The Press., 1892-06-30
THE FARM HOME.
(FrOm. Hon. w. K. Simonds' address at Storl
 SChOOl.1

From' Hon. w. K. Simonds' address at Storrs
 School.)
 Let me enter plea for the doing of something else on the farm of the pleas ure of the thing, not only to keep the youngsters on the farms, but also to make farm homes as comfortable and as health full as city homes.
 And now, if am still to be considered merely a guideboard, the figure will need to be modified into an animated guide board, for I have travelled the road my live came into my possession it did not differ materially from thousands of other farm-houses fin New England. It is very old, possibly the main part has nearly century and half of age, the floors are put down with oaken pins in the place of nails, great strap hinges support some. of the doors, little brass knobs, in shape and size like pigeons egg, are on the blacks smith made latches, and the window panes are the little things with which our ancestors had to be content. Possibly not a floor is level nor single wall plumb, and great beams trend in full sight along the middle of the ceilings. The nucleus was rectangular structure which had taken to itself an accretioa of eils and a piazza. The barns were @ great rambling pile, next the roadway, with barnyard in front. House and barns stand on a sandy knoll, with great elms and naples III IoL o,,I l., short order to the rear of the barns, paint ed all of a uniform brown, and now have no desire to blot those barns from the landscape. Within the house I tore out partitions until I had two rooms of ample size. In the cellar and next the huge base of 0 great stone chimney I put furnace and led heat to all the rooms in the main part. An old cheese room I converted into bath room; a windmill on the barn, with an old cider tub under the ridge pole, supplies it with water, and also serves to wash the wagons and water the lawn and flowers. put dormer in the ors, just as cheaply as could have paint ed it white or green. Half oI three-quar- ters of an acre around the house keep shaven like lawn. Shrubs, vines, cut leaved beech, aad hardy perennial fowers such as roses, hoilyhocks, and phlox- abound. Colens, sunfowers, sweet peas. and pansies are about all the annuals use. It is to me the sweetest spot oli earth, in summers heat or winters cold, and it is easily to be seen that the place has in it some charm which appeals to every passerby. Possibly all this cost a thousand dollars it certainly did not cost more. You may say that you cannot af- ford the thousand dollars. Neither could I, but did. The things you cannot af- ford to do without are the heat fol the larger part of the house, the bath, and water supply. Count them as necessaries, for not to have them is but semi-civiliza- tion and you will get them very cheaply. The lawns, the shrubs, the vines, and the flowers you can add without ever feeling the cost. With those things the country home is incomparably better thing than the city home, and the boys and girls will stay on the farm to enjoy them. The city gutter is no match for the purling brook, the whirling dust no match for the pure breezes, the smooth pavements no match for the billowy grass or the bend ing grain, the brick walls no match for the foliage of the oaks and the chestnuts, and the huge piles of marble are no match for the great temple of nature, domed by the sky and based on the far horizon. These things are not luxuries, they are the necessities of the progressive farmer of to-day. They pay in health, which is a larger thing than profit, not less thar 'I in enioyment.