It is clear that Rural Welfare, as far at least as it rests upon Wealth, is to be gained by careful study of laws of nature and human nature quite independent of mere wishes. The only way to improve the present situation of affairs in any community is to use the natural forces within reach to advantage. All the growth of the past is preparation for more growth and better fruit in the present and future. The farmer who knows most about the fundamental principles of property and property rights in society is most likely to best serve his community, as well as himself. Still it is equally clear that the chief elements of Rural Welfare are not mere wealth. Wealth is but the material out of which the external machinery of welfare is formed. Every way essential to progress in any degree, it does not give the chief test of progress. No one is gaining the full use of his wealth until it is well spent for the welfare that is strictly personal,—health, wisdom and virtue. No society, however wealthy, has reached true welfare till all its members appreciate the higher welfare, and make wealth-seeking a means for securing it. Rural communities can take advantage of many inexpensive ways of adding to their welfare without great wealth. The natural surroundings of the country home give development to ability and courage in children that are better than wealth. The same principles of thrift that are to be cultivated for the sake of material comforts apply to the larger welfare that a wise enjoyment of nature’s gifts and nature’s lessons may bring. The thrifty farmer comes nearest of all men to the ideal condition of the wise man, expressed in the wish, “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” He can have enough to comfortably house, clothe and feed his family in the midst of surroundings as wholesome as the world affords. He can give his children, by the aid of their healthy bodies and strong hearts, as good opportunities for education as any can use. He has a natural leisure for self-culture in the use of papers and books, if he tries to use it, and his relations with neighbors of similar abilities are more human, more true, than those found in any other circumstances. If farmers live as they ought, their homes are centers of true hospitality, true sympathy for human rights; and with a little more constant care for neighborly spirit would come nearest to giving the true foundation for manly and womanly character in children, and so in their parents.