This is a short essay. These constitute the more practical part of the book, so far as villages are concerned. It has, however, been judged appropriate to add to them a paper on Eastern Farming, which originally appeared in 'The Atlantic Monthly', and which continues the discussion of the question of village residence as a means for mitigating some of the hardships which beset the lives of isolated country families. The wide spread and growing interest in the topics considered makes it seem worth while to give these short essays a more permanent form.
