The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1859-03-09
STAR OF THE NORTH.
Asrirnltural Department.
The Farmers Life.

The following extract from an agricu'tu-
raj address of Horace Greely's contains
much truthful sentiment, and shoSld be well
considered by farmers generally.
"Alier all OF the eloquence of poetry that
has been avished on the farmers vocation,
its independence its security, It's dignity,
lis quiet, its happiness-there are not many
decidedly clever youths even in the house.
holds of farmers who are deliberately choos-
ing the farmers calling as preferable 10 all
others. Hundreds drift or settle into Agri-
culture because they cannot acquire pro-
fessional training, or because they hate 10
study, or because they cannot get trusted
FOR a stock of goods, or for some one OF
hundred reasons very few because they
decidedly prefer this life 10 any other.
Advertise in the same paper tomorrow
for man on the farm and clerk, the wages
in each case being the same, and you will
have tive nty applications for the latter place
10 one of the former. Tis fact argues
grave error somewhere; and as don't be-
lieve il is human nature, not in that provi-
dental necessity which requires most of
Us 10 be farmers, ! must believe il is 10 be
detected in the arrangement and condition
under which farm labor is performed. We
must study out the defect and amend II
When the rural neigh borhood shall have be-
come more social, and the farmers home
more intelectual-when The best books and
periodicals not only agricultural but others
also, shall be found on his evening table
and his hired men be invited 10 profit by
them-the general repugnance of intellect
ual youth 10 farming will gradually disap-
pear
We Americans, as people, Go less 10 rem
der our homes attractive, than an other
people Of equal means on the earth. And
for this there is very much excuse. We
are rolling s,ones,' which have not yet
found time 10 gather any very graceful moss.
We are on our march from Western Europe
TO the shores ofthe Pacific, and have halted
from time 10 time by the way, but not yet
settled. That sacred and tender attachment
TO home which pervades all other human
breasts has but slender hold upon us. There
are no, many Of US who would not sell the
house over his own head if he were offered
a good price for it. Not one fourth of us
now live in the same house in which we
were born not half of us confidently expect
10 die in the homes we now occupy. Hence
we cannot be expected 10 plant trees, and
train vines, and set Towering shrubs, as we
might DO, if we had, in the proper sense OF
the word, Home.
apprehend that we are to-day the least
social people on earth and this is especial
ly true of our purely agricultural districts.
The idler and the dissipated are gregarious
but our industrious, sober, thrifty farming
population enjoy 100 little of each others
society. In the old world, for the most part,
the tillers of the soil live in Villages or ham
let's surrounded at distances varying from
len rods 10 three miles, by the'lands they cul
tivate and sometimes own. When The days
labor is over, they gather in good weather,
on the village green, uader spreading tree,
or some inviting grove, and song and story;
conversation and moonlight dance, are the
cheap solace of their privations, their abors
and their cares. Bu our American farmers
are islands, separated by seas of forest and
fencing, and farmers, their families and la
borers, rarely see those living mile or two
away save when they pass in The road or
meet on Sunday in church.