246 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



and loathsome corruption — a veritable hell upon earth — of which 

 all theories of goodness should teach us to beware. 



Farmers or gardeners who have themselves planted, and spent 

 a lifetime or less in trying to repair the mischief done some minute 

 section of the earth's surface, will know what I mean. 



I speak to farmers, for it will be their sons and grandsons who 

 will have to rebuild and re-organize town and country in regard to 

 health and waste in times to come. 



The mothers of the farm carry in their hearts the germs of 

 future cultures and religions. We are losing faith in the devil, 

 they say; but if no evil spirit outside of our forefathers sowed the 

 tares we are reaping, then we must now be scattering the seeds of 

 future social weeds, if the future is to have any. 



Running away from one's own filth has been so common in New 

 England that we have made a great '' paying" business of ship- 

 ping invalids to and fro across the continent, wherever there was a 

 showing of healthy conditions, and means of access to them. Thick- 

 settled communities have kept their own death rates low by send- 

 ing invalid populations away to die. The fair repute of many 

 " health resorts " has been ruined by this means. The dying catch 

 at sanitary straws. A few winters ago every train for the Pacific 

 coast was loaded with what were called "condemned Yankees." 

 Twice in our hunt for lodgings in Santa Barbara we were met by 

 the pitiful plea: "Don't disturb us now, please. A man is dying 

 upstairs. His place will be vacant soon! " 



This running away for health is about played out, however. 

 With our rapid communications, every corner of the land has 

 become infected with filth and disease. 



The country is no longer, as it once used to be, healthier than 

 the town. The larger cities seem, indeed, the healthiest, for sev- 

 eral reasons : people are better fed and better paid. Good food 

 and regular payment of higher wages will always secure the pick 

 of a floating population. It may or may not be that the city is 

 more intelligent and intellectual than the country. Opportunities 

 for reading, hearing lectures, and passing a wise common-sense 

 from hand to hand have certainly been superior in well-ordered 

 cities since the decay of rural families and country churches. 



Here was a young man " most dead with the shakes " in New 

 York, running right into a nest of ague in my district, where all 



