This is one chance example out of numbers that might
be quoted. The blacksmiths, I suppose, lead the way ; and they make things of use on thefarm as well of beauty in the garden. One village craftsman, for example, exhibited the other day a chain harrow so very much more effective than any factory- made machine that it has attracted the attention both of American and Australian farmers. It is true, of course, that the isolated rural craftsman cannot directly compete with the factory ; but there is, and always should be, a limited demand for the best, as there must be a limited production of the best. If we want to give presents of books, cressets, fire-dogs, bird-tables, gates and brackets, or, in another sphere, of
bowls, fountains, bird-baths, we shall go to the rural craftsman; and his market in such things also enables him to make
tools and other implements of real value to the practical farmer. Dying crafts have actually and in fact been revived, for example the artistic casting of lead in thin sheets. It is largely due to exhibits at the agricultural shows that local craftsmen of such things are steadily, if slowly, reaching markets all over Britain, and indeed now and again over the seven seas.
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