ow under discussion: the subject is a fruitful one, and has
important bearings upon the development of the race; but what we are to
consider here is simply the work and condition of the farmer himself.
The milk-selling farmer--and this industry is one of the most
wide-spread in Eastern farming--is more regularly employed than any
other. Winter and summer his cows must be milked twice a day. Evening's
milk must be cooled and safely kept until morning; and morning's milk
must be ready for early delivery. It is usual for the farmer to rise at
three every morning, winter and summer, to milk his cows,--with one
assistant,--and to start as early as five o'clock to deliver his milk.
Returning about the middle of the forenoon, he is able to attend to the
details of barn-work in winter and field-work in summer, until half-past
two or three o'clock in the afternoon, less the brief interval needed
for the consumption of food. Early in the afternoon the cows must be
again milked, and the cans of milk must in summertime be set in spring
water for cooling. Then comes the feeding of the stock and the greasing
of axles, the mending of harness, the repairing of tools, and the
thousand and one odds and ends of the farmer's irregular work. In the
winter, save for the early rising and the work of cold mornings, life is
by no means hurried; and after a very early supper there is often a
stroll to the corner store or to a neighbor's house, for a little
wholesome idleness and gossip,--the latter not invariably wholesome. At
about the hour when the average reader of "The Atlantic" has finished
his after-dinner cigar, all lights are extinguished, and the farm
household is wrapped in heavy slumber; for such early rising as the
milk-farmer is condemned to must needs trench upon the valuable evening
hours for requisite rest and sleep.

In summer the conditions of life are immeasurably hardened. The farmer
himself is necessarily absent several hours every morning with his
milk-wagon; but, although he cannot lend a hand at the early field work,
this work must go on with promptness, and he must arrange in advance for
its proper performance. From the moment when he has finished his late
breakfast until the last glimmer of twilight, he is doomed to harrowing
and often anxious toil. There is no wide margin of profit that will
admit of a slackening of the pace. Land must be prepared for planting;
planting must be done when the condition of the ground and