THE REAL IMPORTANCE OE AGRICULTURE. 21 



classes. New conditions should find the farmer expand- 

 ing his higher faculties to meet them in the prosecution 

 of his own labors ; exercising not only acquisitions 

 which a liberal education should give, but also of that 

 valuable instruction preserved in tradition only — a 

 science " transmitted in fragments from father to son," 

 from neighbor to neighbor, an evolution without record. 



Taking societies in the aggregate, it is from the farm- 

 er's surplus that other occupations become possible. 

 When they take more than this, they are trenching upon 

 the farmer's capital and estates, and if continued it must 

 be but a matter of time when a crisis of vast proportions 

 must be the result. It is after the necessities of life are 

 satisfied that opportunities arise for new forms of pro- 

 duction and consumption. 



The enjoyment of civilized life requires the full and 

 uninterrupted development of all the great divisions of 

 labor consistent with justice and safety ; we cannot dis- 

 pense with either. But it is in rural life, surrounded by 

 nature, that the highest and grandest application of the 

 results of all progress for the development of man is 

 possible. 



To sum it all up, we have science, our own observa- 

 tion, and the histories of civilizations which have come 

 and gone, all loudly protesting against a decline of 

 agriculture. 



