THE FARMERS' SOCIAL OUTLOOK. 225 



only 23 per cent, of the agriculturists of the State were 

 so born. • • 



In the older provinces of Canada the farmers compose 

 as fine a class of men as are to be found anywhere. They 

 form the best law-abiding, industrious, moral forces of 

 the confederacy. 



Yet, with the decline of American agriculture, and 

 the diminution of the number of the small land pro- 

 prietors, dangers to the social order and the security 

 of the state must be more and more augmented as the 

 evil goes on. The first impetus towards social insecurity 

 may now be seen in the dissatisfaction which is growing 

 among farmers because of their relative disadvantages. 

 The second is rapidly approached when legislators begin 

 to consider favorably the policy of repeopling the old 

 country towns with foreign stock, in place #f removing 

 the difficulties which are driving the old families away. 

 The third danger is the relative decline in the number of 

 those who should have direct interest in preserving the 

 institutions of the country. 



It is no doubt too true, that the farms and the villages 

 of New England are no longer the nurseries of the type 

 of " earnest thinkers and patient workers " that they 

 once were ; while it is true that there is a growing unrest 

 among the rural classes, because of the changes which 

 oppress them. It is also conspicuously apparent that it 

 is the exception to find farmers who look forward with 

 pride to fitting their sons for an occupation which, as 

 they must believe, is every day losing ground in social 

 rank. New England, being the oldest English commu- 

 nity in America, or the one most ripened in development, 

 shows these changes more conspicuously than other 



parts. But is it not a disease which is spreading rapidly ? 

 10* 



