Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-06-12
Waiting.

| Next to doing nothing, waiting for
| some more convenient season is the great
! est curse that can befall person or people.
| We see the effect in every community but
| il stands out more conspicuously in the
| country because one can there take In all
| the surroundings at glance, and the least
NEGLECT or inattention about farm or home
| stead is readily seen There is no cover
ing up. or hiding the effects of negligence,
! and one may as well try to sink his farm
| out of sight as to undertake TO make his
fellow man believe he is thrifty farmer
when all The surroundings show exactly,
the opposite. If the fences are down, the
outbuildngs diIapidated and going to de-
cav. they are pretty true signs that their
owner is in similar condition
1t is now spring, and every owner OF
home should endeavOr to initiate nature
in putting a new dress on all his posses
sions, without waiting for some more con-
yenient or leisure time. Next year you
may or may not be in better circumstances
than now, and as rule every season
brings its duties and imperative necessi-
ties; consequently it is folly to wait,
Micawber.like, for something to turn up.
We do not refer to building new barns or
houses or purchasing another or better
farm, but to the improving OF what one
already possesses. Repair the outbuild-
ings and fences if they require it, not
forgetting the most important OF all,
the house, which should hold a
mans most valuable treasures. few
dollars expended in paint may change the
appearance from one Of gloomy solitude
to cheerful, busy life. Then come those
little adjuncts Of happy home known as
fruits and flowers; they may not be of the
best or most costly kinds, but if neatly ar
ranged and carefully cultivated, they af.
ford certain amount of pleasure, and
their refining and elevating influences can
scarcely be Overrated. An old clump of
llIacs or snowballs kept trimmed, with
the soil carefully spaded up and cultivated
about their roots, looks far better than
when neglected and permitted to struggle
for life in some neglected fence corner,
nearly overtopped in summer by rank
weeds Neighbors can often exchange
plants with each other, which begets good
feeling and if one takes better care OF
what he has than others do, it begets emu
lation, and little strife in these matters
will, end in good to all IF a neighbor has
better variety of fruit than you have, ask
for cuttings, scions or plants, and il OBJ
tanned give them the best of care, which
will be proof that you appreciate the gift.
There is nothing more discouraging to
liberal man who has valuable plants to
spare, and takes pleasure in distributing
them among his less fortunate neighbors,
than to find his lberality abused by
neglect of his gifts.
We know men who have been waiting
all their lives for some prospective for
NIT xUhio nj, tIau IN civ II
things" about their homes and make them
attractive; while if the hours spent in
wishing and building air castles had been
employed in work, the long and much de-
sired improvements would have been
made years ago. If men were as prompt
in preparing the flower beds or planting
currants, raspberries and other fruits as
they are in answering the dinner bell, the
wife and daughters would seldom have
cause to complain of delays. The too
common excuse among farmers, that they
have no time to spend upon such things,
is very poor one, and generally comes
from those who have plenty of time for
hunting, fishing, or other idle sports. We
have yet to find man who desired to
make the surroundings of his home beau
tiful who did not find the means and time
to do it. 1t is not necessary that one
should expend much money on these
things, for the world is full of beautiful
plants, that may be had for mere song,
and the woods and fields abound in choice
specimens of both fruit and flowers which
only require transplanting and care to
add much to the comforts as well as beau
ty Of our homes.
1t is lamentabe fact which every man
and woman with cultivated tastes regrets,
that the homes of our farmers, as a general
rule, are unattractive and dreary in the
extreme. All this comes of that wide
spread and almost universal habit of
waiting" for something which will never
come. This habit has become hereditary
in some communities. and there appears to
be no chance of eradicating the evil ex-
cept by awakening the dormant, but it is
to be hoped not quite extinct natural pride
OF the prOcrastinatOrs.
Of late we have heard much talk about
the sons of our farmers leaving the farm,
and we believe there are good and suffic-
lent reasons for it, among which the unat
Effectiveness of home is the most promi-
nent and powerful. If a man waits until
his sons and daughters grow up to be men
and women before he attempts to teach
them how to enjoy life in the country and
upou u idIu Ill, HS IuuSt cApCCt W ldll lOT
the twig is bent long before this period ar
rives, and the tree usually inclines to go
its own way when mature. Now there is
no good reason why farmers life should
not be an attractive one, and that it is,
even to thousands who have no need of
following it for living, is shown in the
farms owned and managed by wealthy
people who made their money in other oc-
equations. Mankind are prone to love the
places that have afforded them the most
pleasure, and boy who has been made
happy upon farm is not likely to desert
it or value his home lightly, even if the
prospects of great wealth are not among
its charms.
But it is the same old story of waiting
which causes all the trouble. Next wear
the farmer promises to have the garden
laid out, the lawns made and orchard
planted. Next year the children shall
have plenty of books and newspapers to
read. The boy who would be delighted
to study entomology and to learn all about
the useful and injurious insects upon the
farm; or the one who has noticed the vari-
Gus kinds of rocks and asks hundreds IF