is productive in the
highest degree of moral and religious values. In the words of Director
L. H. Bailey, of Cornell, "The land is holy."

This is especially true at the present time, when the land is limited in
amount. Already the whole nation is dependent upon the farmer in the
degree intimated by the statement of Dean Bailey. "The census of 1900
showed approximately one-third of our people on farms or closely
connected with farms, as against something like nine-tenths, a hundred
years previous. It is doubtful whether we have struck bottom, although
the rural exodus may have gone too far in some regions, and we may not
permanently strike bottom for sometime to come."[13]

The service of the few to the many, therefore, is the present status of
the husbandman. The very fact that one-third of the people must feed
all the people imposes religious and ethical conditions upon the farmer.
The dependence of the greater number for their welfare upon those who
are to till the soil brings that obligation, which the farmer is well
constituted to bear and to which his serious spirit gives response.

This means that with the growing consciousness of the need of scientific
agriculture there will arise, indeed is now arising, a new ethical and
religious feeling among country people. The church which is made up of
scientific farmers is a new type of church.

A notable testimony to the influence of the church in developing
husbandry is by Sir Horace Plunkett,[14] who testifies to the religious
influence that led to the agrarian revolution in Denmark.

"My friends and I have been deeply impressed by the educational
experience of Denmark, where the people, who are as much dependent on
agriculture as are the Irish, have brought it by means of organization
to a more genuine success than it has attained anywhere else in Europe.
Yet an inquirer will at once discover that it is to the 'High School'
founded by Bishop Grundtvig, and not to the agricultural schools, which
are also excellent, that the extraordinary national progress is mainly
due. A friend of mine who was studying the Danish system of state aid to
agriculture, found this to be the opinion of the Danes of all classes,
and was astounded at the achievements of the associations of farmers not
only in the manufacture of butter, but in a far more difficult
undertaking, the manufacture of bacon in large factories equipped with
all the most modern machinery and appliances which scie