American Peasantry 7 



A modern thinker, Professor L. H. Bailey, 

 in the report of the Secretary of the Connecticut 

 Board of Agricnltnre, 1898, puts it in this wise : 

 " But there is another cause of apprehension 

 which I ought to mention, perhaps founded upon 

 the probable tendencies of our sociological and 

 economic conditions, especially as they apply to 

 rural communities. There is a tendency towards 

 a division of estates as population increases, and 

 the profits of farming are often so small that 

 educated tastes, it is thought, cannot be satis- 

 fied on the farm. There are those who believe 

 that because of these two facts we are ourselves 

 drifting towards an American peasantry. Let 

 us take the second proposition first, — that the 

 profits of farming are so small that educated 

 .tastes cannot be satisfied and gratified on the 

 farm. Now I grant this to be true if the 

 measure of the satisfaction of an educated taste 

 is money ; but I deny it most strenuously if the 

 satisfaction of an educated taste lies in a purer 

 and better life. We must make this distinction 

 very deep and broad, for it is a fundamental one. 

 I believe we have made a mistake in teaching 

 agriculture, during the last few years, by put- 

 ting the emphasis on the money we make out 

 of it. I do not believe that people are to become 

 wealthy on the farm, as a few do in manufac- 

 turing ; I should not hold out that hope to men. 



