een derived more or less
from our European traditions. Perhaps, after all, we ought to and do
attach the most importance to that which is the most rare. In England,
where the ownership of land carries with it a certain social dignity,
and where the mere possession of money has a less marked influence in
this direction, there is no doubt that the title-deeds to broad acres
constitute a certain sort of patent of nobility. In this country, where
land is plenty and cheap and where large fortunes are rare, a farmer
gets consideration less for the amount of land that he himself owns,
than for the sum-total of the mortgages which he holds upon his
neighbors' land. That is to say, it is better to be rich in money than
in land; and instances are comparatively rare, even among those who are
cultivating their ancestral acres, where the farm would not be gladly
sold for a sum of which the income would secure a better and easier mode
of life. The farm is not regarded with especial affection: it is mainly
regarded--along with its stock and tools--as an instrument for making
money.

The American farmer is distinguished from the English farmer chiefly by
having his capital invested in the land which he cultivates, rather than
in the tools and live stock and working capital needed to carry on his
business. As a general rule the farmer's whole fortune is invested in
his land. Often his farm is mortgaged, and he has little loose money
with which to improve his system of work. The necessity for making a
living and paying interest, without sufficient capital for the best
management, makes the life of the farmer too often a grinding one. If he
is skilful and industrious and prudent, he may hope with certainty to
free himself from debt, and to accumulate a respectable support for his
old age.

When we consider any class of working people, as a class, this is
perhaps all that we can hope for under any circumstances. The unhopeful
thing about it all is that while farmers work less hard than their
fathers did, and while they get a better return for their work, the
surroundings of their life have not improved as have those of men
engaged in other industries, so that although actually much better off
than their ancestors were, they are relatively less well off in the more
attractive conditions of other classes of workmen; and this deficiency
is driving away the children on whom they ought to depend for assistance
and for succession.

In the ab