it is a common saying that one has only to be an A, or a B, or a
T, to be certain of getting a farm. Whole parishes seem related, and not
very distantly related either; and yet there is not the remotest
class-feeling or _esprit de corps_. The isolation and independence of a
farm life are powerful agents in preventing anything like cohesion. Any
one who will take the trouble to look down the parish register in a
strictly agricultural district will be forcibly struck with the
permanence of certain names. Page after page contains nothing but
records of the marriages, intermarriages, burials, baptisms, and so on
of two or three generic names. The population appears to have been
stationary for scores upon scores of years. Say what you will, ridicule
it as you like, there is a charm clinging round that which time has
hallowed; and even the man of the hour, the successful speculator,
yields to this. It is his most eager desire to become a landed
proprietor, and if possible he buys a place where he can exercise
manorial rights.

Taking these things into consideration, it is only reasonable to admit
that agriculture is a profession in which a man may, above all others,
be excused if he manifests a certain amount of irritability at the
prospect of change. The slow round of uneventful years, the long
continuance of manual labour, the perpetual iteration of a few ideas, in
time produce in the mind of the most powerfully intellectual men a
species of unconscious creed; and this creed is religiously handed down
from generation to generation. Setting aside those who have gone into
agriculture as a science, and adapt everything to commercial
principles--and they are as yet not very numerous--the great mass of
farmers believe nearly the same now as they did two centuries ago.
Looking through a farmer's calendar published in the first few years of
this century, and containing a complete _resume_ of the system of
agriculture practised then, I was struck by the remarkable fact that in
all main features it was the same as that in use now. We have heard so
much of the rapid progress of agriculture, of the important changes
introduced, and of the complete revolution which has taken place, that
this statement may appear incredible. It is nevertheless the fact that
that book might be put with advantage into the hands of any young man
about to enter upon a farm. With the exception of those operations which
are now performed by steam, and making