114 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



and trouble on the part of the farmer and his family 

 to do a retail business of this kind than to dispose of 

 a grain or cotton crop to some larger dealer, but the 

 result will usually amply repay the extra effort. 

 Many farmers are, of course, so located that they 

 cannot take advantage of local markets, but neglected 

 opportunities of this kind are to be found on every 

 hand. Extensive observation in many regions gives 

 convincing proof that very few towns and cities 

 have a really adequate home supply of those prod- 

 ucts that could be easily produced in the neighbor- 

 hood. The abandoned farms in New England bear 

 eloquent testimony to the shiftlessness and incom- 

 petence of their owners. It is true tliey could no 

 longer produce hay and grain in competition with 

 the richer level lands of the West, but the country 

 has a dense manufacturing population and there is 

 not one of these abandoned places that is not in easy 

 reach of some prosperous town which is compelled 

 to draw the bulk of its food supplies from the great 

 markets of New York and Boston. The lands 

 within a hundred miles of New York City are nearly 

 all excellently adapted to small fruits, but it is a 

 notorious fact that when the local season comes on 

 berries are scarcer and higher in that market than 

 when they are being brought from the Carolinas and 

 from Delaware and Maryland. On account of their 

 favorable soil and climatic conditions, which permit of 

 the cultivation of many temperate as well as of all 

 tropical products, the farmers of Cuba are in a posi- 

 tion to produce a very unusually large variety of 

 crops. As a matter of fact they devote themselves 



