Far more ruinous, because universal and continu- 

 ing in its effects, is the process of soil exhaustion. It 

 is creeping over the land from East to West. The 

 abandoned farms that are now the playthings of the 

 city's rich or the game preserves of patrons of sport 

 bear witness to the melancholy change. New Hamp- 

 shire, Vermont, Northern New York, show long lists 

 of them. In Western Massachusetts^ which once sup- 

 ported a flourishing agriculture, farm properties are 

 now for sale for half the cost of the improvements. 

 Professor Carver, of Harvard, has declared, after a 

 personal examination of the country, that "agriculture 

 as an independent industry, able in itself to support a 

 community, does not exist in the hilly parts of New 

 England." 



The same process of deterioration is affecting the 

 farm lands of Western New York, Ohio and Indiana. 

 Where prices of farms should rise by increase of popu- 

 lation, in many places they are falling. Between 1880 

 and 1900 the land values of Ohio shrank $60,000,000. 

 Official investigation of two counties in Central New 

 York disclosed a condition of agricultural decay. In 

 one land was for sale for about the cost of improve- 

 ments and 150 vacant houses were counted in a lim- 

 ited area. In the other the population in 1905 was 

 nearly 4,000 less than in 1855. 



Practically identical soil conditions exist in Mary- 

 land and Virginia, where lands sell at from $10 to $30 

 an acre. In a hearing before an Industrial Commis- 

 sion the chief of the Bureau of Soils of the Department 



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