COUNTRY LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND 21 



New England never will grow all its food. Wheat does well 

 enough in New England, but it does not pay to grow it. New 

 England's bread will always be dependent upon outside sources 

 for the supply of flour. Unquestionably the supply of New Eng- 

 land-grown meat can be profitably very greatly increased, par- 

 ticularly pork, mutton, and fish. It is quite conceivable that 

 New England will in time supply a very large proportion of 

 these meats from within its own borders. The beef supply can 

 also be increased, but it is doubtful whether any large percentage 

 of the consumptive demand will ever be grown in New England. 



It seems reasonable to expect that New England may grow 

 a large share of certain other items among its food needs. It 

 is an ideal region for both orchard and small fruits, and the 

 same is true of most vegetables. Apparently it will be possible, 

 at least from the standpoint of production, for New England to 

 take care of itself in these respects. The same is true of poultry 

 and eggs. The most serious difficulty in New England agricul- 

 ture is connected with the supply of market milk ; we can hardly 

 expect New England to supply its own butter and cheese. New 

 England has excellent meadow lands, probably none better in 

 America. Corn does extremely well in the valleys, with good 

 yields of both stalk and ear. There is an abundance of natural 

 grazing on the hills. It would seem as if New England should 

 be an ideal dairying region. Yet the dairy business for twenty 

 years has been, to an increasing degree, precarious. The zone 

 of market milk supply for the Boston area, for example, has been 

 pushed constantly farther away from the city, so that the largest 

 proportion of the supply comes from a distance of more than 

 seventy-five miles. Some milk is sent to Boston from eastern 

 New York, and before the war a considerable quantity was im- 

 ported from Canada. 



The low price of milk to producers has not met the increasing 

 cost of such grain as apparently cannot be easily grown in 

 New England, nor the high wages for labor, due to the competi- 

 tion of urban industries for the labor supply. The highly cen- 

 tralized methods of milk distributors in some places, and the 

 completely disorganized condition in others, as well as the pop- 

 ular idea that milk is drink and not a food, have also con- 

 tributed to make the situation extremely difficult for dairymen. 



