THE FARMERS' SOCIAL OUTLOOK. 233 



the soil he tills " ; that " it makes him a better farmer, a 

 better citizen, and a more patriotic one." 



Collectivism would be no remedy for the abnormal 

 state of things toward which we are now tending ; it 

 would be a cure more to be dreaded than the disease ; 

 and the same may be said of land nationalization. Ex- 

 tinguish that impulse which prompts our farmers to cul- 

 tivate with energy, and beautify the lands of their fore- 

 fathers, and you have stricken that land with a blight ; 

 cause the farmer to view the orchards and gardens which 

 have been his childhood's delight, as the property of the 

 highest bidder, and his interest in them fails ; deprive 

 him of the stimulus to work, which sole ownership and 

 management of an estate freed from all encumbrances 

 naturally gives him, and make a collectivate or govern- 

 ment agent sole manager of his individual industries, and 

 you have robbed him of the best incentives toward true 

 progress. There is nothing original in all this. They 

 are but the views of our ablest economists. Adam 

 Smith's observations led him to the conclusion, that 

 "the small proprietor who tills every part of his little 

 territory, who views it with all the affection which prop- 

 erty (especially small property) inspires, and who, on 

 that account, takes pleasure not only in cultivating but 

 in adorning it, is generally of all improvers the most 

 industrious, the most intelligent, and the most success- 

 ful." Arthur Young makes this striking and enthusiastic 

 remark : " Give a man secure possession of a bleak 

 rock, and he will turn it into a garden." 



Nothing can be more conducive to the success of the 

 farmer's enterprise than the confidence that his labors 

 may secure him thorough independence. With increas- 



