The record-union., 1891-02-08
..THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN,

.sTHE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN"
In the Forum for February Professor
the farmers changed condition in these
words: tits plainly the duty of the Gov
eminent to preserve the constantly
diminishing class once known and hon
ored as country gentlemen. They were
the fathers of the Republic, and for a long
time constituted our true nobility. The
little remnant should be preserved, and,
if possible, increased. The founders of
our Government never intended to foster
absentee landlords and to create an ig
norant rural peasantry."
This is the conclusion of an extended
review of the causes Of the farmers
changed condition. These causes are re-
cited mostly from a standpoint that had
the New England, rather than the farmer
class in general, in view, for of early farm
life Professor Welch's experience was
limited to the Northeast. He tells the
StOl, Vi Liz thuSl SC1l-iiSipleil-
ness of the farmers life in the early
days in charming recitative; how
there was little money and little need for
it,; how home-production was the chief
medium of exchange-rather was ex-
change itself; how every economy was
practiced, and that saved and turned into
support which is now considered too in
significant for care; how, very nearly,
everything that was consumed upon the
farm was grown or produced upon the
farm.
In those days tradesmen went from
house to house with supplies, artisans
called at stated periods to do the family
shoemaking, or carpentering, or tailor
ing, etc. Every farmhouse was then a
mandatory of many kinds of goods; all
day the whirr of the spinning wheel or
the click of the loom was heard. The
kitchen was at once bakers, a confec-
toner's and chemists shop. Agricult-
ural implements were then few and SIM
pie; there were no sewing machines, and
wives and daughters were skilled in gar
Matchmaking and sewing to meet all
home needs. There were no labor-saving
machines worth mentioning in those
days; hard hand-work accomplished all
field labor; wheat was gathered as in the
days of Ruth and Boaz; commercial
farming was practically unknown, for
farmers were, in the main, long dis
lance from ports, and products had to be
hauled so far that the cost often con-
sumed the value, save in the case of wool.
But the social conditions were then of a
superior character. The farmer was in
deed the country gentleman; his daugh-
tiers the bellies of the land, and his wife
lady of the soil. From the farmer came
the strong men of the day, the legisla-
tors, statesmen, orators, judges and ply
sicians. 1t was toiling class, this farmer
class, but one full of dignity and manly
independence and feeling itself to be, as
it was, the underpinning and substructure
of the national edifce
But of the changes that have come
about with the introduction of railways
and labor-saving machinery, and with
the progress in science and art, it is not
necessary to deal-they are familiar to
all. The migration from country to town
and its causes are patent. Cities have
become so attractive, their comforts and
conveniences and advantages such as to
be all but irresistible The farmer who
succeeds does so but to leave his land to a
tenant, and depart to the town with his
family, whose social ambition can in no
other way be satisfied. Except in few
cases, there is little attention given to
identifying the country home; the house
and grounds have little care, for they are
not regarded as permanent.
Farms are deserted by sons because
farming is no longer remunerative; the
merchant and manufacturer of the town
is protected, and the rural youths seeking
these benefits, drift to the town, and
abandon the farm which has most bur-
dens to bear, yields the least profit and
has the smallest need of protection.
Another cause of the abandonment of the
farm is the remunerative rental the
owner can secure from class that live.
very largely as do the European peasan-
try. In countless cases in the West land
was secured very low, was farmed pro-
fitably when grain growing was remun-
erative, and the proprietors then sought
the town with their gains and left the
lands to tenantry holding them in
small parcels.
These Western retired farmers becom-
ing landlords, take little interest in roads,
or the keeping up of buildings, or in
making repairs; the tenants have no
permanent interest and so the farms srun
down." and become anything but at
tractive. In the West the intellectual
condition among tenant class upon
farming lands is usually low; there is