38 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



surplus to barter for clothes, or the material from which to make 

 them. Today, the farmer is essentially a business man, buying 

 and selling, and competing with other business men. 



The early farmers of New England worked hard, lived simply, 

 and had few debts; but also had few of the comforts of life, as we 

 understand them at present. A race of sturdy, efficient men and 

 women was the result; men and women who haye made their 

 mark wherever they have gone, in the gradual settlement and 

 deyelopment of the country. There was, however, in spite of 

 the intense loyalty of these sons of New England, a feeling of un- 

 rest; a sense of being cramped; a reaching out after newer fields 

 and quicker returns. And this feeling was intensified as the 

 views of young men were broadened by contact with others during 

 the period of the civil war. 



Many farms of the East have been literally carved from the 

 hillsides, and the labor incident to the management of such farms 

 is great. As a result, even during the first half of the last century, 

 many of the best young men were attracted away from the old 

 homes to the newly developing Northwest Territories. With 

 improved transportation facilities, which developed rapidly after 

 about 1S50, bringing eastern farms into direct competition with 

 the cheap and fertile lands of New York, Ohio, and Michigan, 

 and soon with the black prairie lands of Illinois, Minnesota and 

 the Red River, — lands which could be had almost free of cost — 

 the value of all agricultural lands in the East fell. The New Eng- 

 land farmer found himself, with depleted soil and rigorous climate, 

 growing wheat and corn which had to compete in the open market 

 with similar products from the rich lands already mentioned. 

 He found himself raising sheep and cattle in the old expensive 

 way, to compete with the product of the great plains. He found 

 his sons leaving the old home and joining the ranks of the factory 

 hands; or moving west, to grow up with the country, and swelling 

 the ranks of those with whom he must compete. In other words, 

 with the development of agriculture in the West there was a corre- 

 sponding retrogression in the East. 



Instead of meeting the problems mentioned in the forceful, 

 intelligent way we should expect from the sons of New England, 

 the farmer of the East lost his grip and his spirit. He sought 



