Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1858-02-05
A copy from the Records,
Attest: CHAs. CUMMINGS, Sec'y
IKE MARVEL'S ADDRESS TO FARM
Frs.


ERS.
Donald G Mitchell Ike MarveD recent,
delivered the annual address before the Con.
nectcut Agricultural Society. From a con-
densed report in the Hartford papers we Sc
lect the following admirable closing para
graphs
"But there is something worth living for
besides money. That is very good but it is
not all. With the rest, let us raise a crop of
good ideas. While you are farmers, remem-
Der that you are men, with duties and respon-
sibilities Live down the old brutal notion
that a farmer must be uucouth uneducatod
and unthinking-a mere plodder
You are brought into immediate contact
with the great heart of civilization. You
cannot get out of the buzz of the toiing
world. The tril of the wonder working
wires and the rumble of the locomotive, THE
thunder tread Of nations come to your once
secluded hillside.
Move toward better life. Do not keep
your boys corn-shelling all the long winter
evenings. Make your farm place that your
sons and daughters cannot help loving Cul-
tiyate the trees--They are Gods messengers.
Don't say that you care not for looks. You
do care, else why did you build that two
story white house, with green blinds, and a
cupalo into which you never gos Or why
did you, years ago, carefully brush your coat
and pluck up your shirt collar when you were
starting, on Sunday Evening to visit that
good woman who now shares your home?
Care much more for books and pictures
Don't keep solemn parlor into which you
go but once a month, with the parson or Cos
sips of the sewing society. Hang around
your walls pictures which shall tell stories OF
mercy, hope, courage, faith and charity
Make your living room the largest and mos;
cheerful in the house. Let the place be such
that when your boy has gone to distant lands,
OF even when. perhaps, he clings to a single
plank in the lonely waters of the wide ocean.
the thought Of the old homestead shall come
across the waters of desolation, bringing al
ways light, hope and love.
Have no dungeons about your house-no
rooms you never open-no blinds that are all
ways shut.
Don't teach your daughters French, before
they can weed a flower bed or cling to side
saddle and, daughters do not be ashamed
of the trowol or the pruning knife. Bring to
your doors the richest flowers from the woods
cultivate the friendship of birds, scorn tho
scamp who levels his murderous gun at the
blue bird or the robin Study botany, learn
to love nature, and seek a higher cultivation
than the fashionable world would give you
We may yet reasonably hope to rear a race
OF Connecticut people who shall take the
prize at the Worlds Fair. | rejoice in our
rugged hills; envy no fertile West or sun
ny South. love the State we live in her
rivers, hills and plains. love that sound OF
old ocean on her shore which brings us It'd.
ings from other lands.
A dark cloud now hangs over us, but
know no spot where that cloud throws SO
light shadow as on the farmers homes OF
Connecticut. No panic of Wall street can
irighten away the rains of summer, or the life
giving warmth of the sun. All natures prom.
ises are redeemed. In the winter at hand the
song of the pine tree shall be a Gods voice
to you, that in his own good time he will
bring again the glad spring and the glorious
summer.