212 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



been overrun and despoiled of its fertility, as a drove of village 

 children often overrun and strip a huckleberry pasture of its fruit, 

 running and racing hither and thither to find the thickest spots 

 and the largest berries, and not even having a thought to preserve 

 the bushes, which, if broken down to be stripped in the shade, 

 must most effectually prevent the growth of another crop the fol- 

 lowing year. 



When I look through the back country towns of New England 

 and see the land formerly cultivated, and laboriously fenced with 

 its heavy stone walls, but now growing up to birches and white 

 pines ; when I see vacant farm buildings put into the hands of 

 real estate brokers for sale ; when 1 see the young men and young 

 women who were born and reared on these deserted farms wearily 

 wending their way westward, first to New York, then to Ohio, 

 next to the prairies of Indiana and Illinois, then further on across 

 the Mississippi to the rich plains and valleys of the more distant 

 states and territories, at each halt tarrying only to sow, reap, and 

 skin the soil till it will pay for sowing and skinning no longer, I 

 am not surprised that visitors from older countries ask : " Where 

 are your good farms, and where your good farming ? " 



As I understand the meaning of the term Agriculture, it is some- 

 thing more than the mere scattering of seed's and the harvesting 

 of crops. A good farmer will no more think of letting his land be- 

 come exhausted of its fertility than would a good engineer think of 

 using up all his steam and then letting his fire go out because it 

 requires an effort and an expense to keep fuel on his grate ; no 

 more than would a good manufacturer think of using up all his 

 stock of raw material and then closing his factory. Good farming 

 everywhere means good husbandry, and good husbandry means 

 thrift and economy in the use of raw material, but here in the 

 United States we have been using up our raw material in the 

 shape of the natural fertility of the soil. 



Robbery is an unpleasant term to apply to our American agri- 

 culture, but it is a term that is far from inappropriate, as the 

 history of our tobacco fields, cotton plantations, wheat farms, and 

 even our forests, but too plainly attests. Like the youthful pick- 

 ers of huckleberries, we have been scampering and scrambling 

 over this great country in search of the best picking, and while 

 stripping the earth of its spontaneous products, and enjoying its 



