The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-04-26
A PLEA FOR THE COUNTRY
HOME.

We need not look far to see many
proofs of a healthy reaction in favor Of
country life and rural pursuits. "God
made the country and man made the
town" is trlte saying that will never
lose its force. For there may, at times,
be an unnatural influx of people to the
cities, draining the country Of youth
and manly strength and productive
energy, but reaction is sure to come.
When hard times prevail; when disap-
pointment and despair seize the honest
toiler on the farm, he begins to think
he will have. better opportunity for
success in the city, and off he goes. In
nine cases out OF ten the change proves
disastrous, and he who was once the
independent worker in his own fields,
as free and untrammeled as the air he
breathed, becomes the humble employee
of some soulless corporation-a service
exacting in its demands, inimical to
personal liberty and destructive of all
the noblest aspirations of true manhood
And then he who fed to the city to
escape the horrors of the country longs
for his old home. He remembers his
joy as boy rambling over the farm,
listening to the song birds and the
babbling brooks, making pets of the
young animals, and enjoying all the
many pleasures Of the country boy.
Much would he give to have his own
children participate in the pleasures
and enjoy the health-giving advantages
of home away from the bustling
city's din. With his savings, be buys
a small suburban lot, builds himself a
cottage, plants few trees and vines
in humble imitation of the rural home
he holds in sweetest memory. II, per-
chance, the once country boy has met
with commercial or professional sue
cess in the metropolis, and amassed
fortune, his most natural impulse
seems to be to have his sumptuous
country home, to stock his farm with
improved breeds of cattle, and lavish
his wealth in adding to the beauties
and blessings Of nature.
Thus in every sphere of life, man in
stinctively seeks the country. He may
not care to make it always and at all
times his home, but his life seems un-
satisfactory, his JOY incomplete, his
recreation impel feet, unless he can get
where the COWS low and the lambs
bleat; where noises sometimes cease,
and where with unobstructed view he
can see "the morn: in russet mantle
clad, walk DER the dew"
With the advent of rapid and con-
venient transportation, the city is be-
coming more and more the place for
business and the country the place for
living. Every year marks the almost
magic appearance on the hillsldes and
in the dales Of hamlets where the rest
less population Of the cities find semi
rural condition of life. The near future
is destined to bring a greatly increased
demand for small farms, and with the
small farms will come greater thrift,
Lighcr cultivation, more scientific
methods, better roads, and proportion
ate comfort and pleasure in living in
the Country. The day Of the large
plantation, requiring force oflaborers
and boss to superintend them, is
rassed-certainly except in sections
very remote from cities.
The small farm, fully equipped,
thoroughly stocked, highly fertilized,
with its pen nanent pasture lots and
orchards, with improved appliances
for the dairy and mo lern conveniences
for poultry raising, with bountiful
garden, and, lastly but not least, with
its attractive, rommodious, convenient
and comfortable cottage-makes the
ideal home of which poets may sing
and lovers dream. If the master of
such home is practical farmer him
self, fully informe |, as he should be, in
the minuti;e Of crop raising, in horti-
culture, in tho care of livestock, he
can with unskilled help conduct his