Cooper's development of this theme -- a national identity rooted in the landscape -- is subtle and calculated, but a scrupulous reading of Rural Hours reveals the careful construction of Cooper's text. The opening pages of Rural Hours share observations that reflect the intentions of the book as stated in Cooper's 1850 preface:
The following notes contain, in a journal form, the simple record of those little events which make up the course of the seasons in rural life. In wandering about the fields, . . . one naturally gleans many trifling observations. . . The following pages were written in perfect good faith, all the trifling incidents alluded to having occurred as they are recorded. (Preface)
In her first chapter, we read of the coming of spring: snow thaws, buds appear, robins return to the area. These are seemingly "little events," "trifling" in their lack of worldly significance. One almost immediately notices, however, the pride Cooper takes in plants and animals "peculiar" to her "native land," those that are uniquely America's own. In contrast to the European robin, "our robin never builds [a nest] on the ground" (21), and the "pretty" white-bellied swallow, which "has been confounded with the European martin" is, Cooper assures, "peculiar to America" (56).
Cooper also explains the uniqueness of American plants, complaining that the "wild natives of the woods" are often crowded out by European plants that were introduced by the colonists and that "[drive] away the prettier natives" (81).24 In her discussion of autumn in America, Cooper ruminates, "Had the woods of England been as rich as our own" English writers would have praised the season in their writings long ago (336). Instead, "one is led to believe that the American autumn has helped to set the fashions for the sister season of the Old World" (335). American writers' reflections on the landscape have encouraged English writers to do the same, Cooper suggests. These "trifling" observations begin to speak together, and we find Cooper asserting the importance of knowing the natural forms indigenous to one's place. Thus, for Cooper, determining which birds, animals, and plants are native to America, as well as which of these are unknown to Europeans, helps to define the American landscape, and therefore helps to establish a national identity. She takes pride in her land and in its natural wealth.