17 



extent of which may be calculated in dollars and cents. But 

 they serve the agricultural interest in another way. They enable 

 men to do business in Boston, and live in the country, ten, fifteen, 

 even twenty miles off. This is an advantage to him, we readily 

 see. It purifies and elevates his life, by the daily influence of 

 rural sights and sounds. The freshness and beauty of Nature, 

 glittering with morning dew, prepare him for his daily toils ; and 

 when these are over, he is soothed and refreshed by the sweet in- 

 fluences of sunset and evening. It is an advantage for his chil- 

 dren ; for they are saved from the dangers of city life ; they gain 

 health and strength from pure air, regular habits, and invigorating 

 exercise ; and they learn a thousand useful things that books and 

 schools cannot teach. But this is not all. No man will be wil- 

 ling to take two journeys in the cars, every secular day of his life, 

 unless he be fond of the country ; and this is but another way of 

 saying that he is fond of farming or gardening. He buys land, 

 enough for a garden, if not a farm ; he builds a house as tasteful 

 and convenient as his means will allow ; and to the decoration and 

 improvement of his place he devotes his leisure time, and a rea- 

 sonable proportion of the earnings of his business. This new de- 

 mand for these surburban retreats causes the price of land to go 

 up with balloon-like rapidity. Many a farmer wakes up some 

 morning and finds himself rich, because his farm may be profit- 

 ably cut up into house-lots. In the meantime, the energetic 

 merchant or trader carries on his farm, or cultivates his garden, 

 with the vigor and enterprise which he puts into his business ; 

 and having the advantage of capital, derived from other sources 

 than the land itself, the union of the two soon begins to 

 tell. His barns will be the largest and the best arranged ; his 

 cattle the sleekest and finest ; his fences the neatest ; his garden 

 the trimmest. His Alderney heifers, his Suffolk pigs, his Bartlett 

 pears, his Baldwin apples will take prizes at agricultural fairs. 

 The primitive farmer, — native to the soil, — whose father and 

 grandfather Avere farmers before him, — begins Avith looking with 

 distrust upon his cockney neighbor. He shakes his head at his 

 improved implements, his mineral manures, his scientific farming ; 

 he predicts that he will never see his money back again ; but as 

 the seasons go on, and the returns vindicate the judiciousness of 

 3 



