SOCIAL LIFE OF THE FARMER. 125 



gion. Are there not scores of farmers on these hills, wlio, 

 from their neglect in this direction, are sinking gradually 

 toward barbarism, and drawinq; their households down after 

 them ? I commend the thought to your serious considera- 

 tion. 



REVIVED INTEREST IN FARMING. 



I will detain you with simply one other thought : it is, that 

 there is much in the present aspect of the times to demand 

 from the farming class a revision and improvement in its 

 methods of life, in order to make the occupation more 

 attractive. The recent long-continued depression of busi- 

 ness turned public attention, as never before, to the compar- 

 ative independence of the farmer's life. The advantages of 

 an occupation, which, while it precludes the idea of wealth 

 in the common sense of the word, yet seems absolutely se- 

 cure against extreme reverses of fortune, making sure at 

 least the comforts of life, is now appreciated as never before 

 in recent years. But the great drawback still is the aspect 

 of barrenness in the farmer's life. I doubt not there are 

 hundreds of business men in our cities, who, discouraged by 

 their repeated failures, would go into the country to-day, 

 were it not for the feeling that by so doing they would de- 

 prive their families and themselves of so many of the refine- 

 ments of life. A motive of patriotism and philanthropy 

 therefore comes in to re-enforce that of personal interest in 

 leading farmers to special effort to redeem their calling from 

 this reproach. It is, perhaps, not too much to say that farm- 

 ers now hold in their hands the solution of the great problem 

 of modern times, which is such a distribution of the world's 

 increasing population that all may be reasonably sure of a 

 comfortable livelihood. Let them show by example that a 

 good degree of refinement and culture is not incompatible 

 with an agricultural occupation, and they will attract to it 

 increasing numbers year by year, and thus help most materi- 

 ally to restore the disturbed balance between the rural and 

 the city populations. jNIore than that, they have it in their 

 power to make the farmer's calling the object of special 

 desire and aspiration. In England and some other countries 

 the possession of land in fee is almost equivalent to a title 

 of nobility. We can never have a landed gentry in this 



