THE VOCATION OF FARMING. 35 



strange, perhaps, if an old man said something of that which 

 is his last life-interest and support. But passing by this, 

 I will speak of that which may help the general intelligence 

 of our rural population, and also of that which, in my opinion, 

 most hinders it. 



And that, I think, which hinders it more than anything 

 else, is isolation. The factory, the trading-house, have the 

 advantage in this : men are brought together in them ; they 

 talk together ; they talk of what they read in newspapers or 

 in books ; in manufacturing places, when evening comes, 

 they are not solitary, as men are in farm-houses ; and I sus- 

 pect that, for this sole reason, the body of manufacturers and 

 traders are more intelligent than the body of farmers. There 

 is nothing that starts ideas like talk, or sharpens them like 

 that. Society is the very spring of improvement ; and of all 

 this the agricultural life has generally too little. 



For this reason, I have taken great interest in the granges, 

 especially in their original intent of bringing farmers to- 

 gether, to confer upon their mutual interests and common 

 improvement. Why should there not be clubs, on a smaller 

 scale, and for more familiar intercourse? They have clubs in 

 cities ; there is far more need of them in the country. Let 

 ten persons meet in one another's houses, once a fortnight, to 

 talk of some subject before agreed upon — soils, manures, 

 methods of culture, what crops to raise and how, or on other 

 subjects out of their immediate line of business, and I believe 

 they would find interest and excitement in it, and would 

 come away with new ideas, and perhaps aspirations. Let 

 them take for a subject the industrial interests of the coun- 

 try, which they ought to understand, and let them read for 

 this Samuel B. Euggles's great report "On the Agricultural 

 Property and Products of the United States of America," 

 lately published. Indeed, the matters for discussion that 

 would come before them would lead to, and would require, 

 some reading of books. 



And here I enter more deeply into both the merits and dif- 

 ficulties of the case. " Books ! " it may be said ; " how can we 

 find time for books, or money to buy them ? " This latter diffi- 

 culty, I judge, is not so great as it was years ago. We are 

 growing to be better off. Goodrich's " Natural Philosophy," 



