Hand County press. (Miller, Dakota [S.D.]) 1882-1893, 1882-05-10
What the Farmers Home should Be.

see, or think / see, great proba
bilities in the farmers life yet TO be
reached. Agricultara il now, and
must, from the nature Of the case
ever remain the employment of the
great mass of people in the world.
They cannot live on the products Of
the mine or mill. 1t is Of the ut
most Importance that the great mass
OF humanity connected with farm
life should be able to secure the best
possible condition for human devel-
opmcnt and enjoyment The home
is the center of life, and the farmers
home we wish to improve to carry
on more rapidly and intelligently
that good work that has been going
on for the past fifty years. When
picturing the farmers life of the fu-
ture we must remember 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 a great
amount OF labor; and there must be
material for clothing, wool and cot
ton. These come from the field.
The question then arises, is the
tendency in the future to be divis-
ion of land into small farms, or a
swallowing up of small farms into
large estates? Great estates must
fall to pieces. The tendency north
and south is to small farms as diver
sitied industry increases, and diversi-
fed crops are called for, those that
require an increase of land labor.
The time is coming, though perhaps
long way off, when the surplus
product Of our land will come from
multitude of small farms, represent
ing pleasant homes, instead of from
great plantations, representing moth
ing 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 manufacturing 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
prominent on every farm is that its
chief end is home, and that the end
for which all others are simply con
ditions 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 m-house with good educa-
ton, trained to honest labor, with
sense of his duty toward his fellow
men, his country and his God; and
every daughter 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 fair chance
to make her the blessing to the
world which all good women are.
The first thing in the choice of a
farmers home is that it be in as
healthy a locality as possible. As a
general rule, the buildings should be
placed on the highest ground of the
farm if 1t 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
a. 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 great adj
vantage. Let the permanent work
of the farm. the planting of trees,
the cutting of trees and all other
farm changes have reference to the
ultimate place of residence on the
farm.
Then let the inside of the house be
pleasant 1t may be small and plain,
but let it show signs OF taste and
culture; 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 col
lege; let them go Of their own choice.
believe the farmers home Of the |
future will continue to improve, and
that it will be place of honest la
bor, 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 entail
ment of property We want is the con-
tinuance of the old farmer home
homestead from generation in the
same family, because it is place |
worthy Of preservation for its condi-
tons of high physical, intellectual,
moral and social life. DR.. |
address before the
Massachusetts, Board Of agriculture.