In the 21st century, few are able to step outside on a warm summer morning and hear hens clucking contentedly and cattle lowing in the field. Nor are they able to walk to the garden and pull up fresh carrots, harvest succulent lettuce and pick tomatoes from the vine. This way of life is rapidly disappearing.

Gone for most are the times when farmers would work together with their wives and children to feed the cows or harvest that year’s crop of onions and garlic from the garden.

Gone are the days when youngsters, after finishing their chores, could run down to the pond, straddle the branch of a large willow, lean back against the trunk, and spend an idyllic hour watching the turtles and fish or listening to the yellow warbler while looking out over acres of cornfields.