68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board. The Secretary of 

 the Board of Agriculture of New Hampshire is present, and 

 I hope we shall hear from him. 



Mr. J. O. Adams, of Manchester, N. II. I have nothing 

 to say except this : that however pleasant it may be to talk 

 about twenty-five or fifty intelligent, respectable and sensible 

 young men going from New England to the West or South- 

 west to make for themselves prosperous and happy homes, I 

 can but look upon the other side, and see with how much 

 regret we should turn our faces to them as they turned their 

 backs upon us. We cannot spare twenty-five men from any 

 of our country towns. We might spare them from the cities, 

 but the men in our cities are the men who will not go, for 

 they have been so long accustomed to live upon the plans of 

 others, that they have lost all self-reliant power, and if they 

 emigrated to the West, they would meet with the same 

 disaster that has been portrayed by President Chadbourne 

 in a certain community. If communities were to be formed 

 of this kind, for the sake of improving the soil, there are 

 places open for their occupation all over New England. If 

 they will come up into our rocky State, I will show them 

 plenty of good land that has been abandoned because the 

 fathers crew old and the sons became discontented and left 

 their homes, the daughters married city merchants or city 

 lawyers, and the homes are left desolate. Many of these 

 farms have gone back to woods, as many ought to go. But 

 if there are people who desire to form a community, they can 

 find, within five miles of a flourishing town, and within one 

 mile of a railway, an abundance of laud, that I will guarantee 

 will, with proper cultivation, give them a rich compensation 

 for all the labor that is expended upon it. 



It occurred to me this morning, while we were discussing 

 the practicability of growing corn b}^ the use of chemical 

 fertilizers, that perhaps our deserted farms would by and by 

 be reoccupied. It seems to me that one reason Avhy they 

 have been abandoned is because, as I said before, the fathers 

 were growing old, the sons had left, and there w'ere none to 

 till the soil. The growing of corn has been abandoned, in 

 great measure, and we are buying two or three millions of 

 bushels for our little State every year. The growing of wheat 



