112 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



ISOLATION OF FARMERS' HOUSEHOLDS. 



The comparatively isolated situation of the farmer's house- 

 hold is another obstacle in the same direction. In this 

 respect our custom differs materially from that of the conti- 

 nental countries. In Germany, for instance, the agricultural 

 population is not dispersed like ours on isolated homesteads, 

 each family uj)on its own farm, but is gathered into small 

 villages from which the laborers go out to their work in the 

 morning, and to which they come back at night. The influ- 

 ence of this gregariousness upon the German peasant is of 

 course more than balanced by others that tend to the repres- 

 sion of the intellectual life ; but there can be no doubt that 

 it is in itself an advantage. The results of our own method 

 are not so apparent in our thickly settled Massachusetts as 

 in other sections of the country ; but even here the farmer's 

 isolation is such as to prove a decided obstacle in the way of 

 that attrition of mind with mind that all men need to their 

 best development. Some one — I believe it is Col. Waring 

 — has suggested some re-adjustment of our agricultural life 

 in accordance with the continental method ; but such a 

 change, especially in the older parts of the country, is 

 plainly out of the question, nor am I certain that it would 

 be on the whole desirable, even if possible. There is a charm 

 about the typical New-England farmhouse, standing in its 

 independence and self-sufficiency among its group of out- 

 buildings, like a feudal castle in the midst of its dependent 

 cottages, — a charm that we could ill spare ; and there are, 

 unquestionably', advantages iu other respects in this isola- 

 tion, although unfavorable to the freest intellectual and 

 social life. 



THE farmer's EXHAUSTING LABOR. 



A third obstacle is the exhausting nature of the farmer's 

 work as usually conducted. The life of most farmers is in 

 tliis respect simpl}^ that of day-laborers. In most cases it is 

 doubtless a necessity, and there, of course, I have no criti- 

 cism to offer. Necessity knows no law but its own. Even 

 objects so important as culture and refinement must yield to 

 its imperious demands. But are there not some cases where 

 this exhausting toil is kept up from force of habit, from 



