Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-08-01
The Farmers Home.

The Farmers Home.
The Hon. d. w. Adams, Master
Of the National Grange of the Pa
irons of Husbandry; in closing his
Fourth of July Grafton at Ottumwa,
Iowa, gave the following as his idea
of what the farmers home should
be:
Select the handsomest spot OF all,
and erect house of neat and taste
full proportions and convenient ar
rangements. The size, finish and
expense will of course be govern
ed by the means at command. Plant
trees, both forest and fruit, in such
a way as to break the sweep Of the
winter winds. Devote a reasona-
BILE patch of ground to small fruits
and vegetables, sufficient to supply
your table with abundance of all de-
sirable kinds all the year round.
Make an acre or more Of lawn in
front and around the dwelling, in
terspcrsed here and there with some
ornamental shade trees, evergrcens,
and towering shrubs. Train an
ivy over the porch, honeysuckle
on the window. Hide the sheds
and outbuildings with a clump of
trees or climbing vines.
Your wife and daughters will
have some artistic flowers beds out
in the lawn, and a rose bush by the
door, while singing birds will build
their nests in the trees. Make the
inside of the house attractive-a
pleasant place to sit, with induce
ments sufficient to keep your sons
from saloons and your daughters
from the streets. Among the abso-
lutte necessarics Of life, l most deci-
dedly and emphatically place amuse-
ments, sport, fun. A good ringing
laugh is worth more to stir the liver
and promote digestion than a dose
Of calomel, and deal pleasanter to
take. If you ever come across a
person, young or old, who cannot,
on proper provocation, give out a
good ringing, hearty laugh, watch
him! He is either after your pocket
book or the undertaken. Joy, fun,
laughter, sterling, good healthy,
wide-awake happiness, arc the most
noble and desirable of human attri-
butes. Nothing but men can laugh. |
Do not smother but cultivate this
distinctive feature of humanity.
Especially youth must have
amusements. 1t is no matter of
convenience, it is dire necessity.
The love Of fun is born with their
birth, and must have vent in some
form or other. Ii it cannot be graf
flied at home-surrounded by its
hallowed infuences-it will seek
for it abroad, amid dangerous pit
falls and corrupting examples. You
may evade the truth as much as you
please, and feed the youth who is
starving for fun, on good whole
some moral precept, it will not sat
isfy the craving, and at some I'M
looked for moment nature will as
sert its rights, and seize the delight
full morsel, even though sodden and
corrupted with bitterest sin. We
must yield to the inevitable, especi-
ally when, as in this case, it is syn
onymous with fhe delightful, and
provide amusements, healthful and
and if at the same time
you can include instruction, all the
better; but amusements for amuse-
ments' sake we must have. On the
lawn have croquet, ball, leap-fros,
hi-spy, dances, chase the squirrel,
and other sports, in which boys,
girls, parents and visitors can join.
Indoors checkers, cards, backgam-
mon, jackstraw, thumbs up, domin-
oes, and other innocent games,
should be always at command that
the youth may not be compelled to
seek them in the purlieus Of vice,
debauchery and drunkenness. Vice
is not attractive. amusements are,
and thousands Of youth have been
compelled to encounter the one to
enable them to attain the other,
which, with the best but mistaken
motives, was denied them at home.
Maps, books, agricultural and liter
airy papers should be supplied in
and this can annually
be done with the money now spent
for tobacco in it's various forms.
In short, a farmers home should
equal or excel in beauty, attractive
ness, and comfort that of any other
calling, and then and not till then
can we expect the talent, the energy
the ambition Of our youth to seek
a farmers home. When this be-
comes a fixed fact our girls in both
city and country will not look with
aversion upon the position of a far
mer's wife and seek alliance with a
dainty youth who is engaged in the
manly and intellectual business Of
measuring out molasses and tape.