Quasqueton guardian. (Quasqueton, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1856-1858, 1857-05-09
Gbs Douss ann farm.
AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

"Stick to your Farm" is text preach
ed from very often, and sometimes to
very little purpose. 1t is generally ad-
mitted that a man will scarce ever suc-
ceed fully-that is to say, profitably de-
velope all his powers--in pursuit for
which, however well he mry be fitted for
it mentally and physically, he has root
ed aversion ; and, on the contrary, that
then only is the man likely TO attain the
maximum of success and happiness,
when he has found that sphere of employ
ment in which he shall be able content
edly to fulfill all his duties.
Stick to your Farm" is, therefore,
piece of advice which may be volun-
teered to the wrong person--to one, nam,
ly, whose turn of mind would lead him
to better success in some other and more
congenial pursuit, and who can regard a
farm life only as disagreeable mode of
eking out livelihood for himself and
those dependent upon him.
Such cases are, however, exceptional
Most of the disgust at country life, pro-
valent among young farmers, arises, we
take it, from the fact that their occupation
is, by wrong philosophy, made so un-
necessarily disagreeable to them, as to
force the aspiring spirit to seek for
more congeanial life.
Where labor is slavish drudgery, ac-
complished only by " main strength and
stupidness," unaided by the mental in
genuity with which the Creator intended
man should make up for lack of mere
physical strength-where relaxation is
utter and thoughtless idleness-where
amusements are coarse and animal rath-
er than intellectual, and refinement is
secuted at as not belonging properly to
the tlller of the soil-where such a con-
dition of things obtains to any degree,
greater or less, it is unavoidable that the
individual most highly gifted by nature
should turn away absolutely from that
state to one more congenial, more elevat-
ing, and satisfying.
Now country life is not necessarily
made up of such disagrecable aud earthly
concomitants as those aforementioned.
In these days of improved machinery, the
intelligent farmer need not undergo toll
more severe or exhausting than is whole
some for body and mind With the
facilities for obtaining useful information,
the poorest may usefully store his mind
and improve his immortal part. The
press teens with matter agreeable, useful,
Intellectual; and certainly no city man
laboring for his bread has the same
amount of time to devote to the develop
ment of his Intellectual powers as has the
fore handed farmer. Of no one has the
State cause to expect SO much, in the way
of contributions to the happiness of its
citizens, as of the farmer. No one has
it so much in his power to preserve con-
stanuy that happiest personal condition
"a sound mind in a sound BODY"
There is no reason why the farmer
should be less refined man than his
brother in the city. There is no just
cause why his wife should not be lady
like, his children as intelligent as those
of the city man. On the contrary, in SO
far as he is his own employer, master of
his own time and labor, and, more than
all, engaged in business where there is
ever room for improvement, ever some-
thing to whet up his ingenuity, and keep
his mind active, he should be the happi-
est, that is to say, the most intelligent
and easiest-circumstanced person in the
community.
! Not until he attains this condition, and
thus feels himself, at the very least, the
equal of the most independent city man,
will it cease to be necessary to say to the
aspiring young farmer, "Stick to your
farm