MANIA FOR LARGE FARMS. 8 



ber ; so that large portions of land might well have been held 

 to supply the fence, the fire and the building material. Still, it 

 will be seen that in most of the farms, even, that reason did not 

 obtain, for a most eager desire was manifested for clearing the 

 land — avarice, apparently, prompting the owner to burn the 

 wood and skim the cream from the virgin soil. It is evident 

 that a wish to preserve woodland for fuel, in the absence of coal 

 and peat which now supply so largely the fuel of Massachusetts, 

 did not deter our fathers from cutting away the forest. Indeed, 

 the early New England farmer seemed to have two controlling 

 ideas in the selection and management of his farm : first, to set 

 his house on the top of a hill, so as to render access to it as dif- 

 ficult as possible ; and, second, to cut off all the wood upon 

 his land, so as to render it as dismal and bare as possible. 

 These results obtained, he became comfortable and thoroughly 

 respectable. Statistics show that to-day there are more acres of 

 growing woodland in the Commonwealth, although not as valu- 

 able, than there were in the days of the Revolution. 



This aggregation of large quantities of land in one hand has 

 resulted in so poor tillage and so little productiveness, because 

 of the inability to till so much in a proper manner, and has 

 made farming so unprofitable, that — taking the waste and bar- 

 ren pastures, the unimproved woodland where the shrub-oak 

 and the stunted pine have filled the place of the maple, the 

 beech, the birch, the ash, and the oak — if all the agricultural 

 land of Massachusetts were put at sale to-day at a price which 

 is asked for it, the proceeds would not be sufficient to dig the 

 stones and rebuild the stone-walls which fence it. 



Again, we see that farming presents so few attractions as a 

 business, that all our young men are flocking to the cities, or 

 engaging in commerce upon the seas, or seeking adventures 

 abroad, or homes in the "Western uncultivated lands. Anything 

 rather than here pursue the occupation of a farmer. If they 

 farm at all, they go to the West, to make themselves new homes 

 there. And if you ask the reason of this, you are told, " Who 

 would spend his time upon the sterile, broken lands of Massa- 

 chusetts when he can have the rich prairies of Illinois and Kan- 

 sas, without a stone, or a stump, or a hill, on which to make his 

 farm! " Probably there was never a greater fallacy than that 

 farming can be made more profitable in the West than in New 



