Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1858 — To the Farmer. [ARTICLE]

To the Farmer.

There ia ■omethiryg worth living for fcjeeidea money. That is very good, but it is not all. With the rest, let us raise a good crop of ideas.. While you are farmers, re-, member that you are also men, with duties and responsibilities. Live down the old ! brutal notion that a farmer must be uncouth, uneducated arid unthinking—a mere plodder. You are ’brought into immediate contact, with the great heart of civilization. You cannot get out of the reach of the buzz ofj Hie toiling of the world. The thrill of the , wonder-working wires, and the rumbling J locomotive (the thunder-tread of nations) come to your once secluded hillside. Move toward a better life. Do not keep yous boja corn-shelling all the long.winter evening. Make your farm a place that your eons and daughters cannot help loving. Cultivate the ties—they are God’s messengers. Care much for newispapers, books and

pictures. Don’t keep a solemn parlor into tfhich you go but once a month with the pitfsofl or the gossip of the sewing society. Hang your walls with pictures that shall '*W Ul ' “'.C-Tr? mercy, hope, courage, faith >Zch»rity- Make your living room the j largest and most cheerful in the house; and j leltJrt place be such that, when your boy has gone off to distant lands, or even, when, perhaps, he clings to the single plank on the lonely waters of the deep, wide ocean, the thought of the old homestead shall come across the waters of desolation, bringing light, hope and love. Have no dungeons abotrt your house—no rooms you never open—nolffinds that, are always shut. Don’t teach your daughters French before they can weed a flower-bed or cling to a side-saddle; and, daughters, do not be ashamed of the trowel or the prun-ing-knife; bring to your 5 doors the richest flowers from the woods; cultivate the friendship: of birds—study botany, learn to love mature, and seek a higher cultivation than the fashionable world can give you.—Natural AgrifuUurv'l,