The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-10-28
PETROLEUM V. NAsBY, p. NJ.
(Which Is Postmaster. }
inc ..FAt Contributors, on Farm l.

The '.Eat Contributor on Farm LIrc.
Being invited recently to deliver an
agricultural address before "A Harvest
Home Association in Central New
York, on the occasion of their annual
festival, the Fiat Contributor" con-
seuted. We make the following elo-
quent extract from his address:
Although fortune (or Ihe perhaps the
want of it) cast my lot amid the strug-
CLING multitude of Il great city, where
you wouldn't see u farm in a walk of
several squares, where there are no
meadows with their waving potato
tops, or wheat fields ripe for the wood
mans axe, yet / have always felt a
deep interest in the farming classes,
ana 1 tlatter myself that l know some-
thing of the noble pursuit you follow.
/ will say here that II has been the am
bitiou of my whole life to be an honest
old farmer-to earn my bread by the
sweat of II hired mans brow. How de-
iightfu! life on II farm must be. / can
Imagine what vigor is impaired TO the
frame, and what strength to the mus
Giles, by reclining in the shade and
watching the mowers as they gaily
swing their threshing machines. and
then what an appetite one must acquire
for the noon-tide lunch by observing
the merry reaperS at work digging their
wheat and raking and binding their
potatoes. and their-their fall apples.
How ofteD. in imagination, | have
followed you AS you went forth of a
summers morning, when the dew was
on the grass seed, neatly attired in
white linen suits with patent leather
boots, with your corn-shellers swung
lightly over your shoulders, to cut your
winters wood. L have seemed 10 hear
your merry songs sweeping up from
the meadows as you gathered your
watermelons and turuips Into your
corn-houses, while mingled with the
busy hum of your sorghum evapo-
raIors came the musical bleating of
your cattle, and the lowing of your
sheep and poultry.
Then, when winter comes, and the
sun prevents you from continuing your
haying, and the cold north wind shakes
off your ripening Strawberries, 1 picture
you sitting by your gas stoves mending
your tanning mills in preparation for
your spring plowing, or amusing your
self with books on agriculture
Winter on a farm: how delightful
What pleasureit must be TO fodder
the chickens in the dairy, and to hear
the musical clucking of the pigs as
they clamor for their oats and hay.
Then, when the winter evening comes,
and the robins and bobOlink have ceas-
ed their song and gone To roost on the
we'll sweep, 1 can imagine no greater
delight than to gather around the blaz-
ing fire place, regardless ottne fascinA-
tions of the storm without, and amuse
yourself with apple-Paring, knitting,
base ball, seven up, and other athletic
games.
envy not, then, the pale dyspeptic
who bends from morning till night
over his sordid ledger in the crowded
marts ofIrade, or the child Of idleness
and affiuence, who grows prematurely
old amid the designations OF the city.
They know nothing of the pleasures OF
| life like yours, which I'beIieve 1 have
in 10 way oVerdTawni IL they did, they
would transport their cities into the
country or transform them into agri-
cultural communities by act of the
Legislature.