CHEERFUL, PLEASANT HOMES. 55 



want before him, with, perhaps, no one to lend a helping 

 hand. But now suppose twelve or twenty young men should 

 go together, could not they form a community of their own, 

 and carry with them all that is best in New England home- 

 life, and stand by and aid each other, and bring up their 

 children with good examples before them? If I shall seem 

 to you to-night to say some things that belong to a social 

 science gathering, I speak because I have thought much on 

 these things ; and while I am anxious to do all in my power 

 to guide men in cultivating the soil, I want this knowledge of 

 agriculture to be subservient to this one idea of increasing 

 the number of cheerftd, pleasant homes in our land. I do not 

 want agriculture to take such a form that men shall be induced 

 to dwell in cities, nor to look to trade and manufacturing as a 

 means of buying farm products, except when they are com- 

 pelled to. I want agriculture to take such a form as to call 

 the largest number possible away from these pursuits where 

 too many are now crowding to live lives of dependence with 

 uncertain incomes. I want to see the thousands of little home- 

 steads all over our land, giving to their owners the substan- 

 tials of life from the soil itself, giving them the means of 

 rational living always, as a reward for industry and homely 

 economy. 



This is a time of general complaint in business ; and in this 

 disturbed condition, we see the danger that hangs over some 

 great communities, that productions of certain kinds shall be 

 stopped, and whole masses be thrown out of employment, — 

 whole masses that are in the main unprepared for idleness, 

 because they have no reserve of property, and yet live under 

 such conditions that every day demands pay for shelter, food, 

 fuel and raiment. Now, it is not simply a problem for our 

 country to solve that we shall become great producers, but 

 it is that all our people shall have the conditions of living ; 

 that property shall be well distributed ; or that the largest 

 number possible shall have homes of their own, and the means 

 of plain living, to say the least. Our cheap land has thus far 

 been our safeguard. But we do not want our cheap lands 

 and system of agriculture to lead to great estates. We want, 

 instead, a sub-division of land, so that we shall have the 

 largest possible number of independent homes ; yet we want 



