2i8 An American Fruit- Farm 



founding States. Upwards of thirty millions of 

 people comprise this moving mass. Europe, Asia, 

 Africa, have sent millions. Their descendants, 

 called Americans, have swelled the stream, and 

 every year it is further enlarged by more than 

 a million who arrive from Europe alone. It fol- 

 lows that results long ago foretold are occurring. 

 The desirable lands have been taken up and no 

 longer can a farm be had for the asking. Very 

 rapidly, and notably since the Civil War, America 

 approaches the condition of Europe: scarcity of 

 land ; increase of population ; decrease of production 

 of food-stuff; cost of living rising; the traditional 

 ease of life in America vanishing. Never again can 

 the old-fashioned simplicity of colonial life prevail. 

 A hundred years in America have wrought changes 

 comparable to those of centuries in Europe. The 

 trend on both continents to-day is the same: 

 toward class distinctions, discriminations, com- 

 plexity of industrial conditions, elaboration of 

 innumerable wants, and diminution of means 

 and opportunities to satisfy them. In brief, the 

 machinery of life seems ever becoming more 

 complicated, and we are thinking, as it were by 

 compulsion, more of the machinery and the 

 machine, and less of the spirit who inhabits and 

 moves them. This means the ever sharper reali- 

 zation of the discomforts of life, real or imaginary, 

 and the greater risk of experiencing discomfort 

 than comfort. 



Parents now, perhaps as never before, are yearn- 



