CHAPTER V. 



AS TO FRUGALITY. 



Not a few, even of farmers themselves, attribute the 

 disease, which they have to admit is settHng itself upon 

 agriculture in America, or upon the economic affairs of 

 those who pursue it, to their habits of expensive living. 

 For a cure they demand frugality. This demand may, 

 in a sense, be reasonable ; but those who make it must 

 concede to the view that they ask cure for a disease 

 which is growing upon other classes even more than 

 upon the farmers. Then, why are the agriculturists less 

 able to bear up under it than other classes ? 



It may well be claimed that the consumption of the 

 income of the husbandman is as rational as that of any 

 of his contemporaries. Let one become familiar with 

 the expenditures and habits of the bulk of the manufac- 

 turing and commercial classes, and they will be con- 

 vinced that these are far more irrational in such respects. 

 In fact, the farmer, of all men, feels very sensibly the 

 consequences of any injudicious use of his means. The 

 farmer also faces, as no one else, the responsibility 

 of his folly. It can rarely be thrown upon others, as 

 in the more commercial, or even professional, occupa- 

 tions. Governments may be extravagant, and their sup- 

 porters commend them for it, claiming that the country so 

 represented is made to appear more important and influ- 



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