FARMING IN NEW ENGLAND. . 255 
FARMING IN NEW ENGLAND. 
Does farming pay in New England? This vexed gestion bas pro- . 
voked much discussion of late in the literature and social life of the 
country districts of the East. It is stated, on one side, that the farming 
population has decreased ; bill farms have been given over to pasturage 
or natural forestry ; hired labor is not generally found remunerative ; 
the boys are leaving the farms, avd the girls are following the boys to 
the West, to the commercial cities, and to the manufacturing centers. 
On the other hand, it is asserted that high prices are obtained for farm 
products; the soil ylelds more per acre than the general average of the, 
country ; some branches of production have actually shown an advance 
during the last decade; and even that the concentration of available 
labor on the more easily worked soils, with the abandonment of rough 
and rocky lands to forest growths, constitutes a policy sound and sensi- 
ble, promotive of production directly, and of indirect advantage by its 
tendency to the modification of climate. These assertions, on beth sides, 
- are all either positively true, or else partially and from a certain stand- 
pdint correct. Labor upon ill-comlitioned soil, on unsuitable crops, or 
with mismanagement, may net prove remunerative, while that directed 
in right channels, upen a soil having the elements of fertility in soluble 
and otherwise available condition, may yield a hundred-fold in profit. 
It is true that agriculture and kindred arts do not occupy the highest 
’ place in the industry of New England, or secure the largest profits of 
labor in that region. An advanced position has long since been taken 
in manufactures, and a large portion of the local labor, skill, and busi- 
ness tact has been:employed in the mechanic arts. Commerce is a 
prominent and profitable resource of the large cities; and the fisheries 
employ the labor and capital of a portion of the coast population. The 
comparatively small class employed in rural pursuits, depleted by emi- 
gration induced by ‘the fertility and cheapness of Western lands, has 
been drained of its youth, skill, and enterprise to a degree seriously: 
interfering with spirited and aggressive effort. Many a farm of ample 
acreage is left to the rheumatic labor of advancing decrepitude, in seed- 
time and in harvest, in the care of stock, marketing of products, and 
purchase of supplies. There is no strength for repairs, no ambition for 
improvement, and no expectation of more than a bare subsistence. Is 
it strange that discouragement should be felt and expressed in such a 
case? This discouragement is thus rather accidental than necessary. 
That there does not exist real cause for gloomy forebodings is due to 
the influence of other industries in creating markets and advancing 
prices of farm products. : 
EXAMPLES OF PROFITABLE FARMING. 
This topic has been suggested by communications from farmers of 
New Engiand, and by discussions at conventions and in the newspapers. 
We have made no geueral investigation into the status of New England 
farming, and shall not present here its salient points in detail, but will 
give a few of the communications received which present evidence of 
profitable farming, and suggest a possibility for the many which has 
already been achieved by a few. The first statement is from a well- 
known agriculturist in Connecticut, Mr. T. 8. Gold, of Cornwall: 
The following reports of successful farming in Connecticut are selected from differ- 
ent sections of the State, with the design of showing that skillful, intelligent culture 
pays a good return on the investment. I have avoided those cases where men have 
applied large means obtained either by inheritance or from other pursuits to the im- 
