62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Many accounts have been published, substantiated by fig- 

 ures, of the profits of tree planting in New England, and 

 even if we allow an enormous margin for accident and occa- 

 sional failure, an average result of fair profit is most cer- 

 tainly assured, larger in proportion than can be shown for 

 most agricultural crops where the original outlay is no 

 greater. 



A recent editorial in one of our leading daily journals* on 

 "abandoned farms" in Massachusetts, gives a gloomy pic- 

 ture of the deserted fields and rapidly decaying houses of 

 the once well-kept and profitable farms, and asks the ques- 

 tion. Why is this so? The answer given, is: first, because 

 the expense of fertilizing is so great ; second, that less labor 

 in other directions will bring larger profits ; and third, man's 

 instinctive dislike to isolation. 



The ease, cheapness and rapidity with which all produce 

 can now be delivered at our doors, even from places as far 

 ofi* as California and the tropical islands to the south of us, 

 have brought the fruit and vegetables from these distant re- 

 gions in direct competition with the earliest forced products 

 of the farm and market garden. This, toirether with other 

 causes, has made a great change in farm practice in New 

 England, and renders it imperative that means should be 

 devised to meet this competition, and also to find the best 

 ways of utilizing these deserted farm lands ; although it 

 should have been stated that no really good farming lands 

 have ever been deserted. 



The article referred to suggests one remedy in the theory 

 of '"ten acres enough," and says: "If would-be farmers 

 would content themselves with ground which they and their 

 children could cultivate unaided, and devote themselves to 

 selected products, there would be less disappointment and 

 fewer failures among the farmers of New England." But 

 strangely enough, nothing is said in relation to plantinji; 

 these worn-out and deserted farms to forests, although a 

 hint is thrown out in this direction when reference is made 

 to "trees which have grown up in the fields formerly 

 plowed and sowed, so that the owner is already counting 

 their value at some lone saw mill." 



• Boston Daily Advertiser, Nov. 2, 1887. 



