378 Percy Wells Bidwell 



fessions to which we are accustomed, such as those of the trained 

 nurse or of the funeral director, for instance, were entirely lacking, 

 the deficiency was made up by the voluntary offices of neighbors. 

 It was turn and turn about. Such services were rarely if ever paid 

 for, but the understanding was that the person or family receiving 

 the service stood ready to render similar services willingly when 

 occasion should arise. The practices of neighborly cooperation in 

 the extraordinary tasks of farm labor, such as in raising buildings and 

 in "changing works" of all sorts; the custom of parceling out portions 

 of slaughtered animals so as to equalize consumption and decrease 

 waste; all these arrangements were, we have seen, direct results of the 

 farmers' necessity of adapting themselves to the self-sufficient con- 

 ditions of their life. Indirectly, a helpful and neighborly spirit was 

 stimulated. 



Edttcative Effects. 



In its educative effects the self-sufficient household produced cer- 

 tain results which the more formal training of our modem homes and 

 schools has never been able to approximate. In the first place, it 

 inculcated habits of self-reliance and an ability to bear responsibility. 

 In large families where the various tasks of the house and farm were 

 apportioned to each member of the family according to his strength 

 and ability, even the little children were taught early that for the 

 performance of their particular tasks they were to be strictly account- 

 able. It was a hard discipline often, and perhaps it developed too 

 early a serious way of taking life, but under proper control it evolved 

 a race of men strong and independent. 



The Importance of the Mechanical Ingenuity of the Yankee Farmer 

 in the Future Industrial Development of New England. 

 We have already spoken of the mechanical ingenuity of the Yankee 

 farmer. It arose just as immediately as these other characteristics 

 from the necessities of getting a complete living from the products of 

 a single farm, and from the lack of any clearly marked division of 

 labor in the rural communities.^ Of the many contributions of the 



1 It may be objected that there have been many cases of isolated communities 

 whose inhabitants have not shown themselves especially ingenious along mechani- 

 cal lines. Instances coming readily to mind are the Boers of the Transvaal and 

 the mountaineers of eastern Tennessee. But it will be found that such com- 

 munities were in many important respects not comparable with the towns of 

 southern New England. Although suffering under the same inability to export 

 foodstuffs, and consequently feeling the same necessity of making use of ingen- 



