his leading assistants, both white and coloured, are of the same
opinion.

[5] Where capital is, in rare instances, subscribed by persons other
than farmers, it is usually invested less as a commercial speculation
than as an act of friendship on the part of the investor, who in no case
exercises more control than his one vote affords.

[6] Readers who are sufficiently interested in the rural life movement
in Ireland will find a full description of it in my book, "Ireland in
the New Century," John Murray, London, and E. P. Dutton, New York.

[7] Mr. John Lee Coulter contributed to the _Yale Review_ for November,
1909, an article on Organization among the farmers of the United States
which is a most valuable summary of the important facts.

CHAPTER VI

THE WAY TO BETTER FARMING AND BETTER LIVING

In no way is the contrast between rural and urban civilisation more
marked than in the application of the teachings of modern science to
their respective industries. Even the most important mechanical
inventions were rather forced upon the farmer by the efficient selling
organisation of the city manufacturers than demanded by him as a result
of good instruction in farming. On the mammoth wheat farms, where, as
the fable ran, the plough that started out one morning returned on the
adjoining furrow the following day, mechanical science was indeed called
in, but only to perpetrate the greatest soil robbery in agricultural
history. Application of science to legitimate agriculture is
comparatively new. In my ranching and farming days I well remember how
general was the disbelief in its practical value throughout the Middle
and Far West. In cowboy terminology, all scientists were classified as
"bug-hunters," and farmers generally had no use for the theorist. The
non-agricultural community had naturally no higher appreciation of the
farmer's calling than he himself displayed. When some Universities first
developed agricultural courses, the students who entered for them were
nicknamed "aggies," and were not regarded as adding much to the dignity
of a seat of higher learning. The Department of Agriculture was looked
upon as a source of jobs, graft being the nearest approach to any known
agricultural operation.

All this is changing fast. The Federal Department of Agriculture is now
perhaps the most popular and respected of the world's great
administrative institutions. In the Middle West, a newly awakened
public opinion ha