NEW ENGLAND FARMING. 11 



pace Avitli the increasing demands for new implements of hus- 

 bandry, and for those to which the best principles are applied. 

 No discouragement has yet fallen upon the skilful and ingeni- 

 ous farmer, and no che.k has yet been gven to his demand 

 for the best means by which the labor of the farm can well be 

 applied and the profits of the farm can be increased. I have 

 thus far been led to believe that this association had roused 

 and stimulated a vigorous and prosperous and important occu- 

 pation to new vigor and increased prosperity and importance ; 

 and I see no reason why it should suspend its operations or 

 abandon its field of labor in despair. 



And yet, the picture of New England agriculture which is 

 constantly presented to us "s so discouraging that we:e it true, 

 every man would be induced to abandon the soil, and every 

 society like this would be wise to cease its operations and dis- 

 band. In the midst of a thriving community, a large portion 

 of which is devoted to agriculture ; in the midst of a con- 

 stantly improving system of cultivation ; in the midst of mul- 

 tiplying instances of improved estates, and increasing herds, 

 and profitable crops, the decline of New England agriculture 

 is quietly assumed and believed by some, and so vehemently 

 asserted by others as to make it appear that their special 

 desire is its downfall. The abandonment of mountain farms 

 and of landed estates, far removed from railway communica- 

 tion, and the decrease in certain crops, is constantly alluded 

 to as a proof that agriculture in New England is dying out. 

 We are told with an air of triumph that wheat and corn and 

 oats and sheep and swine and flax and wool and potatoes 

 are not as largely produced among us at the, present time as 

 formerly. We are also informed that the acres of improved 

 land have diminished twenty per cent., and of unimproved 

 land fifteen per cent. , without being told what the remainder 

 is, nor what is to become of a State whose improved lands 

 and unimproved lands are to be equally destroyed. I am 

 aware that a certain class of ftirms are deserted, and that cer- 

 tain crops are abandoned, — the former on account of locality, 

 and the latter on account of their cheaper production else- 

 where. It requires no great wisdom to prove that wool will 

 grow spontaneously, as it were, in Texas, where no winter- 

 feed and housing are required, cheaper than it can be grown 



