1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FAEM. 181 



buried. "Washington too, went from his farm to lead the armies 

 of the struggling colonies, he was recalled from his farm to be our 

 President, and set the example of retiring, not to a pensioned 

 palace, but back to his own farm where he lived and died, and 

 where his bones rest. 



I once took much pains and labor to look up the history of the 

 childhood of all the presidents of this republic. Of a few I could 

 get no information, but at least fifteen out of the twenty-one presi- 

 dents of the United States have either been farmers (or planters) 

 themselves, or the sons of such, ten of this fifteen were the sons of 

 farmers on small farms, and four of them, indeed, I might say five, 

 were on new or " pioneer " farms in their boyhood, actually help- 

 ing in the arduous and toilsome work of subduing the wilderness. 



In all that relates to the intellectual, political, and social condi- 

 tion of farmers, the history of this country has been exceptionable; 

 nowhere else has actual farm-work been so respectable. 



This is not the place to enter into the causes which brought so 

 large a proportion of our population on farms, and made farming 

 more respectable than in other countries; the fact will not be dis- 

 puted, and I have elsewhere* discussed the causes. 



But a profound change in our population, both as to stock and 

 occupation, has lately been going on very rapidly. Immigra- 

 tion is diluting the nations' blood, the industries are rapidly chang- 

 ing, and the numerical proportions of people living in the country, 

 and in the cities are also rapidly changing. 



The applications of science and the fertility of invention have revo- 

 lutionized the industrial arts and changed the methods of com- 

 merce and trade, wealth is produced much faster than ever before 

 and is being invested in other directions than in land and agricul- 

 ture. War does not destroy so much, nor pestilence waste so 

 much, so the world is rapidly growing richer. Along with this, 

 cities and villages are growing in population much more rapidly 

 than the agricultural towns, and a relatively smaller and smaller 

 proportion of the population is being occupied on farms. 



I need not here discuss the why and wherefore of all this; it is 

 a great social movement wider than our own land, it extends to 

 all countries with a civilization like ours, and it is inevitable that 

 it must go on. It is a part of the progress of the age. Until 

 lately, pestilences and the difficulties of transporting food pre- 



* Tenth Census.of the U. S., Vol. Ill, Agriculture, Cereal Report, p. 134 (514). 



