Social Habits of Farmers.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 8, 27 August 1874, Page 4

Social Habits of Farmers.

"I have been a farmer," writes a correspondent, " for twenty-five years, and during that time'l have been in a great many houses, and have often been pained to see the men come into the sitting room,. and even the parlor, where there -were neatly dressed ladies, with an old dirty slouched hat on, and with pantaloons tucked inside dirty boots. To me such sights are very painful,. and I have often asked the question— Why cannot farmers be neat in their houses as well as other men ? A great many farmers' wives have neat, clean rooms, good furniture, and they dress themselves neat and tasty; but the man of the house, and often the hired men and boys, will sit all the evening with their hats on, and worse still, chewing, spitting, and smoking tobacco. Can children be properly educated in such an atmosphere ? How refined and neatly dressed ladies can eudure it is astonishing to me. lam a poor man, and have always Worked hard, but for all the time I have lived on a farm I have never even sat one hour, day or evening, with my hat on in the house with my family. What better education can children have than example ? I never think of sitting down with my family without washing, combing my hair, and putting on a coat that I have not worn during the day. As soon as it is dark we have the table set in the middle of the floor, the lamp lighted, and then we sit down to reading, writing, and social conversation. I always have my work, chores and all, done by dark, so as never to go to the barn in the evening, and thus I have time every night to read. I have long desired to see a reform among farmers in the particulars I have mentioned, for there is no class of people who might, if they would, take so much comfort as farmers,'*