FARMING IN NEW ENGLAND. 329 



clear springs, or look upon the old trees, that cast their shade upon 

 the defenders of New England's rights a century ago,- or stand 

 upon the hills long ago consecrated to human freedom, without 

 feeling that this is a home worth keeping and worth improving. 



It is a common error to under-estimate the soil of New Eng- 

 land ; and in order to confirm this error it is sneeringly said 

 that its chief productions are granite and ice. It is true we 

 have excellent beds of granite, and the time will come when 

 we shall value them even more than we do now. And it is 

 also true that our clear cold winters produce a most plentiful 

 crop of ice. But neither of these productions, though they 

 enrich our coffers, exhausts our soil. 



The New England soil is a good one. In comparison with 

 other countries, it may be confidently asserted that it is better 

 than the soil of the Canadas, or any other British Province — 

 better than the soil of several of the Southern and Middle 

 States. It will produce larger and better crops than are found 

 in Maryland, Virginia or the Carolinas. It is naturally better 

 than England or Scotland, and no country in Europe has better 

 elements or greater capacity for improvement. 



This idea of the poverty of our soil is of modern growth, 

 and was not dreamed of till the fertile lands of Western New 

 York, and at a later day the more fertile lands of Ohio, Illinois 

 and Wisconsin were opened for cultivation. These rich lands 

 have offered great inducements to emigrants, and have so far 

 tended to delay the development of our own resources. Be- 

 sides, the cultivation of these lands has brought their produc- 

 tions into competition with our own and to the immediate 

 injury to our agriculture. So, too, our agriculture has suffered 

 from the fact that so much of the strength and enterprise of 

 our citizens has been devoted to other pursuits. Manufactures 

 and commerce have increased our wealth and promoted our 

 general prosperity, but the great success which has followed 

 them has tended to the neglect of our agricultural resources. 



These causes of discouragement are now fast passing away. 

 The rich lands (9? the West will become exhausted in process of 

 time, — Western New York already begins to feel it. Competi- 

 tion with other sections of the country is not so severely felt as 

 formerly. Our farmers must adapt themselves to the new state 

 of things, and it needs no prophet to see that a brighter day is 



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