Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1857-12-05
Gbt farnt, 0rtbats ans 6arstn.
December-Work for the Month.
"Again Sol takes his weary way
December storms obscure the day
No vernal song salutes the morn,
Or crimson streams the east adorn.D

Or crimson streams the east adorn."
The wheel of time never halts. 1t ha,
rolled away another year, and brought II:
once more to the end of the field. Let
each look back aud see if he has hoed vel
his row. 1t is a fitting time now to look
back, and see what have been the transec-
lions of the year. Have you been liber
ally disposed and unprecedented in your ag.
ricultural pursuits? Have you made any
new discoveries Or improvement in your
profession, or have you been blowing, SOW
ing, planting, moving, draining, cropping,
DC, much after the same manner of you,
grandfathers-repeating over and over the
same course Of management until you,
soil has become weary, as it were, and
seems to sicken at the monotony. If YOU
have any lingering prejudices against what
is called book farming, the sooner you dis
card them the better. Recollect that all
Improvements are derived from the records
of practice and observation--that farmers
as we'll as nen of other callings, may ac-
quire much useful knowledge by devoting
sheir spare hours to reading books and pa
pers devoted to thier calling.
1t is fair to suppose, that now, all field
business of the farm is done up for the
season, and that little remains to be done
for the coming three months, except care
Of the stock, marketing the grain, finishing
up the fattening of pork, dc. The farm
er has more time during the winter months
f r recreation and study than the mechan-
ic or merchant. How shall these leisure
weeks and months he spent. We have
just been reading an excellent article in the
Maine Farmer, from which we make
extracts, very applicable to this g les
ton, under the head of
"a WORD ABOUT THE EVENINGS"
Farmers, old and young, male and fe-
male, did you ever thing Of the fact that
you have more and %pleasanter evenings
than any other class of people in the
world? Now, what are you going to do
with the many long evenings coming be-
fore another springs The mechanic must
slight up and work until nine O'clock;
the minister must prepare his next Sun
days sermon; the lawyer hunt up authri-
ties on some disputed piont on his next
case; but the farmer is at leisure from the
time his "chores are done up" at dark,
until chanticleer calls him in the morning.
Shall all this tiEle be spent by the mascu-
lines in ''oafiing" in so,ne grocery,o shop.
foul with Tobacco smoke, and still more
filthy conversation-while the feminine
portion ply the needle in wearisome ST.
lence, at home, or gossip" with some
n%eighbora
Surely, it should not so to be. What
is the great need of the farming commu-
nifty? Is it not social recreation r. 1t
is not the responding monotony of the
life of the farmers wife that causes her,
ten years after her marriage at twenty, to
look and appear as though she were, at
least forty years of age? Is not this
same "dead level of the farmers life that
causes his sons to become so universally
disguised with thier business, and to flock
alike to the city and to ruins Aud is it
not this Same tiresome round of toll, with
out relaxation or recreation, that causes
many a farmers daughter, at fifteen Or
sixteen years Of age, to leave her home
for the factory,-just at the time that she
most needs q mothers care and watch
~fulness, mentally, morally, and physically
Here is the want, viz: recreation; and
here the time in which to supply that
want, viz. the long evenings. And we
want, too, a kind of recreation that is re-,
ally what it pretends-a pleasant rest
and not a feverish excitement, followed by
a corresponding depression. Our daily
labors exercises our bodies. but leave the
mind undeveloped; hence our recreation
should present US something for the mind
to do; mental labor,-pleasant and profit
able. OF course, we shall have our sing
ing schools, and various social gatherings
but the young principally, or exclusively,
participate in these. We want something
10 interest the middle aged, male and fe-
male; to give a little recreation to those
bearing the "heat and burden of the day.
and even to give additional zest TO the
life of those who are in the sere and vel
low leaf"
As ore means of accomplishing thi,
most desirable end, | would suggest te
eyery little village and hamlet, and even
school-district, if no more will join, form
yourselves into and old fasoined Lyceum
Society, and have a course of lectures.
l do not mean for you to pay the cele'
btated, O, Hon., or Rev. Mr.. So-and-so.
fifty, or even twenty fve dollars, TO come
ana read to you an hour,-not by any
means. He might say a great many fine
things, sharp things.witty things; and you
might laugh vary heartily, and talk much
the next week of the splendid speaker
slime lecture" &C., and forget all he said
in two weeks. All this is very well, if
one can't do better, but you can. just
get up a society, and let that society get
up its own lectures. A dozen men can
be found right in your very midst, who,
after a months preparatory thought and
reading, can talk intelligently, instructive
Nv. and in a manner to interest an audi
ence for an hour, upon some subject with
which they are familiar.
~ 49,, -~t