men did, to the occasion and to the event.
He spoke to the community as being a man himself immersed in the same
life as theirs. On a recent occasion when a woman was very sick in one
of the farm houses and had suffered from the neglect of her neighbors,
his sermon consisted of an appeal to visit the sick. That afternoon the
invalid was called on by thirty-eight people and sent a message before
night, begging the minister to hold the people back.

There are a few ministers throughout the country who are successful
farmers. Many ministers are speculators in farm land. They belong in the
exploiter class. One more instance should be given of the preacher who
promotes agriculture. In a recent discussion the writer was asked, "Do
you then believe that the minister should attend the agricultural
college," and he replied, "No. The agricultural college should be
brought to the country church."

At Bellona, New York, the ministers of two churches, Methodist and
Presbyterian, united with their officers in a farmers' club, to which
others were admitted. This club under the leadership of Rev. T. Maxwell
Morrison, makes the nucleus of its work the study of the agriculture of
the neighborhood and the improvement of it. Lecturers from Cornell
University are brought throughout the year into the country community to
take up in succession the various aspects of farming which may be
improved. The market is studied, by chemical analysis the nature of the
soil is determined, and the possibilities of the community are raised to
their highest value by careful investigation.

This farmers' club has social features as well. Other topics besides
farming are occasionally studied but the business of the club is
economic promotion of the well-being of the community. Incidentally, it
has furnished a social center for the countryside. The churches which
have had to do with it have been enlarged, their membership extended and
even their gifts to foreign missions have been increased in the period
of growth of the farmers' club.

The elements of permanent cultivation of the soil are found in greater
numbers among the Mormons, Scotch Irish Presbyterians, Pennsylvania
Germans, who are the best American agriculturists, than among the more
unstable populations of farmers. Those elements, however, are, simply
speaking, the following.

A certain austerity of life always accompanies successful and permanent
agriculture. By this is meant a fixed relation b