materially more attractive to
American boys and girls. All that can be done is to rob it of its
isolation by withdrawing its people, and placing them under better
conditions of life.

In a word, the only way that seems to offer to keep the boys on the farm
is to move everybody off of the farm, bringing them together into snug
little communities, where they may secure, without abandoning the
manifest advantages of their occupation, the greater social interest and
stimulus which they now hope to enjoy by going into other callings whose
natural advantages are less. That such a course as this would restore
the farmer to his former position as a leading element in Eastern
civilization, cannot be questioned. That he will retain even the
relative influence that he exercises to-day, unless some radical change
is made, is at least very doubtful.

In considering the questions here suggested, we must never lose sight of
the fact that the controlling element is economy. The farmer exists
because he is needed. The world demands the products that he produces,
and the world must needs pay him a living compensation for them. No
change will be possible which disregards this; and all who know the
present circumstances which control the reward of the farming class know
that these circumstances would be inadequate to maintain him in a life
of greater ease, while calling for greater expense. This gives the added
embarrassment that we must not only change the mode of life, but must
also increase the ratio of profit, if this is possible. This is possible
only through a reduction of the area cultivated, the cultivation of this
reduced area in a more thorough and profitable way, and the turning of
farming industry into channels better adapted to securing a profitable
return.

To discuss a modification of the whole system of farming would involve
far more detail than is possible in this paper, since such a discussion
must include the consideration of features which would change with
changing locality; but, by way of illustration, we may take the
previously supposed case of a farmer owning one hundred acres of land,
and milking a dozen cows, selling the milk as before in the distant
town. Assume that he and his neighbors within a radius of about a mile
are living in a central village, from which his land is one mile
distant. During the working season, say from the middle of April until
late in October, he must, with his teams and assistants, s