s house is a part of his farm;
his fireside is shared by an uncongenial hired man, his family circle
includes too often a vulgar and uninteresting servant; and from one year
to another, his living-room being the kitchen and work-room of the busy
farmhouse, he rarely knows what it is to divest himself of the
surroundings of his labor and business, and to give himself over to the
needed domestic enjoyment and recreation. It is this feature of his
life, more than any other, which seems objectionable. If it is
objectionable for him, it is infinitely more so for his wife and
daughters, who, lacking the frequent visit to the town or occasional
chat with strangers, and the invigorating effect of open-air work, yield
all the more completely to depressing cares. They become more and more
deficient in the lightness and cheerfulness and mental gayety to which
in any other occupation the chief toiler of the family would look for
recreation at his own fireside.

So far as interest in his business is concerned, the farmer's condition
is in every way elevated when he devotes himself to some improved form
of agriculture, or to some special industry which gives him better
compensation for his work. This benefit by no means generally results
from an attempt at "scientific" agriculture, nor is the adoption of a
special industry by any means generally successful. Failure in either of
these directions is disheartening and discouraging to those who are
watching his example. There are many well-tried improvements upon the
old methods of our fathers which are universally adopted, especially in
the direction of the use of better implements and more judicious care in
the application of manure. But the average agricultural newspaper, while
doing great good, has naturally led enthusiastic men to see a chance for
ameliorating their condition by the adoption of processes which are not
suited to their circumstances, or which they themselves are not
qualified to carry out. It is this that has led to the outcry--much more
prevalent a generation ago than now--against "book-farming." On the
whole, whatever may have been the influences of agricultural writers
upon the fortunes of their early converts, they have vastly modified and
improved all modern farm-work, and have greatly benefited the more
recent farmer.

The conditions of the industry are hard, chiefly because the business of
farming is a laborious one, and one in which an enormous population is