AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT. 95 



women who are forced to use it, and with whom it means all 

 that it is capable of expressing when applied to the actual 

 concerns of daily life. 



Whence the hard times? Who has made them, and who is 

 responsible for them ? Who or what has caused the stoppage 

 of the industries, the surplus of labor, the timidity of capital, 

 the low wages ? If men say it is the inflation of the currency, 

 extravagant expenditures in State and nation, a surpkis of all 

 commodities — bread and gold alone excepted — a paralyzed 

 market, the overdoing of every branch of business — in all of 

 which reasons may be found many grains of truth — who will 

 propose a remedy? While political economists are studying 

 up their reckoning on this subject, and the above named rep- 

 resentatives of a numerous class amusing themselves in the 

 manner hinted at — we may try to find out some of the causes 

 of the "hard times," look at a few of their results, and also 

 search a little for their remedy. 



The bare statement of the fact that agricultural communi- 

 ties are more independent and happy, and freer from the suf- 

 ferings and privations to which the poorer class of dwellers 

 in towns are subjected, is in itself suflScient to jjrove that the 

 former is the better and higher mode of life. All com.forts 

 and enjoyments, possible or desirable, are within the reach of 

 those who live upon the farm, who draw from its resources 

 an abundance for all physical wants, who obtain from the sur- 

 plus of its productions something for the culture of the soul, 

 and the growth of heart and intellect ; and w^ho, content with 

 moderate gains are patient, economical, hopeful, and trusting. 

 But in the grand economy of States and nations, other indus- 

 tries than farming are needful to the completest results of a 

 high civilization. Cities must be builded, mines must be ex- 

 plored, oceans navigated, and shops and manufactories kept 

 in operation. Men are required for all these diversified pur- 

 suits, and let us say it to the honor and credit of the farm and 

 of the men whom the farms have produced — that those who 

 have grasped the highest prizes and won the greatest results 

 in the work of the world, with hand and brain, have been 



