Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-07-26
looking for the Beautiful in
Country Life.

#-
ious that farmers shall not only make
more money on their farms but find
more pleasure there. And now that
crops are laid by, it is fitting time
to think of this side of farm life. Con-
s%equently, we are inclined to ask each
reader these questions:
What country things do you like
best? What are your personal hob
bies or enthusiasms as a country
dweller? What sights and sounds in
nature or on the farm most delight
you-give you the greatest n of
pleasure?
Two things especially now cause
us to think Of these things. One is the
appreciation we have heard of Fol
ger Townsend's article, "The indie
pendence and Satisfactions of Coun-
try Life" in The Progressive Farmer
week before last. Another is the Ru-
pert Brooke poem on the next page.
AS we are saying in that connection,
we should really like to know what
country sights and sounds most de-
light our readers. Maybe the mere
statement that someone else enjoys a
particular thing will open up a new
source of pleasure-one that you
have never even stopped to consider.
For his own part, if the writer had
to list offhand the country sights and
sounds that give him most delight, he
would mention:
The serenity and strength of an
cient oaks, I'm moved, by all the
storms of a century;
The stately grace and majesty of
tall tulip trees with erect, fair trunks
wearing at great heights their
crowns of green in summer and gold
in the autumn;
The rich, mellow note of the rain
crow. uttering his prophecy in the
dampness of a cloudy Dawn;
The smell of hay and old haylofts;
The low song of the corn-blades as
they grasp brotherly hands across the
burrows when winds blow over the
fields;
The grateful warmth of the spots
where the COWS lay as one goes to
milk on a wintry morning;
The clean white limps of sycamores
against their background of green
foliage;
The rank, and tropical Amazon
suggesting luxuriance of a squash
vine or pumpkin vine in full leaf and
blossom;
The ever-grateful smell of freshly
plowed earth, and the prosperous,
comfortable, "well-fed" feel of a rich
soil filled with humus;
The pungent, aromatic smell of fat
and the more subdued fra
GRANGE of freshly cut oak;
The rare beauty of form, so much
loved by artists, of grape leaves and
hanging punches;
The penetrating, mountaineering
of ripe Scuppernongs at
dew-fall in early September;
The are beauty of a line of long
leaf pines silhouetted against a twi-
light sky;
The grace of well-kept meadows or
lawns with struggling wild flowers on
the edges, reminding one of Swim
burne's line
"Where tides of grass break into
foam of howers;"
The cheerful, cherub-like babble OF
little brooks as they hurry down to
the greater streams in the lowlands;
The unhurried but steady and re-
~sistless movement of the rivers as
they sweep majestically past over
hanging willows to their home in the
far-off sea;
These are some of the things that
we have loved that we would mention
in connection with Rupert Brooke's
list. And it is well worth while to
take time to think of the beautiful
things with which the Almighty has
surrounded US. 1t is worth while to
Consider the lilies" They do not
feed our bodies or clothe our backs,
but they do nourish u higher ma
lures. No farmer has made a real
success of life who cannot enter into
the spirit of u Thought for the
Week" on the next page and say with
John Burroughs:
"The hum of the wind in the tree