St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1884-04-05
Living in the Country.

There are people who have horror
of country life. "How can you endure
itp,' thew asked; sit is so lonesome!"
OF course they are generally people
from the cities, or in some cases from
some little gossipy village. The quiet
of country life they think a great detri-
ment to enjoyment, as if, when there is
not something going on before their
eyes, something to talk about rather
than think about, something to stare at
with curiosity, then the world were
largely blank! We who live in the
country pity them.
To people of culture, people who
carry within themselves sources of en-
joyment, both city and country have
attractions, and they can find pleasure
in both. In the country, one has ma
ture, which can be improved upon,
guided, controlled, and in doing this
ehere is abundant opportunity for en-
joyment. The struggle for living"
is pleasure of this sort, and 1T is one
of the compensations of hard work. A
farmer plows up a field. and in doing
so he finds real enjoyment, first, per-
haps, in turning handsome burrows. He
looks upon thgm with about as much
pleasure as a painter on his picture, or
a sculptor on his statue. There Is a
great difference between good and poor
work, ami to an apprcciative mind the
former gives as pronounced pleasure rs
anything well can do. And SO with
every successive step in the work of
getting crop, narrowing to obliterate
burrows, seeding, covering the feeble,
tiny sprout from the grain as 1T appears
above the ground. its changing hues
from green to golden. and finally the
harvest Take corn field. There are,
happily. thousands and thousands who
have more interest in it than the amount
of the crop and the price it sells for.
There is a world Of changes during
a very few months, every week
making an advance. In cultivat-
ing such a field, keeping down
the weeds, making the earth mellow.
there is more rational pleasure than
in listening to gossip, or in seeing har-
rowing tragedies on the stage. The
changes, watched in detail, are really
marvellous, from a naked field to a
forest of strong, green stalks in which
an army might be ambushed. Of course
such transformation is a common"
sight, but SO are the sun, moon and
stars, the clouds and the rain; yet they
are all parts of a wondrous system, and
to a thinking person are something
more than common" One sees trans
formations in cities; but they are arti-
fetal, and often repulsive. There are
transformations in buildings, and some
times something to admire for awhile,
but these soon become as common as
the commonest landscape, and cease to
interest. What nature does, man can
no: do. But he can often improve upon
it, as in the shaping of a tree, or in sup
plying what is ne 'eSsary to a beautiful
lawn. and it is this direction of his work
which makes life in the country delight
full.
What the country lacks that the city
can supply is, in my Judgment. more than
made up by advantages. The city has
its parks-lawns on a large scale, but
hedged about with restrictions which
do not apply TO the vast stretch of
natural lawn, fields, meadows. hills and
mountains of the country. True, the
farmer cannot spend his time in merely
admiring what he sees: he must work,
and wiring his subsistence from the
earth; but it averages much worse with
the city resident. Generally he has not
even patch of the green earth to look
upon for weeks or months, while his
view of parks, with their lawns and
lakes and miniature waterfalls, is had
at long intervals. The country worker
extracts pleasure from his toll in the
new beauty he creates; the vast mass
of city workers extract little cheer from
their labor except in the thought of
what they are accommodating; their work
would be intolerable, except for its
pecuniary rewards.-Cor. Country
Gentleman.