American Agriculturist, 
PREMIUM LIST. 
SUPPLEMENT TO OCTOBER, 1883 
Five Million. Farm Homes. 
There are now about ten million dwellings in this 
country, nearly half 
of them occupied 
by tillers of the 
soil. It is impossi¬ 
ble to think of so 
many. To get some 
conception of their 
number,run overin 
the mind a town¬ 
ship or territory 
having two hun¬ 
dred houses scat¬ 
tered over it. This 
fixed in the mind 
as a picture, imag¬ 
ine another like 
territory, then an¬ 
other and another, 
until you gradually 
take in a whole 
hundred grouped 
together. To go 
along the roads and 
across the fields of 
this territory, and 
ings, its home-made carpet and simple furniture,’ 
are in striking contrast with your rosewood and 
mahogany and walnut, upholstered in plush and 
velvet, your paintings and profusion of ornaments ; 
but think you that you really lead happier or more 
contented lives ? Here, we retire early, sleep sound¬ 
ly, rise with the sun 
or before, and go 
forth to feed our 
domestic animals 
that greet us with 
looks expressive of 
gratitude. The 
morning “ chores” 
over, we sit down 
to our tables, plain 
to be sure, but 
with sharpened ap¬ 
petites and with a 
real relish feast 
upon pure milk 
cream, good 
f resh vegetables of 
our own growing, 
bread undoctored 
by the commercial 
baker, and meats 
our own 
shambles. The 
wholesome, health¬ 
ful meal dispateh- 
►H I 
visit a hundred homes 
every week day, would 
occupy eight months. 
This would cover only 
half of Maryland, or two- 
thirds of Connecticut, 
not a tenth of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, or a twelfth of 
New York, or* Ohio, or 
Illinois. Yet all these 
twenty thousand farm 
dwellings would be only 
one in every two hundred 
and fifty in our country ! 
....You resident of a 
village mansion, or city 
house “ with all modem 
conveniences,” come out 
and have a chat with us 
in this plain farm house, 
where we sit this even¬ 
ing. Its walls and cas¬ 
ed,the labors of the field, 
the plow, the reaping im¬ 
plements, etc., occupy 
the day, giving vigor to 
the muscles, in the health 
promoting sun-light and 
salubrious air. The day’s 
work over,we lie down to 
quiet refreshing rest, un¬ 
disturbed by the city or 
village hum. Our chil¬ 
dren grow up healthful 
and vigorous in body and 
mind, able and ready 
when occasion calls to 
take the places and work 
of your feeble hot-bed 
growths. Our unsupplied 
wants, the chief cause of 
unhappiness, are far less 
than yours. When finan¬ 
cial crashes come to you, 
