Country and City 89 



the country point of view, not merely city and 

 town institutions transplanted to the country. 

 City persons who desire to " reform " the coun- 

 try are very likely to forget all this and to 

 begin with schemes of social or economic or- 

 ganization. All schemes must begin with the 

 individual farmer. The country youth must 

 not only know more, but he must have a 

 country mind in the broadest sense. 



The poetical farmer. 



I am always interested in Thoreau's "poeti- 

 cal farmer," not because I recommend his kind 

 of farming, but because of his philosophical 

 point of view : " Minott is perhaps the most 

 poetical farmer, the one who most realizes to 

 me the poetry of the farmer's life, that I know. 

 He does nothing with haste and drudgery, but 

 everything as if he loved it. He makes the 

 most of his labor, and takes infinite satisfaction 

 in every part of it. He is not looking forward 

 to the sale of his crops, but he is paid by the 

 constant satisfaction which his labor yields him. 

 He has not too much land to trouble him, too 



