474 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



Oct. 



their surplus of water and render them highly 

 productive. This variety of soils enables the 

 tiller to cultivate as many different crops as it 

 is expedient for one man to do. An entire 

 failure of crops from frost, drought, blight, 

 overflows, &>:., rarely or never happen, which 

 cannot be said of some parts of our country, 

 possessing a richer soil and a genial climate. 



There are no toll bridges ; no toll gates or 

 plank roads. Every town is crossed once by 

 a railrodd and many Iwice. Only a part of 

 the expenbC of keeping common roads in re- 

 pair falls upon farmers, as there is so much 

 tax paying property of other descriptions. 

 The social, educational and religious privileges 

 are ail that can be expected in a long estab- 

 lished community in a State that intends to be 

 in the first rank in intellectual and moral pro- 

 gress. 



But the chief advantage is the ready, home 

 cash markets. There are already in the coun- 

 ty four cities, and one or two more prospec- 

 tive. These are situated along its borders 

 and large towns and flourishing villages so 

 intervene, that few farms are more than six or 

 seven miles from market. Thus farmers can 

 reach the consumer directly, and the profits of 

 middle men be secured to themselves. Here 

 are quick sales for all that is raised, for the 

 county is a large importer of provisions. The 

 net products of more than fifty thousand acres 

 above what is raised within its own limits are 

 annually consumed ; and the rapidly increas- 

 ing population is requiring more and more 

 every year. The consumption being greater 

 than the production, the county is in a sure 

 way of increasing the fertility of its land, if 

 a judicious use be made of the waste materials. 

 Beside the fertilizers that can be obtained in 

 villages and ciies, at the paper and woolen 

 mills, soap work, tanneries and other manu- 

 factories, there is an almost inexhaustible sup- 

 ply in bogs, peat meadows, marshes and along 

 the sea shore. 



In the midst of these advantages there are 

 many farms for sale at thirty to seventy-five 

 dollars per acre including all improvements. 

 And here are excellent opportunities for men 

 with small means to purchase the lower priced 

 farms. The titles are sure ; terms of pay- 

 ment very easy ; the land well enclosed, gen- 

 erally with stone wall ; fruit trees already in 

 bearing condition; wood enough for home 

 consumption, if not, coal can be had at sea 

 board prices ; buildings comfortable, far bet- 

 ter than the houses of the settlers of the South 

 and West ; the farms are not worn out, bat 

 simply run down. The purchaser can devote 

 his whole energy to the cultivation and im- 

 provement of his land to produce and sell in 

 markets where produce averages higher prices 

 than in other parts of the United States ex- 

 cept the gold regions, and buy his groceries, 

 dry goods, hardware, &c., at lower rates than 

 he can in the valley of the Misssissippi. If 



he will only practice voluntarily a part of the 

 self denial which he must from necessity sub- 

 mit to in a new country, he can speedily pay 

 for his farm ; while from the fir.»t, he and his 

 family can tnjoy comforts and plea>>ures, which 

 would require years of toil and privations to 

 attain in a sparsely settled district of the South 

 or West. No experienced person will advise 

 a farmer to emigrate to the !^outh without 

 considerable capital ; and land at the West 

 with improvements and near markets com- 

 mands high prices ; and it will cost more to 

 buy new land and put upon it buildings and 

 other requisites to a good farm, than to buy- 

 farms here with all modern improvements, to 

 say nothing of what is lost by years of patient 

 waiting for the means to get them. 



But some one may say, is it not a discredit 

 to a locaity to have many farms for sale? If 

 the desire to sell arose entirely from the un- 

 profitattleness of the business or the unhealthy 

 character of the climate, it would be so. The 

 truth is agriculture is'not really popular with 

 the young men and women ; they seem to 

 have a greater love for trade ; the mechanic 

 arts and city life, rather than for the farm. 

 Agriculture is an old story, and a slow means 

 of acquiring wealth and position, while man- 

 ufacturing is something new and has paid re- 

 markably well. Many who left the farm to 

 engage in it have quickly acquired a com- 

 petency. This creates a discontented feeling 

 with those who remain at home. They wish 

 to go somewhere and do something different 

 from what their fathers are doing. Not a few 

 have gone to the West for a change, and with- 

 out really knowing how well they might do in 

 their own county. Hence many old farmers 

 are left alone without sons or sons-in-law who 

 want the farm. Such, of course will be sold 

 at the first opportunity. This cause largely 

 increases the number offered for sale through 

 the common order of events. 



I have thus briefly pointed out some of the 

 advantages of Essex County, Mass. ; and 

 what has been said of it, may in the main be 

 affirmed of scores of other counties in the 

 Eastern States. The idea that a farmer in- 

 variably improves his circumstances by locat- 

 ing in a new country is deceptive ; it has been 

 carried to an extreme. Golden opportimities 

 about home are overlooked in the eagerness 

 to find something better in the far off dis- 

 tance. Thousands of desirable farms can be 

 bought in the sea board States for less than 

 present cost of fencing and buildings. If the 

 same amount of energy, diligent study and 

 money expended in searching for a good loca- 

 tion in some distant State, with the industry, 

 patience and self denial in establishing a com- 

 fortable home upon it, were displayed here, 

 purchasers would quickly find themselves the 

 independent owners of profitable farms. The 

 fallacy of the doctrine, promulgated with the 

 rapid extension of railroads, that di'tauce 



