The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-09-03


Four bare walls cannot mean what
the word home is intended to ex-
press. The bane of farm life lies
principally in two unfortunate ten
<dencies-the ~neglecting of adorn-
ment and comfort giving beauty
about the house, and the lack of edu-
Gated appreciation and recognition of
the possibilities of life in the ooun-
try. That which is now needed most
in all farm life, is a renaissance along
the lines of the ideal and artistic in
the home and its surroundings, and
8 scientific awakening to to the bo-
tanical, the geological, the chemical,
the geological in the field. In the
home you need not expect your wife
TO be happy or your growing boy
and girl to be satisfied with "two
pens and a passage" no matter how
many acres are in corn or how many
bales of cotton are raised.
The desire for beauty is planted in
every soul. Its qualification as far
rs home and locality is concerned is
an anchor which drops deep in the
heart of women and children. Wo-
men feel keenly the want of beauty
everywhere and in all things.
Farmers wives too often trudge
through their daily lives in the
"leaden cowI of many limitations, -
feeling an oppression, a desolation
mere grievous than sorrow, worse
than violent, grief. After a while,
worn out with monOtOnOus drudg-
cry, the tragedy of death comes from
causes which no one sees, and few
care even, if known. The martyrs
of the past may have born this kind
of life unmurmuringly, but the edu-
Gated girl of the farm to-day will
not accept these conditions patiently.
The joy of the house to a woman
consists much in the happy labor in
which her very soul revels, that of
arranging the home, and developing
its surroundings. A woman can
not always bottle up her desires and
feelings, and keep them slowed away
in a dark closet with the pickles and
preserves. 1t is called murder to
take life, but, perhaps, to take away
all joy out of it, is still more cruel,
The tap roots of a wOman's heart
run deep if the soul permits and the
food that nourishes them is love-
love for children, love for husband,
love for home. These tap roots
cannot like the air plants, live upon
dust and atmosphere. Somehow,
somewhere substantial nourish
ment must be supplied. 1t will not
do to trust the home tree to chance
o. natural proclivities alone.
Dingy walls, unfinished rooms,
and unkept yards will desolate a
womap's heart, and turn it to a bar.
rem storm-swept space, where nc
gladstone growth, no lasting good
thing can ever flourish long. If
you want a woman's nature to ex.
pand and grow with womanly quail.
tiles, if you wish her to expand the
wealth of her womanhood on your
home altar, you must make that
altar fit for the high priestess you
place over it. No woman car
be at her best in a hovel. Life car
go on gloomily, indifferent1y, me
chemically, but it has no vital growth
it gravitates to nothing if the natura.
longings and desires go forever un
answered.
We had in early days many obsta
stes in the way of pretty home build
ing. We know there is a great dea
Of life we cannot measure by tn,
square or draw by the rule, sayinl
90 this, or do that, and we realiz
bow difficult it is TO get the "ma