The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1882-03-09
What the Farmers Home Should Be.

| 1 see, or think l see, great probabii-
! ties in the farmer life yet to be reached.
| Agriculture is now, and must, from the
nature of the case ever remain the en-
| plOyment of the great mass of people in
! the world. They cannot live on the pro-
/ ducts of the mine or mill It is of the
utmost importance that the great mass
of humanity connected with farm life
| should be able to secure the best posi-
! Bile conditions for human development
and enjoyment. The home is the center
| of life, and the farmers home we wish
! to improve-to carry on more rapidly
and inteliigently that good work that
| has been going on for the past fifty
| years. When picturing the farmers
life of the future we must remembe
that. we live in an age of invention and
! discovery, and some new element may
/ come in of which we at present know
| nothing. There must be food for all,
! and such variety of food as will call for
| great amount of hand labor; and there
/ must he material for clothing, wool and
cotton These come from the field.
The question then arises,eis the ten
| dency in the future to be a division of
! land into small farms, or swallowing
up of small farms into large estates
/ Great estates must fall to pieces. The
/
| farms as diversified industry increase s,
and diversified crops are called for, those
that require an increase of hand labor.
\ The time is coming, though perhaps a,
/ long way off. when the surplus product
of our land will come from a multitude
| of small farms, representing pleasant,
| thrifty homes, instead of from great
| plantationsy representing nothing but
| land robbing and unsettled wandering
wage labor And the products of our
! soil will be more and more consumed in
our land as new branches of manufae-
turing spring up to supply the material
now purchased abroad. Hence we ask
what can be done to make homes what
| they ought to be ?
The first thing we want to see pro1ni-
neRt on every farm is that its chief end
| is home, and that the end for which
all others are simply conditions is men
and women. We counsel the owners of
farms to see that the fruits are the best
| that can be raised, that the animals are
of the best breeds, but we want above
all that every son shall go forth from the
| farmhouse with a good education,
| trained to honest labor, with sense of
| his duty toward his fellow-men, his
| country and his God; and every daugh-
| ter with equal training, certain then that
she will find her own sphere through that
womanly spirit implanted in her nature,
which needs only culture and a fair
chance to make her the blessing to the
world which all good women are.
The first thing in the choice of a farm
er's home is that it be in as healthy
| locality as possible AS a general rule,
the buildings should be placed -on the
! highest ground of the farm if it is easily
! accessible. If water can be secured
from a spring that comes directly from
the deep strata of rocks so much the
better. Don't fear the cool breezes.
| They will not be half so fatal at the
worst as the damp of the valley below,
and they can soon be wonderfully modi-
fed by evergreen screens properly
| placed. Make the location as near good
| neighbOrs as you can. Vicinity to school
and church is a great advantage. Let
the permanent work of the farm, the
| planting of trees, the cutting of trees
and all other farm changes have refer
ence TO the ultimate place of residence
on the farm. tH
Then let the inside of the house be
| pleasant. 1t may be small and plain,
bat let it show signs of taste and cul-
ture; make the home pleasant to your
children and make a happy childhood
for them. Send your children to school
and fit them to be citizens, but never
send them to college; let them go of
| their own choice. / believe the farm
ers home of the future viii continue to
| improve, and that it will be a place of
honest labor, of generous culture; the
best place to begin life, good place to
| spend it, and the best place for it to
| come to a close. The only entailment
of property we want is the continuance
| of the old farmer homestead from gen.
Grafton to generation in the same family,
| because it is a place worthy of preserva-
ton for its conditions of high physical,
| intellectual, moral and social life
1 From Dr. Chddbour11e's ADDRESS before
| tic Massachusetts Board Of Horticulture.