THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



the influence of conditions that seem at first quite 

 similar to those which surrounded our fathers of 

 seventy-five years ago — conditions that created a 

 great degree of uniformity in customs, and a very 

 fixed equaHty of privileges. But looking deeper, 

 we shall see that old things are not to be repeated. 

 There will be a combination of country and city life 

 — country freedom with city culture. New ideas 

 will take root easily, and new methods. The latest 

 scientific information will be sought and applied. 

 No one will be isolated. These new homes will be 

 joined by telephones, so that they can talk together, 

 plan together, laugh together. I think we shall 

 have an age of real democracy — at least of growing 

 democracy. 



I shall close this chapter with a few general hints. 

 The first of these and one of the most important 

 is that, wherever you establish your home, you do 

 not undertake grading natural slopes into terraces or 

 levels. Nature has probably as much wit in fixing 

 the land as you can show with your plow and 

 scraper. The most you should undertake is to re- 

 move unnatural roughness, and fill up gullies; but 

 you should not in any way disturb the general lay 

 of the land. When that sort of improvement is once 



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