Incidentally, there may be combinations to secure good outlet drainage for tracts of land belonging to different owners, and later a provision for the general irrigation of these lands. It is not to be hoped, that, either as a whole or in its details, agricultural improvement is to be advanced with any thing like a rush. Farmers are generally "conservative" in the worst sense of the term. They have during the past generation adopted many improvements and modifications in the methods of their work, the mere suggestion of which would have been scouted by their fathers; but they are themselves as ready as their fathers were to scout any further new suggestion, and it is only by iteration and reiteration that the shorter steps of tentative experiment can be urged upon their acceptance. In reviewing what is written above, the thought arises that the one impression that it will surely produce will be that its writer fails to appreciate the better influences that cluster around the better class of farmers' homes. Such an inference would be quite unjust. Knowing as I do the intrinsic worth and the charming qualities of very many of these households, I appeal to the best of the thoughtful men and women whom they include, to confirm my statement that they find many elements of their life to be pinching and hard, and that however admirable they may now be, they would be in no way injured, but in many ways improved, by more frequent intercourse with their equals, and especially with their betters. That the picture I have sketched of the average farmer's family is not overdrawn, I appeal to every country clergyman and physician to bear witness. The truths suggested are patent to all. They are set forth in no spirit of hypercriticism, and with no other view than to help to ameliorate the condition of those to whom they refer. Knowing the farmer more intimately than does the average editor or orator, I am confident that my estimate of his character and of his life will strike him as being more just, if not more honest. * * * * * BY THE SAME AUTHOR. ~A FARMER'S VACATION.~ Sketches of Travel in Europe; with a very complete Account of the Drainage of the Great Haarlem Lake in Holland; Notes on Dutch Farming; a Journey in Normandy and Brittany; and an Elaborate Description of the Channel Islands,--their Agriculture, Social Customs, Scenery, &c. Beautifully illustrated. Price $3.00. ~WHIP AND SPUR.~ Papers reprinted from the "Atlantic Monthly,"--largely about Army Experiences; and certain Horses, at Home and in the Field. Price $1.25. ~THE ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE.~ A work of Practical Science for Farmers. Price $1.00. ~THE SANITARY DRAINAGE OF HOUSES AND TOWNS.~ Illustrated. Price $2.00. ~DRAINING FOR PROFIT, and DRAINING FOR HEALTH.~ Complete Directions for the Drainage of Agricultural Lands, Swamps, Malarious Districts, &c. Fully illustrated. Price $1.50.