150 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Good facilities for transportation are among the necessities in 

 farming ; let a farm be ever so good, the owner ever so practical 

 and well informed, but having no easy method of conveying his 

 crops to a market, he can never hope to compete successfully 

 with another, who, though not having quite as good a farm, has 

 what more than compensates for this, namely, easy transporta- 

 tion. There should be something besides good highways, 

 though these are most valuable adjuncts. Good railroads are 

 of greater importance than good highways in most sections, as 

 there can be but few places where a person is able to carry his 

 farm produce directly into market himself. Having good mar- 

 kets near by will save much of the risk incident upon sending 

 crops by car to a distance. A city market is of course superior 

 to any smaller one, as the quantity which would cause a glut in 

 the latter, would not make any appreciable difference in the 

 former, and the prices fluctuate less in a large market. During 

 a few years past there has been much said and written upon 

 Western farming, the immense profits, light work, etc., but we 

 will presently look at some facts in regard to this. 



Yet there are, or should be, some other objects to be kept in 

 view as well as dollars and cents. True it is that most of us 

 are toiling and striving after " filthy lucre," though we try to 

 delude ourselves with the belief that the goal for which we are 

 laboring is something more noble ; yet in farming perhaps more 

 than in any other pursuit, there are other aims more important 

 than pecuniary matters. 



Of course such a thing as a bachelor farmer is not to be tol- 

 erated for a moment ; although a bachelor may succeed in nearly 

 everything else, yet in this particular branch, the need of a 

 better half will make itself painfully apparent. To a farmer 

 having a family to rear, there are many things which must 

 claim as much of his attention as the laying up of money. If 

 he is intelligent, he wishes of course to have his children as well 

 or better educated than himself, and in order to do this, it is 

 necessary to locate where he can reap the benefits of good 

 schools. 



You may say, if a man has money, he can educate his chil- 

 dren away from home, if there are no suitable schools in his 

 vicinity, but I think most will allow, that for young children, 

 an education obtained away from home will not compare favor- 



