6 



The changes of which I speak will continue, and coinci- 

 dent with them are two other changes calculated to exert 

 considerable influence upon the fortunes and character of 

 the people. There is a disposition among the farmers to 

 abandon the habit of isolated family life, and to gather in or 

 near the villages. This change springs not merely from the 

 discomfort and exposure of isolated homes, but also from an 

 increasing desire for education, for the education furnished by 

 society, as well as that furnished by the schools. In the ex- 

 pressive language of the country people, the " outskirts'' are to 

 be deserted, and farms will be converted into pastures or sur- 

 rendered to forests. These changes are not to be deplored. 



Generally the best lands are in or near the villages of the 

 farming towns, the selection of the site for the " meeting- 

 house " having been the consequence of the selection of lands 

 by the " most discreet of the freemen," which meant those 

 having the keenest eyes for good land. Frequently, gener- 

 ally, the outlying lands fell to those who were least capable 

 of managing them, and they have become exhausted by 

 negligent culture. Until farming lands are quite valuable 

 nature can restore them more economically by a growth of 

 wood than they can be restored by human skill or labor. 



Fortunately for New England, we have for many years 

 been surrendering our exhausted pastures and worn-out farms 

 to the forests. Forests upon the tops and sides of hills and 

 mountains are a certain source of moisture and nourishment 

 to the fields below; they increase the quantity of rainfall ; 

 they add to the beauty of the landscape ; they check the 

 sudden flow of water to the valleys in the spring freshets, and 

 they diminish the severity of the droughts in the summer and 

 autumn. 



Secondly, farming is becoming more and more an intel- 

 lectual pursuit, and the aggregation of farmers in the villages 

 is almost a necessary condition of progress. Not only are the 

 children better trained in schools, but the men and women are 



