148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



I have said that the real cause of the scarcity of farm 

 help is the unprosperous condition of our agriculture, and I 

 will now say, by a parity of reasoning, that the real remedy 

 of the evil will be found in a prosperous agriculture. When 

 our agriculture becomes so prosperous that it will be popular 

 as a business, and will pay its employees as high wages as 

 any other industry pays, then there will be no scarcity of 

 farm help. We all like to be optimistic rather than pessi- 

 mistic in our views of agriculture, and therefore we have 

 tried to make ourselves believe that our farmers are prosper- 

 ous. If our agriculture was really prosperous, every well- 

 conducted farm in the State would return a fair profit on its 

 value. Does it ? Undoubtedly many of our farms that are 

 favorably situated near large towns and cities, where fruit 

 and garden truck are raised, do bring in a fair profit on their 

 value; but a great majority of the well-managed farms of the 

 eastern States do not return a fair profit on their value. 

 This shows that the agricultural conditions here should be 

 improved. Some of the unfavorable conditions are natural 

 and some of them are artificial. Our small fields and rocky 

 hillsides have not been able in the past to compete success- 

 fully in grain and live stock raising with the large fields 

 and fertile soil of the west, but these unequal conditions are 

 growing more equal every year. The fertility of the western 

 land is being gradually worked out of it. The Avestern farmer 

 can no longer pasture his cattle free of charge on government 

 land. He now has to raise his grain and feed his stock on 

 high-priced land, and consequently the eastern farmer is able 

 to compete with him on more equal terms than formerly. 

 The time is coming when beef, mutton and pork can be pro- 

 duced in New England as cheaply as in the west. The un- 

 favorable natural conditions of the east are slowly growing 

 better. The unfavorable artificial conditions handicap the 

 eastern farmers, but the remedy is in their own hands. They 

 must lower the freight charges for short hauls on our rail- 

 roads. They must cease to produce nothing but milk on their 

 farms. They must see to it that the tariff laws and the laws 

 of taxation give them an equal chance with other industries. 



