62 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



THE FUTURE OF THE FARMER. 

 By Dr. Geo. E. Fellows, President University of Maine, Orono. 



Our only method of judging of the future is by the past. If 

 the history of a country or of an individual has shown progress, 

 we may prophesy for that country or that individual progress in 

 the future. 



What has been the history of the farmer in this country and in 

 other countries ? Has he been held at all times in equal esteem 

 with, superior to. or inferior to the manufacturer, the warrior, 

 or the statesman ? 



At the most glorious period in the history of Rome, the most 

 distinguished men were engaged in agriculture. Later, when 

 the barbarians overran the more thickly populated and highly 

 civilized portions of Italy and other parts of southern Europe, 

 it became necessary for those who lived upon the land to be 

 protected from the incursions of these warlike individuals. 



For this, and other reasons, the feudal system grew up, wherein 

 the powerful lord or chief became the head and protector of a 

 large body of people scattered around the country near his castle. 

 In time of war he was their leader, and they his soldiers ; in time 

 of peace they labored upon his land and the property was held in 

 his name. Through the middle ages there was so much war, 

 and the fields were so often devastated by enemies, that the best 

 of agriculture was carried on only within territories owned by 

 the church, and the farmers and farm laborers were the monks 

 in the monasteries. As the feudal system fell greatly into decay 

 in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, there was 

 more and more development of agriculture outside the monas- 

 teries and on the large estates of the nobility. But the nobles, 

 no longer compelled to act as leaders in war against their neigh- 

 bors, drifted away from the country to the capitals of the various 

 countries. In France, the wealthy land owners and titled nobility 

 gathered in Paris and Versailles, leaving those who tilled the 

 soil with the heavy burden of providing them with sufficient funds 



