The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-07-19
From Scribner's Monthly
The Loneliness of Farming Life in Amer

lea.
An American traveller in the Oh,
World notices, among the multitude O
: things that are new to his eye, the gath
erings Of agricultural populations int
: villages. He has been accustomed il
his own country to see them Distributed
upon the farms they cultivate. The is
olated farm life, so universal here, eithel
does not exist at all in the greater par
of continental Europe, or it exists rs {
comparatively modern institution Tn,
old populations, of all callings and pro
fessions, clustered together for self-de
fence, and built walls around themselves
Out from these walls, for miles around
went the tillers of the soil in the morn
ing, and back into the gates they
thrOnged at night. Cottages were clus.
tered around feudal castles, and grew
into towns; and so Europe for many
centuries was cultivated mainly by peO-
pie who lived in villages and cities,
many of which We're walled, and all OF
which possessed appointments for de-
tense. The early settlers in our own
country took the same means to defend
themselves from the treacherous Indian.
] The towns of Hadley, Hatfield. North
/ held and Deeriield, on the Connecticut
river, are notable examples of this kind
OF building; and to this day they remain
villages of agriculturists. That is the
way in which farmers ought to have no
question, and we wish to say few words
about it,
There is some reason for the general
disposition Of American men and women
to shun agricultural pursuits which the
observers and philosophers have been
slow to find. We see young men push
ing everywhere into trade, into mechan-
zeal pursuits, into the learned profess
sions, into Insignificant clerkships. into
saiaried positions of every sort that will
take them into towns and slipport and
hold them there We find il impossibIe
10 drive poor people from the cities
with the threat of starvation. or Ia coax
them with the promise of better nav
and cheaper fare. There they STAY, and
starNe, and sicken, and sink. Young
women resort To the shops and factories
rather than take service in farmers
houses, where they are received rs mem
Ders oi the family; and when they mar
~ they seek an alliance, when practi-
cable, with mechanics and tradesmen
who live IN villages and large towns.
The daughters of the farmer ny the farm
the first opportunity. The towns grow
larger all the time, and i'm New England
at least, the farms are becoming wider
and longer, and the farming population
are diminished in numbers, and in some
localities degraded in quality and char
actcr.
Any farmer who plants himself and
his family alOnC-far from possible
neighbors-takes upon himself a terri
bic responsibility. 10 is impossible that
Il 10 - ZNHr III L.
thoroughly happy there. He will be
forsaken in his old age by the verv chill
dren for whom he has made his great
sacrifice. They will ly To the towns for
the social food and stimulauts for which
they have starved. We never hear Of a
colony settling On a Western prairie
without 4 thrill Of pleasure. Ii is i'm
colonies that all ought to settle, and in
villages rather than OF separate farms.
The meeting and lecture, the public
amusement, the social assembly, SHOULD
be things easily reached. There is 10
such damper upon free social life as dis
tance. a long road is the surest bar to
nelghborly intercourse. If the social
life of the farmer were richer. his life
would by that measure be more attract
i've.
After all, there are farmers who will
read this article with q sense of afront
or injury, as if by doubling or disputing
the sutiiciency of the social opportuni-
ties we insult them with a sort of con-
tempt; We assure them that they can
not afford 10 treat thoroughly svmpa-
tneuc counsel in this way. We know
that their wives and daughters and sons
are on our side, quarrel with us as they
may ana the women and children are
right The old man, who rides to mar
ket and the post office, and minples
more or less in business with the world.
get along tolerably well: bat it is the
stayers at home who suffer Instead of
growing wiser and better as they grow
older, they lose all the graces of life in
unmeaning drudgery, and instead of
ripening in mind and heart. they simply
dry up OF decay. We are satisfied that
the great curse Of farming life i'm Amer
lea Is its isolation. Ii is useless to say
that men shun the farm because they
are lazy.
The American is not n lazy man any
where; but he is social, and he will fly
from q life that is not social to one that
is. IL we are to have q larger and better
population devoted to agriculture, isOla-
! tiOn must be Stunned, and the whole
/ policy Of settlement hereafter must be
controlled or greatly modified by social
consideratiOns.-Dr 30 q. Holland.