22 FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 



and examined the products of the great 

 western farms, and the means by which 

 these products were obtained, I wished 

 over and over again that the farmers of 

 New England could be with me, and see 

 for themselves why it is that they do not 

 meet with success in the old style of gen 

 eral farming, and why the competition in 

 which they are engaged is necessarily a 

 losing one, and New England shows so 

 many &quot;abandoned farms.&quot; I am sure 

 there is a future for them, and a pros 

 perous one, but it must be under other 

 conditions, with a consideration of their 

 situation and the character of the market. 

 I thought a few weeks ago that I had 

 gathered my last fringed gentians, but I 

 found a few to-day in my special preserve, 

 opened wide to receive the comforting rays 

 of the sun after last night s rain. I have 

 left many to scatter their seed for next 

 year, and I hope that the lovers of this 

 beautiful flower will learn to keep their de 

 mands within moderate limits, for like the 

 mayflower it threatens to leave frequented 

 neighbourhoods. It is, I believe, a biennial, 

 and not like the mayflower an evergreen 

 perennial, and is therefore not so great a 

 sufferer as that because of the ruthless 



