Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1878 — Farm Life. [ARTICLE]

Farm Life.

It is a common complaint that the farm and farm life are not appreciated by our people. We long for the more elegant pursuits, or the w f ays and fashions of the town. But the farmer has the most sane and natural occupation, and ought to find life sweeter, if less highly seasoned, than any other. He alone, strictly speaking, has a home. How can a man take root and thrive without land? He Avrites his history upon his field. How many ties, how many resources he has; his friendships Avitli his cattle, his team, his dog, his trees, the satisfaction in his growing crops, in his improved fields; his intimacy Avitli nature, with bird and beast, and with the quickening element forces; his co-operations with the cloud, the sun, the seasons, heat, wind, rain, frost. Nothing will take the various social distempers which the city and artificial life breed out of a man like farming, like direct and loving contact with the soil. It draws out the poison. It humbles him, teaches him patience and reverence, and restores the proper tone to his system. Cling to the farm, make much of it, put yourself into it, bestow your heart and your brain upon it, so that it shall savor of you and radiate your virtue after your day’s work is done! —John Burroughs , in November Scribner.