THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



country born and country bred, I shall perhaps be 

 able to help others to avoid mistakes, and take 

 quicker advantage of opportunity. Whoever seeks 

 the country should seek it for a definite purpose, 

 and understand that he must educate himself to 

 make that purpose workable. There is study 

 ahead, as well as work. You will find no industry 

 so complex as agriculture — rightly pursued. Every 

 science will have to be subsidized for help. There is, 

 however, sufficient common purpose in going back 

 to the land, to make the book I offer of practical 

 use to a wide range of readers. I shall not theorize, 

 but shall deal with facts; and while telling what 

 may be done by the many, will only describe that 

 which has already been accomplished by the few. 

 Fifty years ago suburbanism meant the building 

 of villas and mansions in the outskirts of cities — 

 as going into the country meant going to Newport 

 and Saratoga. Democracy in country development 

 is displacing aristocracy. Suburbanism means 

 to-day a movement of the people all along the line, 

 to adjust themselves to home-making, apart from, 

 and generally remote from large nuclei of popula- 

 tion. Books, published fifty years ago on country 

 life, sketched objectless buildings with city plots 



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