HINDRANCES AND HELPS 



So much for the working farmer; and we 

 cannot have armies without privates ; and pri- 

 vates are many of them "line young fellows." 



ISOLATION OF FARMERS 



I AM reminded that a farmer has no need to 

 fag himself with hard field work. To a cer- 

 tain extent this is true; but only "A master's 

 eye fattens the horse, and only a master's foot 

 the ground." 



If farming be undertaken as an amusement, 

 absence is possible; indeed, the longer the ab- 

 sence, the greater the amusement — to the on- 

 lookers; but if farming be undertaken as a 

 business, presence is imperative — presence, 

 with its associations, and its comparative isola- 

 tion. 



Of the more familiar associations, a type 

 may be had in Pat, sitting on the doorstep at 

 dusk, ruminating and smoking a black-stemmed 

 pipe. The isolation is less obvious, but more 

 galling. Farms do not lie extensively in cities ; 

 and the least fear we live under,— is one of 

 mobs. In fact, there is not even a habit of 

 congregation in farmers. They meet behind 

 the church, between services, — in a starched 

 way ; they drive to town-meetings in their best 



