but rather the pillar of 
cloud and the pillar of fire, moving before them 
on the march of life, giving guidance by day 
and assurance by night. “They sought our 
shores,” said Mr. Webster, “under no high- 
wrought spirit of commercial adventure, no 
love of gold, no mixture of purpose, war-like 
or hostile, to any human being.” 
From the Atlantic settlements swarms wen t 
into the interior, and they in turn sent out 
swarms, until the settlers have reached the 
golden shores of the Pacific. In the rural 
homes thus planted, have been cultivated the 
true, though austere, religion, the domestic 
virtues, the sturdy habits of frugal industry, 
t he daring spirit, nud the devoted glory of this 
Western Coutiuent. The acorns planted by 
our fathers have become stately trees, under 
whose umbrageous foliage thousands of their 
descendants and others, whom its grateful 
shade has invited from less favored lands, find 
protection, shelter and repose. And what 
would our pioneer fathers have been without 
our pioneer mothers in tho grand drama of the 
first settlements? Woman dared to follow where 
man ilared to lead, going into the wilderness 
with a brave heart nud a Christian faith, that 
she might gladden the labors and share the 
disasters of her hus-hnnd. Truly may it lie 
said, “she looked well to the ways of her 
household and ate not the bread of idleness.” 
The May-poles of “merry England” were 
not brought to Massachusetts, but the early 
inhabitants of the British Colonies on the At¬ 
lantic Coast Mere not without their amuse¬ 
ments. The men had their militia musters, 
and in Virginia their horse-races, l heir house- 
raisings, their ooni-hnskings, and their shoot¬ 
ing matches, while the gentler sex iudulged in 
quiltings, apple-parings, and singing-schools. 
** Our ancestors lived on bread and broth. 
And wooed their healthy wives lu home-spun cloth- 
Our grandmns nurtured to the- nodding reel. 
Gave our good mothers lessons on tbe wheel. 
Though spinning did not much reduce the waist. 
It made the food much sweeter to the taste-. 
They never once complained, as some do now, 
* Our Irish girl enn't cook or milk the cow; 
Each mother taught her red-cheeked,buxom daughter 
To bake and milk and draw- n pall of water. 
No damsel slumped the wash tub, broom or pall. 
To keep unharmed a long grown finger nail; 
They sought no gaudy dress, uo hooped out form. 
But ate to live and worked to keep them warm." 
It was from these log-cabins that the farmer 
hastened to enlist iu the Revolutionary ranks, 
when 1 ‘‘ Resistance to Tyrants” was regarded 
as “ Obedience to God.” Tories abounded in 
the cities, each of which was in turn occupied 
by the Red Coats, anil all must admit that 
British power was prostrated on this continent 
by the hard-handed operutivesof iron nerve, a 
majority of them yeomen who left their plows 
in the furrows to aid the Farmer of Mount 
Vernon iu unyoking their laud from Tyranny. 
When peace was restored the bravest and 
best men of the Revolutionary armies returned 
to their farms and labored as zealously in the 
cause of agriculture as they hud iu that of in¬ 
dependence. Then, and during the next gen¬ 
eration, nearly every public man of eminence 
was a practical farmer, or had a country seat 
where he passed a portion of each year. The 
most interesting chapters of the biographies of 
our great men are those which chronicle their 
agricultural labors, Washington at Mount 
Vernon, Jefferson at MOilticello, Adams at 
Quincy, Jackson at t he lb*routage. Clay at 
Ashland and Webster at. Marshfield, each paid 
a practical homage to agriculture, and Conse¬ 
crated those spots os national shrines. Majestic 
as was the form of Daniel Webster when he 
expounded the Constitution upon the Hour of 
the United States Senate Chamber, how much 
more interesting would he his portrait when, 
raised on his death-bed, he took a last fond 
look at bis herd of cattle, which he had re¬ 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
quested might be driven slowly before his win¬ 
dow. one by one. 
-As our cities increased in size and communi¬ 
cation became easier, the young men and young 
women began to leave their pleasant home¬ 
steads, until it is now difficult in many sections 
of the country to find a young man who is 
willing to follow the plow and a vouug woman 
who is M-illing to make butter. Napoleon the 
Great said that battles make soldiers, and we 
cannot expect to raise an agricultural popula¬ 
tion if our children are permitted to step dow n 
from the farm into the work-shops, the facto¬ 
ries, the counting-room, the bar or the pulpit. 
In the manufacturing sections, the limits of 
which are increasing, foreigners are almost the 
only agricultural laborers. The young men 
have flocked to the cities to engage iu trade, 
although statistics show that, among one hun¬ 
dred merchants not more than three acquire 
independent fortunes, while it is rare that a 
young man who devotes himself to practical 
agriculture ever becomes bankrupt or dies 
destitute of property, The question arises, 
how can we follow the injunction from the 
Almighty to Adam, when He commanded him 
not only to dress his homestead, but to keep it. 
How can we make our children keep their rural 
inheritance and sustain the agricultural fame 
of our pleasant homesteads, in M-hich. after 
all. we have but a life-estate i 
The fashionable panacea is a scientific agri¬ 
cultural educatiou, in which, I must be ex¬ 
cused for saying, I have little faith. In my 
humble opinion the rudiments of what is re¬ 
garded as a scientific agricultural education 
should be taught in every public school, but I 
see no more reason why far mere should gradu¬ 
ate at agricultural colleges than that shoe¬ 
makers and bakers and carpenters should 
receive diplomas from institutions devoted to 
their particular callings. I am not now cast¬ 
ing a top-dressing of flattery over everything 
agricultural, neither would I cast a slur upon 
scientific farmers or agricultural chemistry, 
but my experience is that neither is of much 
account if unattended with practical ability, 
common sense, and honest, hard work. Above 
all. 1 would keep farmers’ sons from mounting 
every agricultural hobby presented by vision¬ 
ary theorists or crafty speculators. The cul¬ 
tivator who expects to enrich his land by some 
magical process Mill find that although he 
may analyze a spoonful ol' dirt and have a 
prescription made up at a druggist's, and 
scatter on th t lacking ingredients from a 
dredging-box. he will uot get quite one hun¬ 
dred bushels of shelled corn to the acre. The 
mere planting of a Munis multicaulis cutting 
M ill uot la* sure to produce a mulberry tree 
the next day with ribbons and silk stockings 
hanging from its branches. Of what use is a 
rooster tall enough to cat corn from the top of 
a flour-barrel, if the exertion of crewing 
makes him failover backwards and you have 
to run and pick him up whenever you hear 
his hoarse creak. A great flourish is occa¬ 
sionally made by those who delight in using 
unintelligible terms to express ordinary ideas, 
but we too often see that the real mark of 
successful, yet profitable, agriculture is ter¬ 
ribly overshot by these zealots. 
The great secret in retaining young jteople 
on the family homesteads consists in making 
these rural homes something beyond the abode 
of hai-d toil, cloudy visages uud compound in¬ 
terest. Every possible means must, be resorted 
to to make the place attractive to these young 
people, and to have the boys see that they do 
not suffer at the village gathering in com¬ 
parison with those of their old playmates; who 
are studying fur college or for a profession. 
There is uo reason why the Sunday and holi¬ 
day clothing of the sous and daughters of a 
M ell-to-do fanner should not bo equal iu ap¬ 
pearance to what is worn by the children of 
the doctor or lawyer or trader in the neigh¬ 
borhood. They should also receive tho rudi¬ 
ments of English education, and should be 
kept, well supplied during the long Winter 
evenings with agricultural and other news¬ 
papers—excellent educators. One or more 
magazines should be taken, and on the book¬ 
shelves should be the pleasantly-narrated lives 
of the leading farmers of the land, rather 
than dime novels or flash literature. A good 
history of agriculture for the instruction of 
farmers' children is yet. to lie written. 1 know 
that, in the opinion of some, history is uo bet¬ 
ter than an old almauac—which for their in¬ 
dividual comprehensions is undoubtedly true. 
But as an old almauac will serve as a future 
guide to him whose far-seeing eye can trace 
the brilliant, course of the celestial luminaries, 
so a history of our home agriculture will 
enable the sensible yeoman to trace the pro¬ 
gress of our local prosperity. The exploits of 
our soldiers, the daring of our sailors, the 
learning of our scholars, the careers of our 
business-men, have all been duly chronicled, 
yet 1 have never seen any connected mention 
of our agriculture—which (as the quicksilver 
iu a thermometer shows the temperature) ever 
marks the position of a community upon the 
scale of civilization. It, is the heaven-ordained 
sweat of the farmer’s brew which is the salt 
of the earth, and woe unto the land where 
this salt has lost its savor! 
Farmers’ children should also be encouraged 
to attend meetings of farmers’ clubs and agri¬ 
cultural societies, and premiums should be 
awarded for their labor and skill. The boy 
who drives the best broken yoke of steers, or 
the best handled colt, or who shows the best 
poultry or pigeons, and the girl who brings 
the best loaf of bread, the sweetest butter, the 
most ingeniously made patch-work quilt, the 
neatest darned rent, or the best made shirt, 
feel a pride as they receive their premiums, 
and hear their names announced, w hich does 
much to bind them to the homestead. Such 
awards and honorable distinctions enlist 
“Young America” into the ranks of the yeo¬ 
manry and make them contented and happy. 
Care should also be taken that the boys and 
girls on a farm do not have to wear then- 
parents’ cut-down clothes, and to toil with 
worn-out tools and household labor-saving 
appliances. 
“Work—work—work! 
From weary chime to chime. 
Work—work—work! 
As prisoners work tor crime. 
Rake, anil drive, and hoe! 
Hoe, and drive, and rake! 
Till the heart Is sick and the arm benumb’d, 
And they tain would the farm forsake.” 
Boys should have light, new- implements 
which they should be taught to keep clean and 
in order, having “a place for everything and 
everything in its place.” 
Forestry should also be used ns a magnet to 
attract the young mind to the family home¬ 
stead. The dying Scotch squire said to his 
sou: “Be aye stickin’in a tree. Jock-they'll 
be growl'll 1 while you’re sleepin’.” it may not, 
in this country be worth while to plant Oaks, 
so slow- is their growth, but Chestnuts. Wal¬ 
nuts, Elms, Locusts and Willows may be 
planted with profit on every farm, and can but 
serve as a tie to retain the planter w-ho grows 
up with them. So it is with orchards which so 
richly repay cultivation. A little labor and 
judicious care M-ill enable every boy to enjoy 
fruit of his own planting before he is old 
enough to vote. 
Then there are the gardens. I know that iu 
the opinion of many, the farmer's garden 
should be a mere vegetable patch, with a few 
struggling Marigolds, Roses and Lilacs con¬ 
tending for the mastery along the fence side 
M-ith Milk-weed. Wild Mustard and Murdock. 
Should it not be rather desirable for the 
young to receive pleasing impressions, and to 
have their love of home strengthened, and to 
have sentiments of youthful pleasure aroused 
M-ithin their hearts by giving them small gar¬ 
dens to cultivate. By testing different varie¬ 
ties of seed they can acquire much practical 
information, and can be of great service to 
their parents. God has created floweis and is 
it. not the duty of man to cultivate them, to 
multiply them in their exquisite loveliness, and 
to develop in every youthful heart aspirations 
for the beaqtiful. If each boy and girl living 
on a farm, could, during the coming season, cul¬ 
tivate a small piece of grouud, they would store 
their young minds with the experience of the 
experimentalists and with the results of their 
own practical observations. Then we should 
see these United States at once occupying a 
higher place on the comparative scale of ex¬ 
cellence, as renowned for her agriculture, her 
horticulture and her arboriculture, as she is for 
her railroads, her steamers, and her manufac¬ 
tories, the products of her looms, her lathes and 
her sewing-machines. Then the cultivation of 
the soil would again be recognized as the most 
ancient and honorable, the most prosperous 
and respected, the most useful and independent 
of industrial occupations, aud the boys and 
girls, M-hen forced to leave their homes, would 
ever cherish the most delightful recollections 
of their youthfid rural homes. 
“l.ouK. Iouk he their hearts with sueb memories fillet), 
Like a vase in which roses have once been distilled, 
You may break, you may ruin the vase If you will, 
Hut the scent Of the roses will linger there still.” 
Various. 
IRRIGATION. 
More Interesting Items from Western 
Kansas—A Newly Constructed Coun¬ 
ty—Garden City. 
MESSRS. HOLMES AND SWEET LAND. 
(Special Correspondents of the Rural New-Yorker ] 
The unusual interest manifested, the num¬ 
ber of letters received from subscribers of the 
‘Rural New-Yorker, and the importance of 
this subject, lend us to furnish another com¬ 
munication from Western Kansas. Finney 
County has lately been constructed out of the 
counties of Sequoyah, portions of Gray, Graud, 
Kearney and Armpaboe. H comprises 282,- 
880 square miles, or 181,048,900 acres, making 
the largest, county in the State, and capable of 
supporting the greatest population, [There 
must be an error in the above-mentioned area 
2£>3 
of Finney County. In the whole of Kansas 
there are only 81,318 square miles. As Fin¬ 
ney is a new county, we have uot at hand 
any record of its correct area.— Eds.] This is a 
move of great interest; the county will soon 
be organized, and be entitled to a just, propor¬ 
tion of the permanent school fund of the State, 
bi-inging a large amount of valuable property 
under assessment and taxation, and M-ill be 
enabled to offer an immense inducement to 
immigration. It will, moreover, centralize all 
interests which have heretofore been diverg¬ 
ing and conflicting. There are at present, in 
this region, over 2fi2.00Q acres of land under 
the influence of the ditches, but the principal 
question to us, and to many an outsider, is 
this: how is this water supply to be perma¬ 
nently continued ? We determined to pro¬ 
pound the same query to Messrs. Holmes & 
Wilkinson, of Garden City, who are probably 
as well informed with regard to this interest 
as anyone to be found. They explained the 
certainty of an ample and continuous supply, 
by demonstrating that beneath the surface of 
the entire valley of tbe Arkansas was a great 
reservoir of water, in fact a subterranean 
river, full always, many times to overflowing, 
with an abundant current toward the east. 
This is proven by the fact that in any locality 
water can be secured, in inexhaustible qxianti- 
ties, by sinking wells to the water-bear¬ 
ing strata. 
The Western Plains of Kansas are unques¬ 
tionably a healthful region, as there are no 
stagnant ponds, marshes and swamps, while 
the climate is 3s delightful as can be found, 
entirely free from malaria. Under the present 
system of farming the immediate region sur¬ 
rounding Garden City and the Arkansas Val¬ 
iev no longer looks like the desert it was once 
thought to be; let it be wet or dry it matters 
little to the fanners here. When the necesssty 
arises the water can be turned on to their 
fields, giving them assurance of a crop; M-hile, 
in case it should he rainy weather, and enough 
moisture he furnished through natural means, 
the flood-gates need not be opened. Noble 
L. Prentice, one of the spiciest writers of 
Kansas, says: "This is a great scheme. * * 
They Inck their opinion M-ith a great deal 
of money. * * * There is something fas¬ 
cinating in the idea of every man being his 
own rain-maker, and being independent of the 
shifting clouds and the uncertain winds. The 
enthusiastic in igator, with a shovel, can bring 
on a light or heavy shower, and bv lifting a 
sluice gate, orgauizc a first-class thunder-storm. 
He can rim all the variety of elementary dis¬ 
turbances at once, if he chooses. The windows 
of heaven are nothing to him; he runs the 
machine himself," 
We gave, in our last-letter, some idea of the 
immense crops M-hich can be grown by means 
of irrigation, consequently M-e 'rill not re¬ 
iterate. Stjeoulators that had faith in the final 
success of the system, have invested largely. 
Mr. Holmes, "’ho has had charge of the At¬ 
chison. Toiieka aud Santa Fe Railroad lands 
since the Spring of 1882, found his business 
improving so rapidly, that it necessitated the 
admission of a partner, although all of the 
railroad lands iu what was formerly known 
as Sequoyah Countv, have tieen disposed of. 
The prices received bv Messrs. Holmes A: 
Wilkmion for these lands have been from $2.00 
to $17.ikl per acre. The Government Land 
Office for the new district of Western Kansas 
has been located at Garden City, where M-e 
learn there are 20 new houses in course of 
erection. 
Besides the enormous interests of cereal, 
vegetable and root crops, the southwestern 
portion of Kansas affords many excellent in¬ 
ducements to the stock-raiser desiring a large 
range: many fine herds are uom found in the 
county. Thu mild, dry Winter, in connection 
with the immense natural pasturage, furnishes 
unlimited possibilities for cattle or sheep¬ 
raising. 
It has been said that the sum required to 
start a farmer’s son as a farmer, upon the high- 
rented land in England, Scotland or Ireland, 
M ould be sufficient to make ten sons owners of 
the finest stock aud crop farms in Western 
Kausas. The Atchison. Topeka and Santa 
Road is one of those progressive organizations, 
which are ever ready to oo-operare heartilv 
with any efforts made to develop the internal 
resources of Their domain, recognizing the fact 
that from these improvements comes its in¬ 
crease in revenues, consequently those desirous 
either of obtaining railroad land, shipping 
stock or immigrants' movables, can rely upon 
its magnanimity, as regards rates and at¬ 
tention to transit 'rithout delay. A favorite 
route to this region from the East is via the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, thi Pittsburg and Ft. 
Wavhe to Chicago; Chicago, Rock Island and 
Pacific; Chicago. Burlington and Quincy, or 
the Chicago, Alton and St. Louis to Kansas 
City— thence westward on the Santa FA 
These reads have attained a reputation by 
their safe and conservative management, as 
well as the atteution paid to the convenience 
and comfort of all passengers. They are thor¬ 
oughly equipped, aud w here all are so goal, 
it is unuecessarv to offer invidious comment 
With a quotation from Frank Leslie's Illus¬ 
trated Newspaper of February 10, w-e will 
close: “Irrigation bus been tried in Western 
Kansas with marvelous results. Formerlv it 
was thought that the dry plains, stretching 
toward the Arkansas River, were useless for 
agricultural purposes. The light and fickle 
rainfall, the dry air. the hot winds and the 
long Summers were supposed to constitute a 
combination of unfavorable elements that it 
w ould be impossible to overcome. But broad 
ditches w ere dug that distributed the w aters 
of the Arkansas over these tracts, and now 
they bloom like a garden, The crops yielded 
the past year w ere astonishing ” 
