THE DECLINE OF RURAL NEW ENGLAND. 385 



flooded and fertilized the Northwest has had its source in the 

 hamlets and farms. It would be easy to show that the quality of 

 this output from the rural districts has been even more remark- 

 able than the quantity. Hence came Webster, Choate, Chase, 

 Greeley, Cushing, Bryant, Whittier, Beecher, Hopkins, and a 

 long list of notables that will occur to every reader. It may 

 therefore be fairly claimed that what New England has been 

 and what it has done, at home and abroad, through its citizens 

 or through its colonists, has come in large measure from the 

 country districts. 



Hence the prosperity of this region concerns not merely New 

 England, but the country at large. The testimony of many reli- 

 able witnesses and my own observations, covering more than 

 twenty years, convince me that the outlook for the future is very 

 unsatisfactory. 



1. Fifty years ago almost every farm was cultivated by the 

 owner, who had every interest in its most careful tillage, in mak- 

 ing permanent improvements, and in the care of buildings, fences, 

 and woodland. Hired labor was the exception, for the large fami- 

 lies were quite competent for all the farm-work, the indoor as 

 well as the outdoor, with a surplus which went to the aid of less 

 fortunate neighbors, and sent brains and muscle to the city or to 

 the opening West. Not all farmers were equally industrious, 

 frugal, and successful, but there was a large body of landed pro- 

 prietors, homogeneous in race, substantially on an equality social- 

 ly, and alike interested in the present and future welfare of the 

 community. In this respect there has been a great change in the 

 last twenty years, and one which is going on more rapidly every 

 year. The land is passing into the hands of non-resident proprie- 

 tors, by mortgage, by death of resident owner, by his removal to 

 the village or manufacturing center, or his emigration to the 

 West. 



It is also held in fewer hands, not as a general thing to be 

 managed and worked in large estates, but to be rented from year 

 to year. 



The new proprietor has bought the farm at a small price, as 

 compared with its former valuation, and has no interest or pride 

 in it or its management except as an investment. So in every 

 township there is an increasing body of renters, as a class unre- 

 liable, unsuccessful, shifting, and shiftless. Their interest in the 

 property and the community is temporary, their tillage such as 

 they suppose will bring the largest immediate returns with the 

 least care and labor. It goes without saying that such farms and 

 all their appurtenances are in a state of chronic decline. These 

 renters are often bankrupt farmers, or young men without the 

 pluck and thrift to become farm-owners, the courage and push to 

 vol. xxxvm. 27 



