76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



shrubbery and shading it with large trees, is very far from being- 

 commendable. Sunlight is more essential than shade, and should 

 strike all portions of the wall during the day, and be allowed to 

 enter our windows. When it is too obtrusive, it is better to ex- 

 clude it wholly or in part by some other device. 



My plan compels me to pass so hastily, that I can give you but 

 a gleam of the course of reasoning by which I am convincing my- 

 self that emigration from Maine westward, to avoid the rigors of a 

 New England winter, proves a failure in the design. If to obtain 

 cheap lands — lands are cheap enough here. If to secure other 

 facilities to rear a comfortable home at a limited expense — here 

 the materials for building are cheaper than there, and for the 

 future the prospect is more in our favor. Selecting for health, 

 scenery, climate, society, markets, good and abundant water, 

 lands productive, honest and generous — fruits in their healthful 

 variety — the ease with which a desirable location can be found 

 and paid for, there is no spot on earth better for the sons of Maine 

 than Maine herself.* 



American country homes, in too large proportion, present a 

 bleak aspect, uncomfortable and uninviting in such a climate — the 

 West suffering rhost in this regard. The improvement, the entire 

 correction, even, lies in extensive and judicious planting of trees; 

 and herein the Eastern States have the advantage in time, for our 

 plantations are already well begun ; and here we have most 

 admirable nurseries of evergreens in our pastures, ready grown 

 and at hand. Of the twenty-nine hundred varieties of evergreens, 

 trees and plants, in the catalogues, that are or may be grown in 

 the States, our natives are among the best — sufficient in variety — 

 good enough for all purposes. 



In such an assembly'- as this, the larger number own their homes. 



But there is always a considerable number in every community, 



particularly in manufacturing neighborhoods, who iind it most 



convenient to hire a house. Then the young men arc taking their 



places in active life, earning and holding property. For these 

 — — ■ ,, tt — 



* While looking over the Monthly Report of the Department of Agriculture for Octo- 

 ber, ]8(i9, the frequent occurrence of loss by drought in the local stateuieuts, led nie to 

 select the cr(}p of widest geographical range — Indian corn — and note the States whore 

 loss in greater or less degree occurred. The result is, that more than half the area of 

 country embraced in the report, suffered loss from that cause. Of the other portion, 

 some sections suffered severely from the other extreme. In a scries of years we shall 

 find Maine more exempt from such climatic casualties than the country as a whole, and 

 probably suffering less than any other single State. — C. C. 



