8 



obduracy. I have heard recently of a Berkshire farmer who still clings to the tal- 

 low candle of his fathers, regarding lamps and kerosene, I suppose, as an inven- 

 tion of the devil. And the farms are not few among the hills where all the appli- 

 ances look like relics from Noah's ark, and the farmer hke the patriarch himself at 

 the end of his long imprisonment on board. But more especiealy out of New 

 England, in this country and in other countries, do we find evidence of this ex- 

 treme conservatism in the agricultural class. Nor is its influence limited to the 

 bounds of the farm, but spreads itself more widely, giving tone to pohtical and 

 religious opinion, and leaving its impress on the entire character. It is this spirit 

 that makes the landed class in England to so large an extent the bulwark of tory- 

 ism and that has led the farmers of Pennsylvania to vote regularly for Andrew 

 Jackson at every Presidential election for the last fifty years. The fact of this 

 conservatism in farmers, as a class, I think few will question. Is it not equally 

 evident that it stands in the way of their best welfare ? 



NAKBOW UTIIilTAKIANISM AND DISREGARD FOR BEAUTY. 



A third trait of the typical farmer's character that must not be overlooked, is 

 a tendency to a narrow and shallow utilitarianism. The limitations and stress of 

 his life incline him to measure everything by purely material standards. His con- 

 stant question is, ''Will it pay ?" and by pay he means exclusively dollars and 

 cents, or their equivalent, too seldom taking into account any of the higher and 

 remoter returns from outlay in the way of character and refinement. The result 

 is a kind of barrenness in the life of many of the thriftiest farmers to be expected 

 only in the lot of poverty. How many farmers who seem to care more for the 

 fattening of their pigs and the training of their colts than for the welfare of their 

 families. How often does the barn engi-oss attention to the neglect of the house, 

 the horses and cows having the benefit of more modern improvements than the 

 wife and children. But more especially does this utilitarian spirit show itself in 

 utter disregard of the element of beauty. Said a Vermont farmer, recently, born 

 and bred amid the most beautiful scenery of the Green Mountains, "Where is all 

 that wonderful Vermont scenery that I hear people rave about so much ? I have 

 lived here all my days, and never have seen it." I wonder if some of these Berk- 

 shire farmers have not been equa% oblivious of the marvels of beauty in the hills 

 and valleys about them. It would certainly seem so, for in some of the finest lo- 

 cations in the county I see the bam, with its unsightly surroundings, placed as of 

 set purpose to cut off the prospect from the house ; and the instances are quite 

 exceptional of any marked attempt in the direction of beauty, even on farms that 

 have been in possession of prosperous famihes for successive generations. It is 

 not what we should expect judging in advance. We should say that every farm- 

 er, living in such closeness of contact with the natural world would be something 

 of a poet in his appreciation of its beauties. But the general fact is evidently the 

 reverse. The typical farmer realizes in this respect too e;cactly Wordsworth's 

 picture of Peter Bell : 



"A primrose by a river's brim 

 A yellow primrose was to him, 

 And it was nothiny- more." 



The grim spiiit of utilitarianism has in great measure crushed his sense of 

 beauty, and whether it be his misfortune or his fault, the result is the same in giv- 

 ing to farm life an unattractive aspect. It makes the farm distasteful to the young, 

 and gives a strong impulse to the current of emigration that is constantly setting 



