6 AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS IN SOUTHERN NEW YORK. 



market for dairy products was still limited and the price low, the 

 growing of live stock was in large part abandoned. 



Although most of the soils in this part of New York are excellently 

 adapted to the growing of potatoes, but one or two sections have 

 taken up the industry to any extent. Steuben County should be 

 mentioned as one county in which potato growing has been greatly 

 developed. The industry has also been begun in Broome County to 

 some extent. It was thought, too, that corn could not be grown suc- 

 cessfully at this elevation, and each year a smaller acreage has been 

 planted. Buckwheat was early found to give good yields and has 

 since come to be a leading crop. It is the crop from this type of land 

 that gives New York first rank among the States in the value of the 

 buckwheat crop. No other plant seems to thrive so well on these 

 poorly managed farms. 



Poor seed has been somewhat of a factor in the decline of the yields 

 of many crops on this area. In a great majority of cases the seed has 

 been poorly selected for years. Farmers have continued to use seed 

 raised at home, frequently saving the poorer seeds for the next year's 

 planting. Seed degeneration has continued, until at the present time 

 it is practically impossible to get a crop of potatoes from local seed. 



The maintenance of soil fertility has been given little attention. 

 When clover was left out of the seeding no other fertility crop was 

 substituted and the land went back rapidly. The greater part of 

 the area has now come to be occupied by grass, and all the land 

 pjowed is that sown to buckwheat, except perhaps a few acres for corn 

 and potatoes. All semblance of rotation has disappeared. But few 

 stock are kept, because not enough roughage is grown to feed them 

 during the winter and there is little money with which to purchase 

 o-rain. In some cases commercial fertilizers have been resorted to, but 

 since these were not supplemented with humus in some form they 

 acted only as a temporary stimulus and left the land in a worse con- 

 dition than before. 



Among the important causes of the decline of agriculture in this 

 region has been the lack of sufficient capital to make the necessary 

 improvements, purchase needed equipment, and hire sufficient and 

 competent labor. This is still a fundamental difficulty and is respon- 

 sible for the slow development of the area when compared with other 

 localities. It is at the root of the so-called labor difficulty. The 

 farmer who is raising good crops and hence is making a good income 

 is not confronted with a serious labor situation. 



However fundamental these causes may have been in bringing 

 about a decline of eastern farming, it should be noted also that there 

 were other forces at work. The movement toward the West and the 

 great development of the large cities during the past twenty years have 



[I'ir. (!4] 



