356 RURAL NEW YORK 



It is not to be expected that super-intensive farm- 

 ing will develop over very large areas inasmuch as 

 great parts of the State are rough and elevated and 

 must remain in relatively extensive agriculture. Al- 

 though gardening will make great progress, for any 

 future that we can foresee the State will not become 

 a garden. It is not until other parts of the country 

 fill up that the hills will be brought into any such 

 state of cultivation as in parts of Europe; and even 

 then it is doubtful whether such a development will 

 take place, for liuman labor is to play a very different 

 part in the agriculture of the future. Social condi- 

 tions in this country, where there is no traditional 

 attitude of master and man, will not allow of slavery 

 to a piece of land. Probably many of the methods of 

 raising the world's supplies will change radically 

 within a century, and naturally these changes must 

 come in the newer countries of the earth and where 

 there is the greatest freedom of individual action. 



New York has now had a long period of agricul- 

 tural development. The commercial position of the 

 State has taken on the characteristics of relative per- 

 manency. The general present rural situation, there- 

 fore, so far as farm products- is concerned, is proba- 

 bly itself a fairly good forecast of the future. The 

 State will never be predominantly agricultural. The 

 industries and interests will have a coordinating and, 

 let us hope, a cooperating evolution. 



The character of the urban development will pro- 

 foundly influence the course of the rural life of New 

 York. Indications are tiiat there must be a limit to 



