Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1872-10-02
Farmers Homes.

Children must be made to love their homes,
else the attractions Of cities and villages will
surely lure them away from the peaceful mo.
notonous labors Of rural life Let them plant
trees, cultivate them, and have the profits accru.
ing from the safe fruits they bear. Let them
have fowls, animals, bees of their own be
taught how to rear and care for them, and en-.
joy the results of their own attention and
work in toys or books, or investments in the
Savings bank. The sense of proprietorship
will give to boy not foud Of work, great in
tercst in small potato-patsh, or a score Of
sage plants, or rod square Of Lima BEANS
Aud in our country girls, love for out-of
door work should be seduously cultivated
Let them have garden spot, with room for
flowers, herbs and vegetables, aud time to
take care of IT, Better raise flowers and
shrubs, and fowls and honey, than delve in
the kitchen lorevermore, and then have moth
ing for II.
Ample provision must be made for sport
during the short winter days and the long cold
evenings Checker boards, candy pu,lings,
games Of various sorts, music, amusing books,
these are indispensable. Let the boys aud
girls have sleds, aud skate with wrappings
and furs Of their own trapping, and enjoy the
glare OF frozen ice, the slippery side hill, the
glowing starlight, the jingllog bells, the
bracing frosty air and all the delights that
make winter on the farm n scene OF iestlvity
and sport. Then do not keep all the pre-
serves and canned fruit, the various goodies,
laid up in store, ouly for company but
bring them out on proper occasions, just to
let the boys and girls have good tina eat
hon nd xu,il no raaly IN bntl
days next summer to renew the wasted store,
and lay up future enjoyments for the coming
SHOWS and frosts.
Then remember that any rigbt-minded boy
or girl always likes to know the reason ID
things. Explain to your son when you are
sowing clover for mature, how and why it
benefits the soil why some soils require lime,
and others the acids Of decomposition, to
render them mellow aud fertile. If the chill
dren are contented and happy, the other folks
will be.
Let the boys earn money, and give them
the benefit Of your advice, not commands,
how to expend it. Make the boy man and
the girl woman, as far as you can, not a
drudge or fool, by being yourself the mouth
to speak for them the eyes to see for them,
the ears to hear for them, and the brains to
think for them. Let them act for themselves
under your care aud supervision. Try to
know more than they do spend your own
surplus time in informing yourself, laying up
store Of knowledge to impart for them, n-
stead Of gossiping with some laxative neigh
Dor, or telling over for the hundredth time
some pig story or affair which never had any
pith or point and which your son hears,
wondering how you can be interested in such
nonsense, when the wide world is before him,
and nature, whose laws and phenomena are to
him an enigma, is all around him. and you
should be, aud he expects you to be, capable
to explain many Of these things to him.
Live, if possible, in the front side of the
house, where something can be SEEN DO not
have all the grand and comfortable things 10
the parlor, which is opened quarterly, when
the minister comes round, and the rest of the
time is sacred, unless there is funeral or u
wedding, which the girls would not postpone
great while in such home, but have SOME
Of the CHEEKY and nice furniture in the sitting
or family room. BE sure and have such a
room, if you have to do without parlor
and have a place for books, and have some
books there In addition to what we should
always expect to 6nd Bible, aud an altman
ac and histories, let there be agricultural pa
pers aud books. Much can be learned iroui
them how to prevent disease among the ami
about the crops, which will more than repay
the cost, besides furnishing food for the hun.
CRY minds Of the boys and girls.