io6 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



careful nourishers of agricultural education — and, as we 

 shall see, more particularly of the kind which at the present 

 time specially interests ourselves. And the results obtained 

 show that their systems are good and effective. And 

 Sweden — the " father " of whose Agriculture, Nonnen, 

 learnt a good deal from our country — ^has likewise a good 

 show of rural and agricultural education to produce. If 

 the effects resulting from careful agricultural education are 

 not everywhere as imposing by their magnitude as they 

 present themselves in Germany, in respect of distinct 

 points, they are unquestionably superior in some other of 

 the countries named. And the " Agricultural Atmosphere " 

 pervading countries like Switzerland and Denmark is a 

 matter that we may well envy and the cause of which we 

 should do well to study, so as to be able to produce it among 

 ourselves. The fact that, in spite of great educational 

 efforts made in countries like France and Germany, never- 

 theless there should be a tendency observable among the 

 rural population to desert its old sphere and seek more 

 remunerative or else more congenial employment in other 

 quarters, is not altogether to be wondered at. From time 

 immemorial it is the country with its prolific generation 

 of men which has served as the nursery for towns. The 

 urban population needs renewing by healthier blood, bring- 

 ing with it more robust constitutions, such as only the 

 country has to supply. And the glitter of town life and 

 the apparently more liberal remuneration of labour there 

 exercise a powerfully alluring influence upon the plain 

 and not always over-wise rustic, whose family is, as a rule, 

 larger than that of the townsman and must seek a fresh 

 outlet. Besides, there is the military service, which is a 

 great seducer of country simplicity, making arduous labour 

 distasteful, and, in France, disposing people to the quest 

 of a place as " fonctionnaire." 



What in our case stands in the way of an equal attuned- 

 ness to country life and to the study which makes Agri- 

 culture perfect, is our land system which, utterly wanting 

 in the levelling-up conditions prevailing in towns, separates 

 the rural population in three strictly bulkheaded classes, 



