SOCIAL LIFE OF THE FARMER. 117 



of Roger Sherman and Ileiuy Wilson. And so with many 

 other oconpations admitting of close and constant mental 

 contact. I have not at hand the statistics to verify the opin- 

 ion, l)ut my impression is a strong one, that the ratio of 

 farmers who have risen to eminence directly from the plough 

 — that is, with no other training than that gained in the soli- 

 tary life of the farm — is comparatively small. Is not this 

 fact, if it be a fact, a suggestive one ? Does it not indicate a 

 lack of quickening influence in agricultural life that demands 

 a remedy, if remedy be possible ? 



TENDENCY TO EXCESSIVE CONSERVATISM. 



Closely connected with this slowness of mind, and equally 

 apparent, is a tendency to excessive conservatism in the 

 farmer's character. Here, again, I remind j'ou that I speak 

 of the class, and do not forget the fact of marked exceptions 

 both in communities and individuals. In all countries and 

 in all ages the agricultural class has been marked for its 

 reverence for the old, and its suspicion of the new. It is 

 almost inevitable that its prevailing spirit should be conserv- 

 ative. The natural influence of its environment is all in 

 that direction. And not seldom has it been greatly to its 

 advantagfe and to the advantage of the world that it has 

 been so. Farmers have been themselves saved by their con- 

 servatism from destructive innovations, and have constituted 

 an impregnable bulwark against their spread in the commu- 

 nity. But quite as often is it disastrous in its influence, 

 leading to the retention of old ideas whose usefulness is at 

 an end, and to a hostility to new discoveries essential to 

 prosperity and progress. The superior intelligence of New- 

 England farmers has saved them from the Avorst effects of 

 this undue reverence for the past ; but I think few will deny 

 that even here it has stood in the way of agricultural prog- 

 ress. But for this, would not labor-saving machinery have 

 had an earlier adoption ? Would not agriculture have re- 

 ceived speedier and heartier recognition as a science ? And 

 would not the farmer's life in all its aspects be more com- 

 pletel}^ abreast the civilization of the times? Occasionally 

 we have an instance, even in Massachusetts, of the old con- 

 servative spirit in all its obduracy. I have heard recently 

 of a Berkshire farmer who still clings to the tallow candle 



