Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-12-18
Ihr JONs of I'nrm LiIr.

The Joys OF Farm Life.
Thanks to poets and romanccrs, there is
a prevailing impression, outside Of the
farming class, that the ideal lie is rural
life. People who are born aud bred IN
cities never weary of reading idyi- and
essays, depicting the happy existence
of the men and women who furnish
their butter, eggs, and milk. In the
summer time these pent-up city dwellcrs
hasten to taste, in Il delightfully."- vicalious
manner, the simple pleasures and Joy
some tolls of which they have read and
dreamed so much. They milk the cows
while leaning over the barnyard fence and
Watching the sunsets colors deepen into
dusk They go "A haying' under the
cool shade of some tree in the meadow
and garner the golden grain" by de
vouring cOrn-cake at hall-past eight
O'Clock breakfasts. But farmers know
that there is another side to all this poet
ical nonsense, and while they are as ready
to admit the real advantages and pleas
ures of their calling as anybody, they are
not to be deuded into endorsing idyls of
rural life for the sake of giving capital TO
their worthy friends, the poets.
There is, undoubtedly, 1t sunny side Il
very cheerful side, to rural life, but
neither poets nor city people seem to
have fastened upon it. 1t is not in the
idcalization of toll, orthe turning of really
disagreeable things into fancitul, or rath-
er fantastic, plaY-eXperieuCcs that the
| farmers pleasure is found. 1t is simply
! in doing as other people do when they are
| in mood to enjoy themselvcS-u seiZing
| the recrealOns which the circumstances
of life make most available and desirable
! 1t would be just about as sensible to sup
| pose that Il business man enjoys sitting up
until eleven o'clock at night to post up
| his books, as that farmer enjoys getting
/ up before light to milk the cows No; the
/ pleasure of the farmer like the pleasure
of every naturally constituted man, comes
from his avocatiUus not his vocation. The
farmer is no poetical gymnaet, and he
doesn't enjoy carrying IL mortgage any
better than the average city man.
The time when the farmer naturally en-
| joys himself the most is durin the winter
| months, for then he has the most leisure
! md opportunity for much-nccded rccrea-
| ION. The routine of the farm of course
! must be kept up, cows do not hibernate, and
| lrus will not lay unless they are fed but
| ne special and toil,o ONE labor of the farm
-over until spring. The plow-n nine
'aNcs ont Of TENS frozen in the furruW,
.l the hoe is either changing ON the
,all' or rcposing under some snow bank.
! 4 = at this season that the fUmer can
| yDdrn his acquaintance with boOks-onc
4 the most delightful of recrcatious to one
| yho-c daily toll is with the hands and not
zee brain. Social life also invites him to
a-tr its pleasures. Even the little circle
! # ucighbOrs and friends whom he meet,
It the church entertainment or at home,
roudens his outlook upon life, admits him
10 a little wider circle of human eX-
prrirnce, calls ont little more
o himself makes him feel that he was in.
.uded to be "A social being, and that the
borders OF his Life really reach out beyond
| the family circle. Perhaps he manages to
leave the farm for little while, and get
I glimpse of the broader world outlying
his own community City people would
be surprised to know how much more
real poetry, how much more idylic enjoy
mcut, the farmer gets from a fortuight's
trip to the metropolis than from Il whole
season of cutting hay and doing farm
work before breakfast.
The real joys of farm life, then, are
those experiences which complement it,
not those which make up the prosaic
everyday substance Of it. Poets may not
be able to see it in this light, but they
soon would if they had to farm for Il
living.