Ellsworth American

A Homestead.

Nor can I refrain from insisting on the beautifying of the farmer's homestead as one of the most needed reforms in our agricultural economy. We Americans, as a people, do less to render our homes attractive than any other people of equal means, on earth. And for this there is very much excuse. We are "rolling stones" which have not yet found time to gather any very graceful moss. We are on our march from Western Europe to the shores of the Pacific, and have halted, from time to time, by the way, but not yet settled. That sacred and tender attachment to Home, which pervades all other human breasts, has but slender hold upon us. There are not many of us who would not sell the house over his own head if he were offered a good price for it. Not one-fourth of us now live in the houses in which we were born; not half of us confidently expect to die in the houses we now occupy. Hence we cannot be expected to plant trees, and train vines, and set flowering shrubs, as we might do if we had, in the proper sense of the word, Homes.

But we ought to have Homes—we ought to resolve to have them soon. I would say to every head of a family—whatever else you may do or forbear to do, select your home forthwith, and resolve to abide by it. Let your next move, if move you must, be inflexibly your last. I would say to our youth—never marry, never fix upon any place of abode or occupation, until you shall have selected your Home. If you will have it in Oregon or California, so be it; but fix it somewhere, and so soon as may be—at least, before you form any other ties that promise to be enduring. Though it be but a hut on a patch of earth, let it be your fixed home, evermore, and begin at once to improve and beautify it in every hour that can be spared from more pressing avocations and needful repose. So shall your last years be calm and tranquil—so shall you realize and diffuse the blessedness which inheres in that sacred temple—Home!

[Greeley's Agricultural Address.]