The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-05
sHAKEsPEAREPs FARMING.
He Doubtless HOed Potatoes, MIXED
Cows and Fed the Pigs.
From the Buffalo Express.

From the Buffalo Express.
The immortal William was born in April,
1864, over three hundred years ago. in the
town of Stratford, which is in the heart
of England, a place then of, perhaps, two
thousand inhabitants. No great amount
of business could have been done at
point so remote, nor could there have
been much manufacturing, though as a
good farming country was all around
the various handicrafts must have been
well patronized by the farmers and the
nobility. This was the period of the most
prosperous days of the yeomanry when
the farms were small and held in fee, max
ing a system that undoubtedly originated
in providing for the sons of more or less
wealthy families, and hence 1t must be
said that farmers at that time really be-
longed to the nobility and to the higher
classes, and as it was they who settled the
New England and other colonies, the
great progress of this stock, and its power
to absorb all other European races, is, in
a measure accounted for. In the attempt
to civilize the Indians, and even to teach
them TO be poor farmers, and to elevate
the blacks, it is proved that they and the
immediate descendants of serfs and slaves
require long periods of time, possibly many
ages, to become possessed of industrious
and economical habits, so that we may
divide noble blood and aristocracy; and,
boast of our democracy as much as We
p.ease we have nothing in us so valuable
as that which have been derived from the
culture and comfort secured during many
generations by the upper classes of Eng
land. From time immemorial the highest
enjoyment of the English has been con-
nected with farm life and rural pursuits.
Up to the present the most pleasant
months of the year are spent in the coun-
try amid the scenes of our nativity and
growth, and cities and towns are
visited during the months when nature is
least attractive.
During Shakspeare's youth his father
had several acres Of land in and quite
near to Stratford, and there is no doubt
but the young poet plowed, hoed MIXED
cows, fed hogs and sheared sheep. If he
paid more attention to one branch than
another it was in the care of sheep, for
a great many sheep had been kept in all
| that region for generations, and such
| manufactures as related to wooden goods
were established, though, of course, in a
| DOOR weak way. The father of Ann Hath
| away, which girl Shakespeare married,
| lived at no great distance from Stratford.
| He was freehold farmer and had large
| flock of sheep, and the farm seems espe-
! cially fitted for the husbandry, for only
a few years ago it was sull a sheep farm.
| One of Shakspeare's characters says: II
| am a true laborer / earn that l eat, get
| that / wear, owe no man hate, envy no
| mans happiness, glad of other mems good,
| content with my barn, and the greatest
| of my pride is to see my ewes Craze ana
! NV lambs suck As to the price of sheep,
we gather from Henry "" that a score
| of good ewes were worth flO, which is $50
| each. and. considering that money was
| worth a great deal more then than now,
! they were dear enough; but such must
have been Of high grade or they happened
| then to be especially dear.
Now little about farming and farm IRE
! In these old days Justice Shallow lived
| In GIoucestershire. and Falstaff stopped
with him over night, coming, it would
! seem. early in the afternoon, and II must
| have been in August for the master had
! given directions for getting a certain
| headIand ready to SOW TO wheat Inc
host insisted that his guest should go out
end look on his orchard, and he was an
| amateur fruit grower since they were
! Ia eat some pippns of the previous year
| erovyth and of the masters own graft
! ino Looking around at the orchard, the
| caftle The garden and the comfortable
| dwelling Falstaff was wei pleased, ana
being a genteel vagabond without nome
and always in need of money, he ex-
| claimed that it was a 'goodly dwelling
and rich" To which the host replied;
~Rarren. barren, all beggars" which is
much the way some rich farmers talk
| novadays. The personal servant OF the
| Justice seemed 10 engage In all kinds OF
! ,,,orl as he waited on the table, looked
| after things around the house, attended
~ the horses in the stable. seeing when
anv needed shoeing, and when any other
blacksmith work was required and ne
took charge Of the fields and the piow-
men. Not a grand, 1t is true, but useIul
/ and busy man.
Alexander Agassiz of Harvard Is 10
srand several months among the FIJI Is