rists are a remarkably observant race, and as a rule
peculiarly well-informed. This is contrary to the popular belief, which
represents the farmer as rude and ignorant, a pot-bellied beer-drinker,
and nothing more. But the popular belief is a delusion. I do not say
that they are literary or scientific in their tastes and private
pursuits. There are no great names among them in geology, or astronomy,
or anthropology, or any other science. They are not artists in any
sense. But they are singularly well-informed. They possess more general
knowledge than any other class, and can converse on subjects with which
townsmen seem unacquainted. Many of them have very fair libraries, not
extensive, but containing books of sterling excellence. Farming is
necessarily an isolated business--there is little society. Except on
market-days, there is scarcely any interchange of conversation. There
is, too, at certain seasons of the year a good deal of leisure. What
books they own, therefore, are well read, and the contents reflected
upon. It is that habit of thinking over what is read that makes all the
difference. It is impossible to avoid being struck with the immense
amount of general information possessed by some agriculturists, and the
wide field over which their knowledge ranges. Yet with all this
knowledge and power of reflection they still remain attached to the
old-world system of politics, religion, and social relations.

The habits of intemperance which were at one time a just and standing
reproach against the agriculturist have almost entirely disappeared. A
drunken farmer is now unknown. They are as fond as ever of offering
hospitality to a friend, and as ready to take a social glass--no total
abstainers amongst them; but the steady hard-drinking sot has passed
away. The old dodge of filling the bottle with gin instead of water,
and so pouring out pure spirit, instead of spirit and water, when the
guests were partially intoxicated, in order to complete the process, is
no more known. They do not drink more than the inhabitants of towns.

It is a singular fact that with so many streams and ponds scattered
about the country within easy reach, the farmers do not care for
fishing. A farmer engaged in fishing is a rarity indeed. They are
eagerly fond of fox-hunting, coursing, and shooting, but fishing is a
dead letter. A party will sometimes go out and net a pond, but as for
fishing proper, with rod and line, it is almost unknown. E