SOCIAL FEATURES OF THE UNION. 25! 



make his boys perfect men he must give them opportuni- 

 ties of social intercourse and intellectual development. He 

 must teach them that the fields of ambition, the places of 

 trust, the rewards of society are as open to the honest, 

 upright and intelligent farmer as they are to other classes. 

 The entire farming community is bound together by the 

 bonds which unite men working for a common cause. A 

 few hours is spent in pleasant intercourse. The week or 

 the month has one bright spot in it for those who have 

 taken part in the meeting. The farmer is taught that 

 social relaxation and pleasure are a necessity of human 

 existence, and the duty of granting these to his family and 

 dependents is made an obligation which he is bound to 

 comply with. The social condition of the farmer hereto- 

 fore has been anything but satisfactory. But few have 

 realized the importance of social relaxation; a less number 

 have taken it or granted it to their families. The tenden- 

 cies have been for the 'farmers to transform themselves and 

 families into wheat, corn and cotton producing machines; 

 to consider himself and help as he did his mules and 

 horses, as capable of producing so many bushels of wheat 

 or corn or so many bales of cotton. Of business methods 

 they have studied but little. It is rare that a farmer is 

 able to tell how much it cost him to produce a bushel of 

 corn or of wheat, a pound of beef, pork or butter, or a ton 

 of hay. Such a state of affairs can not be corrected in a 

 month or a year. These evils have taken root and are 

 deeply seated. Young men who have grown up on the 

 farm, and are naturally timid, shrink from mingling in 

 the society of those who have had opportunities to culti- 

 vate those traits which enables them to appear in public 

 with that ease and grace which opens to him avenues of 

 success which his less favored brother does not reach; 

 while on the other hand the more ambitious young man 

 of the farm, tired and disgusted with its hum-drum life, 



