American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1869-03-27
Our Farmers Homes and their Sons.
BY HORACE GREELEY.

hear with regret, but without sur
prise. that the ADLER and more intel |
ligent of our farm bred youth dislike |
their fathers calling, and aspire to
live by professions, or trade, or spec
ulatiOn-in short, by anything else
than farming. l wish il were other
wise-I hope it may be -, but it never
will or can, without an enlargement
of the attractness of our average
Farmers Homes.
lndge that the estimate would be
liberal which would make the aver
age cGSt--One hundred dollars of
the en- hellishments of the homestead
of our American farmers, worth five
thousand dollars. so far as my oh.
servation may be trusted, a weeks
work in planting shade trees is more
than has been given, in the average,
by our farmers, who have owned and
cultivated the same farms for the last
twenty years.
n city man buys a place in the
country, and at once begins to adorn
and emUellish it He increases the
number aud the variety of its fruit
trees; he puts down strawberry
bed and some grape vines; he sets
hIde trees about the house and
along the highways; lie begins to
grow asparagus aud other delicate
vegetables in short, he makes the
place attractive and habitable to the
a. V Of ~
ing farmers, if asked by their chill
dren or others why they do nothing
OF the sort, usually answer, 1T is
very wall for b., who has lots of
money. and easily gets more, to cut
such dash bat zee must live by our
farms, and can't afford to spend half
we earn in Ornamenting them" Those
who say this are often richer than
their city bred neighbor, and could
do all he has done at half the cost
they 1coaH do it if they supposed it
would pay. They resist the conta-
glOn of his example, not for want of
means, but for want of perception,
of faith.
Now, | admit that the reward of
well doing in the matters above indi.
Gated in not realized in an instant
increase of the farms annual product.
The farmer who should spend five
hundred dollars this year IN judicious
tree planting and kindred improve
mentS, would receive no return in
this years or next years crop. Yet
even he, if buying this very farm,
would give enough more for it, be
cause of these improvements, to de-
/ fray their cost twice over and what
/ is true of him is emphatically true
of most people. The farm thus en-
bellished is 'cOrth more than it WIS ;
its newly planted trees are property
as truly as the soil is, and will in
time have Il saleable value of their
own. Men often make lucky invest
ments, but hardly anything else is
so certain to pay in the long run as
Judici0us tree planting.
| am contemplating, however, a
moral rather than a mat, rial profit
on the outlay. | profoundly desire
that farmers sons should love their
paternal hon es; and to this end,
would have those homes made wor-
thy Of a prond and fond affection. |
would have each possess distinct
and individual character. rejecting
that ofthe family which inhabits and
embpllisheS it. | would have its
buildings adorned, CONSTRUCTED and
painted, with reference to their pc
cu!iar location, elevation and barmo.
IniouS and pleasing landscape. Ne
farmer is so rich or poor that he can
really afford 10 leave his bindings
Imprinted in our climate; for timber
grows dearcr twice as fast as paint
does. A poor man may have home
to love and be proud Of-nay, he
may render a small, cheap home at.
tractive by beauty without and com
fort within. Ue may do This at very
small cost, by devotin% to it the odd
hours of days broken by inclemency,
or by visits; an hour or two each
evening, when not too weary, will
soon tell, if wisely improved. For
my own part, | could not sleep
through bright, moonlit bOurs on IL
many that disiiguIe each rural town
ship.
The love of beauty is universal
Millions feel that we do not clearly
recognize nor consistently defer to it.
The man never lived who would not
have preferred tastrfuIly painted to
unpaiutpd farm buildings; and Il farm
well frngrd with judiclouSly chosen
shade trees and ornamental shrubs
, to bleak, bare acres of pasture and
tillage Though too many have sod
den their souls in whisky and tobac
co ill ihcy no longer clearly recog
, nizr and respond to the sense Of the
beautiful, it still exists, and may be
wakcncd to conscious activity. The
!, God who created flowers and sun
shine, waving trees and rlppling
BROOKS. adapted human nature, I
/ their appreciation and enjoyment
/ lie, every rural home he bcautiled
, though it he hut, and it's only or
nampntS y rose bush, Il vine, and q
solitary, stately, OyershadowIng tree