RICHER RURAL LIFE

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6442, 24 January 1924, Page 7

RICHER RURAL LIFE

FARMING AND PLEASURE. '■# . V » mmm+mrrt* »• ' ■ . , EDUCATING THE MIND. % ' appreciation of beauty. A great deal has been written and said, lately about the value of agri-; cultural education, and a great deal more could be said and written about this subject without doing justice to its vast importance. But there is one side of agricultural education that is rarely touched on, and that is the importance of giving to farm life some .of the aesthetic or artistic values which in their permanence and importance rank as high as, if not higher than, scientific knowledge or financial gain. / # It is very necessary to look upon farming as a business or profession which can be rendered more ] successful by a practical acquaintance with chemistry, with the needs of soil bacteria, with fertiliser units and balanced rations, with various •’ologies and ’isms; but 1 it is equally necessary, if a man o? woman desires the best of farm lives, to have an intimate acquaintance with good bpoks and good music, an appreciation of the beauties of Nature and the charm of the'seasons. It is as important to cultivate the finest qualities of social intercourse with neighbours and visits ors as it is to cultivate the finest' crops, and it is as advantageous to have harmonious relations with the family and with employees as it is to own the best dairying herd in the countryside.. There are things to learn which require no long studentship at agricultural colleges or instructional farms. Any farmer can attain them, and their attainment will give him greater reward than the most successful financial deal or the most profitable venture in stock or crop. THE ROMANCE OF THE COMMONPLACE. One of the advantages of agricultural education, if carried out in its widest sense, is that it does enrich life and encourage the aesthetic and artistic virtues, or, at any rate, it should. The beauty of flowers and the charm of trees become more pronounced if One knows something of botany/ the mundane task of ploughing becomes a work of wonder when one realises that it governs the life of countless millions of bacteria. A knowledge of soil chemistry does more than make one acquainted with percentages of nitrogen and potash ; it opens up wide realms of interest and avenupes for study; the ploughed field becomes an object of romance; the wide pasture a fascinating book.

It is imperative, of course, that agricultural education should' be practical and efficient, and that farmwork should be conducted on sound commercial and jinancial lines, but the object of this article is to show that if only the practical and the commercial and the financial side are recognised, farm life will be a very poor ’affair. i If a farmer can find pleasure in the beauty of a garden or landscape, of sunset or sunrise, he/can always enjoy. If he can obtain the affection of his family and the esteem of his employees he is richer than many millionaires, and if he finds interest in his daily work he has a more pleasant life than any money-bought pleasures can give him, and has achieved something which money alone can never buy. FULL AND HAPPY LIVES. i Such ideas as these expressed may seem absurd to those who pride themselves on being practical and busi-ness-like, but there is truth in them, and a deepei* value than in material things. This is why some comparatively poor men 1 have full and happy lives, and why mainy rich men find their riches “like Dead Sea fruit as ashes in their mouth.”

Of late years there has been a widespread desire for luxury and display, which has brought discontent into many a home, and worse than discontent, and it is time men, and women too, n this yov.ng country awoke to the realisation that only a very small proportion of individuals in any Community can afford to be extravagant and that extravagance feeds on itself and only the pleasures of the mind can be enjoyed and enjoyment ’gro/w instead! of Waste by its use. The feverish buying and celling of farms, now practically over, has left its aftermath of suffering and discontent, butt to those who attended to their holdings and did not. gamble there are better times ahead than ever they knew before. The isolation of many try districts has been broken, to some extent by the improvement of roads

and still greater improvements are projected under the Main Roads Act. The spread of hydro-electric power throughout the Dominion will add to the production of the land and improve the conveniences of farm homes. Many other public improvements may be expected that will benefit the farmer and his family, but the greatest improvement that can be made lies within the power of practically every person in the land—it is the cultivation of a true love and appreciation of farm life, a recognition of its dignity, its interest and its healthfulness and more perhaps than all the development of the true farm home—with its garden and orchard, its shelter belts and its domestic conveniences. This line of development is as important as .the improvement of the farm, and more advantageous than the acquisition of increased acreage, for it means every day and every hour pleasure to every member of the farmer’s family, the enrichment of rural life, and that contentment which land acquisition and money acquisition can never give.