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WISCONSIN STATE ACIilCULTUIiAL SOCIETY. 
t 
arose to leave lie had left the room; I bid the family good-bye, and 
went out and found him in the barn yard milking his cows. “Why,” 
said I, “ you told me a few minutes ago that you did not work nor 
did not intend to in the future.” “ This is no work,” said he, “ it 
is only fooling a little with work.” “Very well,” said I, “ when I 
get back among my friends at the west, I will tell them what the 
rich farmers of the east call fooling with work is going into the 
barn yard and milking a whole dairy of cows without help, and per¬ 
haps they can judge from that what you would call hard labor.’ 
He laughed heartily, we shook hands and parted. 
Now, I claim, that with all my friend’s good qualities and good 
deeds, and they are many, still his home life is to a great extent a 
failure. This is not so because he is too close to provide for such a 
one as he should have, but perhaps from mere thoughtlessness and 
negligence. I rode with him in his carriage behind a splendid span 
of horses; yet he and his wife rarely go out to ride, they very seldom 
take a pleasure excursion together. Their home is a comfortable 
one, but lacks the lawns, the shrubbery, the fruits and the flowers- 
that should adorn such a place. The house lacks the valuable libra¬ 
ry and the music that should be the means of improvement and 
recreation to every one within its walls. Both himself and his 
wife are too busily engaged in their daily rounds of care and man¬ 
ual labor, to devote the time necessary to beautify and adorn their 
home or to improve their intellects and tastes by adding the many 
things that should combine to make such a home a miniature Gar¬ 
den of Eden. 
But I suppose you are ready to ask, “ If happy homes are neither 
among the rich nor the poor farmers, where shall we find them?’^ 
Well, there are some very pleasant and happy ones among each 
class, though we may well wish they were more plenty. It does 
not of necessity follow that our farmers must have wealth in order 
to have better as well as happier homes. No class in society 
is so favorably situated to have cheerful and pleasant surroundings, 
and at so low a price as the farmer. He is not crowded for room; 
a few rods of land either more or less in his front yard or in his 
garden makes no appreciable difference with him. He knows the 
forests and the shade trees suitable for his place. He can select 
I 
and set them with his own hands. We all know that with us there 
are a few kinds of forest trees that are easily obtained and flourish 
