A New England Country Gentleman I found him, 

 A Sportsman as square as a box, 

 With hospitality as broad as his acres were wide. 

 With a soul unpampered by wealth or pride. 

 And a heart as big as an ox. 



IV 



FOX HUNTING IN NEW ENGLAND 



UNCLE ABNER — A GENUINE SPORTSMAN OF THE REAL OLD SORT — 

 TWO FAMOUS BIRD DOGS — A SAIL — SHOOTING THE FOX — 

 APPLES AND CIDER. 



TTNCLE ABNER— everybody called him "Uncle:" it 

 ^^ fitted him — was one of those noble specimens of Amer- 

 ican country gentlemen that were very plentiful all over New 

 England and the Eastern States from the day of the early 

 settlers until after the War of the Rebellion. 



Since then they have gradually disappeared and there does 

 not seem to be very much material in sight to fill their places, at 

 least on the farms. Nowadays most of these ancient country 

 homes are given over to the emigrant, or to a wealthy city man 

 who owns them as toys. The profligate land policy of our 

 government in setting up tens of thousands of emigrants yearly 

 in the farming business is principally the cause of tliis deteriora- 

 tion in agriculture. Thus it has come about that the foreign 

 government-made farmers have depeopled the farms of New 

 England and the Eastern States of the grandest race of coun- 

 try gentlemen America has ever produced. 



Agriculture in the Eastern States has steadily dechned. 



