SOCIAL LIFE OF THE FARMER. Ill 



such slender resources to draw from, that I know I cannot 

 mislead such practical minds as yours, even if I cannot 

 instruct them. You, gentlemen, have all seen the elephant, 

 and will be able to tell at once whether my description of 

 him is a portrait or a caricature. 



THE WEAIv SIDE OF AGKICULTUEAL LIFE. 



It is my conviction that my topic touches agricultural life 

 on its weakest side. Its meagreness in social and intel- 

 lectual influence as compared with most occupations, I think 

 few thoughtful and candid minds will question. It is so 

 from its nature, or, at least, from circumstances difficult to 

 control. Three limiting or hindering influences will at once 

 occur to the thought of all. In the first place, farming does 

 not demand, as do most other occupations, constant in- 

 tercourse with men : it rather forbids such intercourse. A 

 great part of its activities must be carried on in comparative 

 solitude. Its success does not require, as does that of most 

 occupations, the co-operation of other men, and constant 

 contact with other minds. The merchant, for instance, is 

 dependent on his customers. He comes in contact with 

 them all the time. A kind of social and intellectual influ- 

 ence is mherent in the very nature of the calling. So it is 

 with the lawyer, the physician, the clergyman, the teacher. 

 A constant contact of life with life, and of mind with mind, 

 is an element inseparable from these professions ; and, though 

 seeking other objects as their ultimate end, some cultivation 

 of the social and intellectual nature is one of their necessary 

 incidents. Even the life of an ordinary mechanic is in this 

 respect more favorable than that of the farmer. The village 

 smithy and the village shoemaker's shop are always a kind 

 of social centre. Men are continuall}^ gathering there by 

 twos and threes to discuss politics and the news of the da}'^ ; 

 and, though the discussions may not be very refined or very 

 profound, yet they do tend in a measure to the quickening 

 of the mind. The farmer's contact, on the other hand, is 

 not with man, but with nature. The life, especially of the 

 small farmer who is his own hired man, is j)assed mainly in 

 solitude ; and it is inevitable that his lack of social opportu- 

 nities, without very strong effort on his part to counteract 

 the deficiency, should in the course of years leave a marked 

 impress on his character. 



