Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1908-01-16
CONVENTION ECHOES.
Agricultural Interests and the House
on the Farm.


Agricultural Interests and the House
on the Farm.
At the annual meeting of the State
.Dairymen's association IN Rutland last
week, Retiring President d. II. Morse, in
his address, gave this gratifying view of
agricultural conditions
Assembled under such suspicious cir
cumstances and amid such surroundings
after the lapse of a years prosperity of
good prices for our product of bountiful
crops of quality especially tine, / beg
leave to congratulate this association on
its standing at the commencement of the
year. From its birth until now it has
maintained steady and healthy growth
and it's Importance and usefulness are felt
and acknowledged through the land.
ssThe agricultural interests and re-
sources of the country have kept pace
with all the other occupations in produce
tiveness and economy of management.
The value of our farms has gradually and
steadily increased, thus furnishing fresh
impetus and a renewed zeal to engage in
agricultural pursuits, besides serving the
dual purpose of keeping our brightest
boys and girls at home and to bring back
the wandering to country life.
s.The press is an important factor in
disseminating knowledge that will mate
rally aid us in advancing to a higher
plane those who till the soil. Farmers
should use their columns for the purpose
of forming a closer acquaintance with
each other, giving and receiving help in
their own work. We can thus bring the
complex problems we are trying to solve
to the attention of others. Every obsery-
ing man cannot fail to be impressed with
the power ana influence of the press, and
we should never be lacking insupport of
it.,'
Mrs. Arthur NJ. Vaughan, who spoke
before the association last Thursday after"
noon, had some very practical ideas re-
garding the blouse on the Farm" which
she put forth as follows
s'If pure air is the inheritance of any
people it is the birth-right of country
people, for it is to be had in abundance,
priceless and unadulterated; yet within
the majority of our country omes we
find men, women and children breathing
foul atmosphere simply because they
will not open up the doors and windows
which in most farm houses are the only
avenues of ventilation. Many persons
seem to think that fresh air causes colds,
when as matter of fact the constant
breathing of pure air is one of the best
preventives of colds. In the farm house
where there are no modern methods of
ventilation, it requires constant fore
thought on the part of the housewife to
keep the air pure. 1t is just as important
that the family should have pure air to
breathe as that the food should be whole
some, yet we throw open door for five
minutes and call that sufficient air for "a
hours.
1.-THE farm house in one of its aspects is
a workshop. Within it there should be a
place for everything essential to the iced
ing and clothing of the family. When
we begin to eliminate some of the non
essentials we shall begin to get a glimpse
of some of the essentials and our houses
will present less cluttered appearance.
Under the disguise of beauty or under the
bane of time-honored custom, many
things in themselves curse to humanity
find their way into our homes. Silver
tea-sets may be beautiful, but the hours
that we waste polishing them are golden /;
ruffles, tucks, laces and embroideries may
be desirable when smoothed out by a
fiatiron, but we better be smoothing the
wrinkles from the brow; lace curtains
parlors, but we had better take them
down and let in the sunshine, light and
air that is our God-given heritage.
''Let us inculcate and encourage taste
for the plain, simple, modest, manner OF
living, and why all this? That we may
not be enslaved by our desires for fancy
food and clothing, by longings for elabo-
rate house furnishings that only weigh us
down with care. The simple, homely
dwelling where harmony. health and hap
piness abide may yet become artistic.
'We can make our homes what we
will; we can make home a place where
our thoughts never get beyond something
to eat and something TO wear, both OF
which are essential but not so in the elab-
crate form of the present generation.
The women who are al ways seeing, think
ing and speaking of pleasant things are
the kind we want in our farm houses.
We should form the habit of magnifyiDg
the good. There is always good cheer if
we look for it, but if we ever turn our
gaze toward failures and disappointments
for us there is nothing else."