26 AMERICAN FARMS. 



land, by moving, combining, separating them so as to 

 satisfy his designs ? Look in every direction ; see land 

 half used, or not used at all. Why should there be any 

 scarcity of work ? Why should men, willing to work, 

 suffer and strain for the want of the things that work 

 produces, while land, the natural source and means of all 

 production, is so abundant ? There is no reason in the 

 nature of things." ' 



We may well ask what are the possibilities of agricul- 

 ture, or to what extent may the earth, when properly 

 treated, be fruitful and multiply for the satisfaction of 

 man, when the science which may be brought to her aid 

 is studied, and its teachings followed ? when mankind 

 looks upon it as it should, as the greatest of all the 

 sciences, or the science of which others are only a part ? 



To this end — namely, that lands "be fruitful," and 

 man prosper — it is necessary that every agricultural 

 community be a centre of interest to society in general ; 

 that society seek the agriculturist, and not that the agri- 

 culturist seek society ; that the city seek the country, not 

 the country the city. If he (the agriculturist) prospers, 

 they will come to him. Make drafts upon him of all 

 sorts, to be consumed away from his land, and his prod- 

 ucts must go abroad in any case to satisfy this demand ; 

 he will have nothing to spend on society at home. 



With a numerous and prosperous land-holding class, 

 production will be large and competition natural, and 

 monopoly in agriculture will not be thought of. Nu- 

 merous country towns are far more desirable for the 

 indirect benefit of agriculture than the growth of a few 

 though wealthy cities. Between the former and the agri- 

 culturists, there is much more likely to be a real com- 



1 Henry George in the North American Review, October, 1889. 



