The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1837-08-22
From the N. Y, Daily Express.
CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE.

The poets of old Rome sang in loud strains the
praises of the country, and happy was that Ro-
man who had his farm, his garden or his villa,
around the base of Soracte,' or on the shores Of
the beautiful Baia. Cicero was farmer as well
as statesman and an orator. All the illustrious
men of Rome delighted in quitting the Forum,
the Campus Martihs, @pd the walls Of the "Moth-
er of Empires" to pass the summer solstice in
the cool groves, with nymphs and sa.yrs--or in
the season of the harvest, to rejoice with the
bacchanas, and to see them frolic i'm the games
Even so in England and the continent of Europe.
now. London, the mistress of modern times as
Rome was OF the olden, is deserted of much of
its population in summer and autumn. The
possession of land is the passport to gentillty in
Europe. The great Metternich, 1.-THE Austrian
Envoy at London boasts of his famous vineyard
OH the Rhine. A landed estate is the first aim of
nobility in England. Titles there, come from
land. Hence, agriculture is the work of science
and of art, and as much knowledge and art are
demanded TO cultivate, and lay out the park, to
adorn it with trees and with fountains, as to I'll
the gallery, or the studio, or the niche of the
palace
How happens it then, that in on. part of our
country-it is not so in the south-that agrcul-
ture is avoided as much rs it can well be-that
the son flies off from the fields to the counter,
the daughter to the city or the factory-all pant
ing to exchange the free, glorious air of heaven,
Tor the dusty, noisy, crowded thoroughlare say
of Vail street, Pearl st.,.. or the Bowery? Whence
that madness that makes the working man cher.
iFl the cellar or the garnet, for himself and his
children, when he can live better and Weather.
on the borders of the Wilderness with sky enou gh
over his head, earth enough under his feet-wth
the green grass to trample over and the proud
trees for shade.
There is q belief in our country--it exists no
where else--that agriculture is Vulgar occupa-
uon, demanding no taste, no genius and nothing
but the turning of the sod, and che dwelling of
the trees. How false is this I! Why, the Vatican
in its way, is not more beautifu-wih the choice
works OF ancient and modern art in it-a Belv-
dere Apollo here and Raphael iresco there
than an English park in ats way-where a land
scape IS toorked ont as picture has been--a tree
SNAPPED to fit this view, and hedge designed TO
ala that-now perhaps fountain OF waterfall,
anon herd of deer-it may be hill created Ivy
industry or little river, with the gods and god
desses presiding over, fitted to run in the line
mat beauty is demanding-and all harmonizing
with Nature, as taste and genius and science
nave aided in adjoining it. Even the cottage of
the laboring Englishman-with his front door so
neat, the roses and ivy and woodbine creeping
over and adjoining it, and the well trimmed hedge
II: Its front, is jewel upon the face of the earth,
and taste has made it so, for nature has done but
little for her father-land. n
We know not why it is, but SO it is there is in
the Northern States most unconquerable aver
sion to agriculture, and the consequence is, with
New England in particular, that farming peo-
pie are fed from abroad, by the agriculture of
other States, or of foreign nations. The multi
tnde seem more to love the throng-the city
the tinkling of money in the shop of the broker,
or the rustic of silk and calico in the shop of the
dealer, than the notes of the sweet songser of
the woods, the rich beauty of the trees, or the
inviting verdure of spring and summer One
reason is that we have no farmers, such as the
farmers of England, of Holland, or of Lombardy,
who embellish nature, and make their homes
more delightful than the loftiest palaces of the
town. Our men of wealth, in the country, who
have sons to educate, aprefer to make them into
third rate lawyers, fourth rate parsons and sixth
rate doctors, rather than to bring them up in the
way that should teach them to raise double crop
from the same acre of land, or to Introduce some
new product, which should double the available
means they now have