174 
WISCONSIN STATE AORICULTUR.AL SOCIETY, 
tented with their home, and finally leave it in search of something 
better, or at least different from what is to them the ideal of a far¬ 
mer’s life. Is it any wonder they leave it? Is it any wonder the 
daughters declare their intention never to marry farmers? If my 
young lady visitor had ever seen such homes, is it any wonder 
that she declared she would never marry a farmer? And yet it is 
useless to deny the fact that we have just such homes, or places 
where homes ought to be, among our farmers. I can find them in 
my county, I know they exist in many others, and I presume they ' 
do in every county in the state. How to reach them, or in what 
way to go to work to get them to try to improve their condition, is- 
with me an unsolved problem. f 
Not long since one of my sons had occasion to call at the house 
of one of this class of farmers. He owned 40 acres of land in the 
forest; and had cleared and was cultivating seven acres of it. Not 
a book nor a paper was to be seen about the house. My son asked 
him why he did not clear up more of his land and cultivate it. 
“Well,” said he, “I was afraid I should get out of wood one of 
these days, and I thought I would just keep the rest of it for fire¬ 
wood.” “ Well, why do you not have some books and papers about 
your house to read?” “ Oh, I aint got no time to read, and besides,, 
books and papers aint no count nohow.” Such men never attend 
agricultural fairs or conventions, or read an account of their pro¬ 
ceedings, nor take agricultural papers. Generally they are consti¬ 
tutional grumblers at their lot in life, while in fact they are only 
the victims of their own indolence and ignorant prejudices, as well 
as their self-conceited vanity; all of which help to lessen the com¬ 
forts of their home, and degrade their profession in the estimation, 
of the intelligent and educated throughout our whole country. 
They are perhaps the most difficult class to reach, from the fact that 
they rarely mingle with the educated and refined men in our pro¬ 
fession, and manifest but little desire to improve either homes or 
themselves. And anything done among this class by those of u& 
who have had better education and better advantages in general, 
must be somewhat of the nature of what our religious societies 
term “ Home missionary work.” Gentlemen, let us not neglect to 
do this as far as it lies in our power. We may thereby make some 
homes more happy and cheerful, and possibly lay the foundation, 
for many happy ones in the future. 
