102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



give up ; we must go on and compete ; but we have got to 

 turn over a new leaf in farming and market gardening ; we 

 have got to go into more thorough cultivation, and we have 

 got to look deeper into the subject and understand it better. 

 I think there is great improvement going on, and I think 

 that eventually we shall come out and be able to compete 

 with the South, although they have great advantages over 

 us in climate ; but their distance from markets is in our favor. 

 We have obstacles in the way to overcome, and how we are 

 to get round some of them I do not know. First, we have 

 a very high valuation put upon our farms. It seems to be 

 a valuation higher than is warranted, compared with other 

 productive property — manufactories, railroads and all other 

 industries seem to be taxed lower, although they have more 

 immediate income, and it seems that the market gardens and 

 farms that are near cities and villages are assessed too high. 

 And I may say that we labor under two disadvantages there : 

 first, in the taxation itself being too high ; and then, secondly, 

 if a young man undertakes to buy a farm, the valuation for 

 taxation is so high that that is greatly against him. It seems 

 to me all farmers are paying too much tax. The question is 

 asked whether a young man can start now on a farm, run in 

 debt for it, and work out of it ? I should answer that ques- 

 tion squarely, that a young man could not purchase a farm 

 or market garden in the vicinity of a large city or village, at 

 the price at which it is valued, and clear it ; but if a young 

 man has made up his mind that he is going to make that his 

 business for life and going into it with a will, I think his 

 chance is about as good in that as in any other business that 

 he might undertake ; but he must begin in a small way ; he 

 must understand his business. It has been thought that any 

 man could take a farm and carry it on, whether he knew 

 anything about it or not ; that it was something very easily 

 done ; that a man could manage a farm if he couldn't do any 

 thing else ; but competition is so great now that a man must 

 understand the business or he cannot make any money out of 

 it. I was born and brought up on the farm where I live 

 now in the town of Arlington. I can look around me in the 

 town and find young men who apparently had good chances 

 on farms, but who left those farms and went into other busi- 



