FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 115 



ing extent, a lancl-iinpoverisliing system. It is not many years since New 

 England agricnlture furnished an abundant supply for her own consumption; 

 some of her States raising quite a surplus. Well do we remember when New 

 York, the great empire State, with her Genesee valley, was considered the 

 granary of the countr}^ — when the overflowing storehouses of Pennsylvania 

 sought an outlet for her large surplus, and when the virgin lands of Ohio, 

 Avliose richness was then considered inexhaustible, were looked upon as the far 

 west. How is it now? New England feeds her population from her own soil 

 only about two weeks of the year, — where once luxuriant crops of waving 

 grain were seen, now almost barren sterility reigns, — pastures that once fat- 

 tened well a score of bullocks for her markets, will not now furnish feed for 

 more than ^ of that number, — thousands of her large farm houses have been 

 taken down, the barns either taken away or standing empty and in dilapidation, 

 — and there are tens of thousands of acres of her hillsides and valleys from 

 "which rich harvests were once gathered, that the plow-share will never disturb 

 again, but which are rapidly growing up to forests. 



The broad fields of New York, especially her grain-growing sections, have 

 lost their original fertility, yielding but comparatively small returns for their 

 culture ; so that from her own acres she is able to feed her own population 

 but three months in the year. Pennsylvania furnishes not more than one- 

 fourth the amount of food demanded by her own people, and in Ohio, as well 

 as some others of the western States, the great question of the day is, — how 

 shall we replenish, and return to their original fertility a comparatively ex- 

 hausted soil? 



Another disastrous result that naturally followed as the effect of such a pub- 

 lic sentiment in regard to agriculture and its votaries, was that the attention 

 of the more educated and intelligent was turned to other pursuits. The terms, 

 *' plain honest farmer," and "horny-handed son of toil," carried with them, 

 especially to the mind of the young, the idea that labor was a disgrace, and 

 as society in general was advancing in wealth and culture, the laboring classes 

 were as rapidly as under our free institutions they could be, being fitted for, 

 and assigned to a lower social plane, and the occupation of the farm, and the 

 labor of the kitchen, — than wliich no department of human employment is 

 more important to society, and none should be more honorable, — were shunned 

 by our young men and women, not only as places of drudgery, but as less hon- 

 orable than other occupations, and they were led to seek their life-work in, 

 what appeared to them the more gentle, though over-crowded professions and 

 pursuits. 



Another attraction that the city and village had, especially for the young, 

 was their superior social advantages. The rural home, from the very nature 

 of the occupation, must be to a great extent isolated, and in the absence of 

 any organization to bring farmers and their families together socially, there 

 "was comparatively little opportunity for that social intercourse and culture 

 that adds so much to life's enjoyments. But a great change is taking place; 

 much has already been accomplished, due to a very great extent to organiza- 

 tion among farmers. First came our agricultural societies, with their annual 

 fairs — organizations scarcely known a quarter of a century ago, or if existing 

 then they had attained very little importance. Now we have our State, district, 

 county, and in some cases township societies and fairs, where the results of the 

 labors and experiments upon the farm and in mechanic arts, especially such 

 as are immediately connected with agriculture, are brought together and com- 



