312 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



having the same hearty, cheerful, capable, trustworthy 

 labourer back whom some of us old folk remember and 

 regret — and, in addition to that, a working citizen apt to be- 

 come a source of strength to the State and to contribute by his 

 good sense and judgment to the welfare of the Nation, like 

 the Burts and Barneses, the G. H. Robertses, and Hodges 

 of the present day. Our rural labourer thus raised to a 

 higher status cannot fail to start our Agriculture once 

 more upon an upward path, leading it up to that " pride 

 of place " which in the youth of us old men it occupied, 

 when other nations came to learn from us, and when food 

 was good and plentiful. And with such brighter outlook 

 opened to our rural labouring folk, unfailingly must come 

 back to our country the smile and sunshine of " Sweet 

 Auburn," the happy physiognomy of the lost " Merrie 

 England." 



