y, the
agricultural Press is becoming less exclusively technical and
commercial, and more human. Even the syndicated stuff is getting less
townified. My correspondence, newspaper clippings sent to me, and many
other indications, point in the same direction. They leave the
impression upon my mind that there is a vast, efficient and enthusiastic
army of social workers upon the farm lands of the United States badly in
need of a Headquarters Staff.

If I am right in believing that, of the English-speaking countries, the
United States affords the best opportunity for such a consummation, most
assuredly the present time is peculiarly auspicious. If Mr. Roosevelt's
Country Life policy has not been received with any marked enthusiasm,
American public opinion has been thoroughly aroused upon his
Conservation policy. The latter cannot possibly come to fruition--nor
even go much further--until the Country Life problem is boldly faced. In
the Conference of Governors it was pointed out over and over again that
the farmer, now the chief waster, must become the chief conserver. As
such he will himself become a supporter of the policy, and will bring to
the aid of those advocates of Conservation whose chief concern is for
future generations, an interested public opinion which will go far to
outweigh the influence of those who profit by the exhaustion of natural
resources. To the country life reformer I would say that, as the one
idea has caught on while the other lags, he will, if he is wise, hitch
his Country Life waggon to the Conservation star.

With every advantage of time and place, the promotion of the movement
which is to counteract the townward tendency will have to reckon with
the psychological difficulty inherent in the conditions. They must
recognise the paradox of the situation already pointed out, the
necessity of interesting the town in the problems of the country. The
urban attitude of mind which caused the evil, and now makes it difficult
to interest public opinion in the remedy, is not new; it pervades the
literature of the Augustan age. I recall from my school days Virgil's
great handbook on Italian agriculture, written with a mastery of
technical detail unsurpassed by Kipling. But the farmers he had in mind
when he indulged in his memorable rhapsody upon the happiness of their
lot were out for pleasure rather than profit. While the suburban poet
sang to the merchant princes, Rome was paying a bonus upon imported
co