DECLINE OF NEW ENGLAND AGRICULTURE. 15 



prise, in every other town of the district, for their improvements 

 in breeds of animals, agriculture and horticulture. 



There are many such cases in the district, but are they not 

 altogether too exceptional ? Are we keeping pace, I repeat 

 again, with other pursuits, or dwindling down, in many cases, 

 to little patches of land, when peradventure the rest of the 

 farm may either be indifferently tilled or even going to waste ? 



I do not propose to answer these queries ; I have no time ; 

 and while I hope that in some respects we may be slightly im- 

 proving, we still need a great many more balance sheets of cost 

 and profits of whole farms each year, to excite a more general 

 interest in agriculture. Let us have the figures, is the impor- 

 tant question now, and this was well put at a former anniversary 

 by my friend George E. Towne, Esq. 



We wish to know the number of acres in the farm — acres of 

 tillage land. What crop, cost and profit ? Mowing land, in- 

 cluding reclaimed bog and meadow. What crop and profit ? 

 .Pasture lands, with description and what they feed. What 

 profit ? Cows (with breed). What profit, butter, cheese or 

 milk ? Horses (with breed). What profit ? Poultry of every 

 description. Cost and profit ? 



But the farmer says he cannot do all this, for he cannot afford 

 to hire labor. Let him try. This is the word. If successful, 

 no young lady of culture will hesitate to unite her fortunes with 

 his. She understands how much less of risk she takes for her- 

 self and family, than in the vicissitudes of trade and manufac- 

 ture. She can not only enjoy his society more than in any 

 other pursuit whatever, but she knows full well that the old- 

 fashioned churn exists only in history. Ciieese is made in the 

 factory, or milk sold at the door, to say nothing of beef, pork, 

 mutton and poultry taken in similar manner, mostly at live 

 weight, and, what is more, at such prices that if our old Puritan 

 Fathers should ever come back to look after their progeny, they 

 would hang them up for extortion quicker than they did the 

 Salem witches. 



Cannot afford to hire ! Then why on earth does he not marry 

 early — putting his boys to work as early, both in seed-time and 

 harvest, and sending them to school the other six months of the 

 year, in the good old-fashioned way ? I know this is plain but 

 not popular talk. I am told at the very threshold that it is now 



