THE COUNTRY HOME [CHAPTER 
country born and country bred, I shall perhaps be 
able to help others to avoid mistakes, and take 
quicker advantage of opportunity. Whoever seeks 
the country should seek it for a definite purpose, 
and understand that he must educate himself to 
make that purpose workable. There is study 
ahead, as well as work. You will find no industry 
so complex as agriculture — rightly pursued. Every 
science will have to be subsidized for help. There is, 
however, sufficient common purpose in going back 
to the land, to make the book I offer of practical 
use to a wide range of readers. I shall not theorize, 
but shall deal with facts; and while telling what 
may be done by the many, will only describe that 
which has already been accomplished by the few. 
Fifty years ago suburbanism meant the building 
of villas and mansions in the outskirts of cities — 
as going into the country meant going to Newport 
and Saratoga. Democracy in country development 
is displacing aristocracy. Suburbanism means 
to-day a movement of the people all along the line, 
to adjust themselves to home-making, apart from, 
and generally remote from large nuclei of popula- 
tion. Books, published fifty years ago on country 
life, sketched objectless buildings with city plots 
(10) 
