The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-11-19
FARMING AS A FINE ART.

Edward Everett, who touches nothing that
be does not adorn, delivered the address before
the New York Agricultural Society, OH the 9Th
OF October. We take pleasure in transferring
the closing portion to our columns:
One more suggestion, my friends. and re.
ieve your patience. As work of art know
few things more pleasing to the eye, or more
capable of affordins scope aud qualification to
a taste for the beautiful, than @ well.si uated
wellcultivated farm. The man of refinement
will hang with unwearied gaze OF landscape
by Cla ide or Salvador the price of a section
of the most fertile land in the West would not
purchase few square feet Of the canvas on
which these great arts 9 have depicted rural
scene. But Nature has forms and proportions
beyond the painters skill her divine pencil
touches the landscape with living lights and
shadows, never mingled on his pallet. What
is there on earth which can more entirely charm
the eye, or CRAFTY the taste, than q noble farm?
1t stards upon a southern slope, gradually
rising with variegsted ascent from the plain,
sheltered from the northwestern winds BY
woody heights, broken here and there with
moss covered boulders, which imparts variety
and strength to the outline. The native forest
has been cleared from the grea' er part of the
farm, but a suitable portion, carefully tended
remains in wood for economical purposes and
TO give picturesque effect to the landscape
The eye ranges round three fourths cf the hori
zon over a fertile expanse, bright with the
cheerful waters of ripping stream, generous
river, or cleaning lake-dotted with hamlets,
each with its modest spire-and if the farm lies
Ia the vicinity of the coast, distant glimpse,
from the high grounds, of the mysterious, ever
lasting sea, completes the prospect. 1t is stu.
ated off the high road, but near enough to the
lIn<s - H. l. l. l. = L
the sehool-house, the post Office, the railroad, a
socieole neghbor, or q travelling friend. 1t
consists in due proportion of pasture and till
age, meadow and woodland, field and garden.
y, "A substsni;sl dwelling, with everything for
convenience, and nothing for ambition-with
the fitting appendage of stable and barn, and
corn barn, and other farm buildings, not for
getting a spring.house with living fountain
OF water-occupies upon gravelly knoll pr
sition well chosen to command the whole
estate. A few acres On the front and on the
sides of the dwelling, set apart to crafty the
eye with the choicer forms Of rural beauty are
adorned with stately avenue, with solitary
trees, with graceful clumps, shady walks, a
velvet lawn, brook murmuriDg over pebbly
bed, here and there grand rock, whose cool
shadow at sunset streams across the field ali
displaying, in the real loneliness of nature, the
original OF those landscapes of which art In its
perfection strives to give Va the counterfeit pre-.
sentiment Animals OF select breed, such as
Paul Potter, and Morland, and Landseer, and
Rosa Bonheur, never painted, roam the pas.
lures, or I'll the hurdles and the stalls; the
plough walks in rustic majesty across the
plain, and opens the genial bosom of the earth
to the sun and air !; natures holy sacrament of
seed time is solemnized beneath the vaulted
cathedral sky; silent dews, and gentle showers,
and kindly sunshine, shed their sweet influence
on the teeming soil springing verdure clothes
the plain; golden wavelets, driven by the west
wind, run over the joyous wheat field the tall
maize aauuts in her crispy leaves and nodding
tasaels; while we labor and while we rest,
while we wake and while we sleep, Gods chem
istry, which we cannot see, goes on beneath the
clouds myriads and myriads of vital cells fer
ment with elemental life; germ, and stalk, and
flower, and silk, and tassel, and grain, and
fruit, grow up from tie common earth the
moving machine and the reaper, mute rivals
of mans industry, perform their gladstone task
the wellpiled wagon brings home the ripened
treasures of the year the bow of promsse fol
filled spans the foreground of the picture, and
the gracious covenant is redeemed, that while
the earth renaineth, summer and winter, and
heat and cold, and day and night, and seed.
time and harvest, shall not fail"