No. 4.] NEW ENGLAND AGKICULTUEE. 95 



lost rural population . In Vermont more than three-fourths 

 of the area lost, and in Maine and New Hampshire nearly 

 two-thirds of the area. In jNIassachusetts the area covered 

 by such loss was relatively small, being slightly less than 

 15) per cent of the total. The numericcd decrease of rural 

 population in New England during that decade was : in 

 Maine, 24,391; in New Hampshire, 8,575; in Vermont, 

 18,944; in Massachusetts, 6,552; in Rhode Island, 508; 

 in Connecticut, 11,964, — being a total of 70,904; but 

 during the same period the aggregate population of these 

 States increased 690,216. 



As has been already indicated, this tendency to a rapid 

 increase of urban population, as compared with rural pop- 

 ulation, is characteristic of the history of every civilized 

 country for the last fifty years. It is aside from my pres- 

 ent purpose to enter into details respecting other countries 

 than our own ; but it is obvious that a world-wide move- 

 ment of such vast sweep and momentum cannot be the 

 result of accident. There must be some adequate cause, 

 either in nature or in the changing forces which impel 

 man ; and, since nature is unchanged, that cause must be 

 sought in the changing conditions which man himself is 

 creating. It is not necessary to dwell upon these causes, 

 except as they bear directly upon the question before us ; 

 but it is plain to the most casual observation that they 

 furnish the necessary starting-point for all our inquiries in 

 this direction. 



It will throw light upon the facts which we have just 

 been considering, if we place side by side with them an- 

 other class of facts of a different kind, yet equally striking 

 and significant. The same period during which this great 

 shifting of the population has been going on has been the 

 period of the great modern development of machinor}^ and 

 of mechanical appliances of every kind. The wonderful ad- 

 vances of science within the present century (and especially 

 the last half of the century), by means of which it is safe to 

 say man has learned more of the secrets of nature than had 

 been discovered in all preceding centuries combined, has 

 been followed at every step by the invention of contri- 

 vances for usino; these secrets in the service of man. 



