THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION. 35 it is abundantly supplied-especially as every.quarter of the State appears to be well calculated for their growth. Heretofore the great bulk of the apples raised has been converted into cider, and on nearly all large farms the cider-press will be noticed as among their most prominent features. In Pennsylvania, among the Germans, particularly, there is a description of sauce called apple butter, and it is principally in the manufacture of this article that the cider and apples are consumed. In the rural districts apple butter is extensively used by every family-in fact, throughout the State, except in a few localities, its use is universal, and may be said to rank as one of the necessaries of the table. The cider is boiled in large kettles, holding from thirty to forty gallons, into which apples, properly paired and quartered, are thrown-say two bushels of prepared apples to twenty-five gallons of cider. After six to eight hours boiling, during which the liquor is constantly stirred, it begins to thicken, and when reduced to a tolerable paste, it is taken from the fire, deposited in earthen jars, and after standing a few weeks, is of good flavour for use. Boiling apple butter, in the counties of Lebanon, Berks, Lehigh, portions of Lancaster, and other German counties, is made the occasion of social celebration and interchange of neighborly courtesies. The young men and women of the neighborhood are invited to spend the evening, and it is here that, for the lack of better opportunities, and without expensive dress or ostentatious show, the substantial graces of the sex are exhibited. Agriculture constitutes, by far, the most important interest in Pennsylvania, notwithstanding her immense beds of coal and iron, and extensive manufactures. Every other interest, however important, is merely subordinate to this, and it is a source of congratulation that such is the fact, not only to this State, but to the entire Union. Removed from the excitements, turmoils, and selfish intrigues of the city, the farmers are, upon the whole, purer in sentiment, more patriotic in feeling, and more industrious, honest, and straightforward in their course through life, than any other class of people. It is not to be disguised that, in some of the higher and nicer points of education, they are often lamentably deficient; but when we come to weigh their substantial virtues with the vices that usually accompany superficial intelligence, especially in populous places, the vast superiority of their condition, as Christian and virtuous citizens, is strikingly exhibited. Their retired and comparatively isolated position in the country, enables them to smother the spirit of pride and ostentatious show, which so often usurps good morals and supplants the better judgment of the town's people; and being thus rendered more simplehearted and sober-minded, they are morally better men, and politically better citizens than any other class of people. The integrity of our agricultural population is to the political what the Alleghany Mountains are to the physical aspect of our glorious country-the back-bone of its prosperity. For while the one drains the country of its impurities, and pours forth its waters for the internal affairs of trade-purifying the atmosphere, and yielding metals which "subject all nature to our use and pleasure," the other regulates the political atmosphere, and saves it from the extremes into which excited and densely populated regions would be sure to embroil it. And some, In ancient times, the sacred plough employed The plough, and greatly independent lived. It was the misfortune of republican governments, in more ancient times, that they had no agricultural population to rely upon—or, rather, that they lacked the powerful levers which we are now using so successfully to carry out our representative system, viz., the press and the post-office. In ancient Greece, for instance, where existed a complete democracy, the agricultural population was entirely proscribed for the want of these tremendous civilizers. To exercise the elective privilege the voter had to repair to the capitol-such a thing as voting at home was never dreamed of, because there were no means to enable the citizen to give an expression of his principles or to inform him of the nature of political affairs. The popular strength was therefore concentrated in the capitol, instead of being distributed, as it is here, over "our boundless continent." With these powerful instruments, the farmer in Oregon may exercise his political prerogatives with as much judgment and patriotism, as if he lived within a few miles of the capitol. The press is thus a conservator of intelligence, while the post-office is the distributer, and the two enable us LANCASTER COUNTY FARM. 37 to carry out the most admirable representative system which the world has ever known; and so nicely do all its details harmonize with the local position, feelings and principles of our people, that probably no other form of government, no matter how liberal, would promote our happiness and prosperity, or give one-fourth the strength and national grandeur which now belong to the people of free America: Land of the forest and the rock, Of dark blue lake and mighty river, The storm's career and lightning shock- In passing through this splendid agricultural region, the stranger will particularly observe the neatness and order which characterize the general aspect of the scene of farming operations, the good fences, the substantial and comfortable buildings, and especially the imposing appearance of the barn. Nearly every large farm has a cluster GENERAL APPEARANCE OF A LANCASTER COUNTY FARM. of buildings, the most promient of which is the barn, situated next to the mansion-house, around which are scattered wagon and carriagesheds, corn-cribs, spring-house, wash-house, summer dining-house, etc. with adjacent tenant house. The pride of a Pennsylvania farmer, however, is in his barn, and large sums of money are frequently expended in its erection. The structure is usually placed along side of a small hill, so that a four horse team may be driven into the barn floor without overcoming too steep a grade from the road, an arrangement equally desirable for other considerations. Barns are usually over one hundred feet in length, by about forty to sixty feet in depth -the loft and threshing-floor overarching by six or eight feet, the stables below forming a good shelter. Surprise is often expressed by strangers at the contrast generally presented between the appearance of the barn and the dwelling house--the former being comparatively more imposing than the latter. It is true the contrast often augurs unfavorably for the taste and personal convenience of the farmer; but there are circumstances governing the premises of the case which a due regard to economy will not allow him to overlook. Feeding a large number of cattle during the winter, as nearly every one does, he must provide accommodations of a corresponding character, ample in dimensions, and combining with neatness and durability of construction, spacious granaries, threshing-floors, haylofts, rooms for tools and implements, etc., besides stalls for six to a dozen head of horses. The stock of horses in the eastern portion of Pennsylvania, and more particularly in Lancaster County, is worthy of remark. They are enormously powerful animals, bred entirely with a view to draught, and perfectly unfit for the saddle or light harness. Some thirty years ago, when racing was fashionable, the stock of horses embraced some splendid specimens of "blooded animals;" but as this amusement finally ran into gross licentiousness, the race-course was abandoned by respectable persons, and the quality of the stock, as far as swiftness is concerned, immediately deteriorated. The race-course near Lancaster, on the left side of the railway, between that place and Dillerville, was once the scene of some of the finest triumphs of the horse ever witnessed in this country. It was the pride and delight of many gentlemen of fortune, in those days, to enter the "stakes." The spirit of rivalry was carried to great lengths-and the horses themselves seemed "To share with their masters the pleasure and the pride." Fox-chasing, too, in the days of our "gran'-dads," was a favorite amusement, and many of those who declined to participate in the 66 THE FOX CHASE. 39 excitements of the race-course, warmly entered into the chase, for which swift hounds, as well as horses, were requisite. Fox-chasing is truly a splendid exercise, because in addition to its adventures and hair-breadth escapes," it is made the occasion of social reunions amongst neighbors. The description of Thomson is no less applicable to old England than to young America at the time of which we are speaking: -Give, then, ye Britons, Your sportive fury, pitiless, to pour Him, from his craggy winding haunts unearth'd, But first the fuel'd chimney blazes wide; |