atter were very well set forth by Dr. Holland in a paper on Farm
Life in New England, published in "The Atlantic Monthly" some twenty
years ago. While acknowledging the frequency of bright exceptions to the
rule, he does not hesitate to set it down as a rule that the life
described is in every way a hateful one; where every member of the
family, from father to child, is driven by the lash of stern necessity,
and where many conditions which are deemed requisite in the life of all
other classes of the same wealth are comparatively rare; where the
expectant mother of the child is worked without stint to her last day,
while the mother of the colt is relieved from all hard toil and treated
with consideration throughout the last months of her time; where, in
short, whether from interest or from a mistaken idea of necessity, hard
work long hours, poor food, and dismal surroundings are the rule of the
farmer's household.

Since that time there have been noticeable modifications, involving the
introduction of more or less tastefulness, because of the cheap
literature and cheap music of these later days. But, much as these have
done to affect the individual characters of the younger members of the
family, they have only aggravated the evil, so far as farm-work is
concerned, by creating a desire, born of knowledge, for the pleasanter
manner of life which the town has to offer. The young girls whom one now
sees about railway stations in the most distant part of the country are
dressed after the instructions of "Harper's Bazar" and "Peterson's
Magazine;" and they know more than their older sisters did of the
difference between their own life and that of their city cousins. They
are certainly not to be blamed if they long for some vocation in which
they can more freely indulge their growing ideas of luxury, and gratify
their growing desire for better dress and more interesting
companionship.

All that has here been said is seriously true and important. The
circumstances described are so generally prevalent as to constitute,
with constant minor variations, an almost universal rule. Where we are
to look for relief, is the most serious problem. Relief must be found,
or the character of our farming class must assuredly degenerate. In one
way or another we must change, in a radical degree, the conditions of
the farmer's life. We can perfectly understand why it should be
distasteful to any young person of ordinary ambition or intelligence