NEW ENGLAND FARMING. 55 



the opportunity — always considering that he who depastures a 

 wide expanse of land remote from his home, is as truly engaged 

 in agriculture, as he who condenses all his operations within 

 the limits of his homestead. 



This adaptation of New England farming to every variety and 

 size of farm-steading, constitutes its most important character- 

 istic. There is nothing either in our tenure of property, or in 

 the demands of our markets, or in our modes of cultivation, 

 which prevents the small landholder from receiving his due 

 proportion of the advantages of agriculture. It is impossible 

 here for large estates to draw away the sustenance from small 

 ones. You will hardly find this happy condition of equality 

 anywliere else. Go to the West, and the prosperity of farming 

 consists in holding large possessions which will furnish liberal 

 contributions to the great staples of that region. Tliousands 

 of bushels of wheat, and herds of fat cattle, corn fields extend- 

 ing as far as the eye can reach, and pastures bounded only by 

 the horizon, constitute the foundation of a western farmer's 

 prosperity. Go to the South, and it is the owners of whole 

 savannahs, who absorb all the agricultural resources of that 

 section of the country, and produce by a necessary and inevi- 

 table monopoly, those commodities which enter into the com- 

 merce of the world. In these sections of our own country the 

 small farmer has hardly a resting place for the sole of his foot. 

 And if you will go with me to England, you will find that one 

 of the most difficult problems now occupying the minds of the 

 statesmen and philanthropists of that country, is the best 

 method of advancing the prosperity of the moderate cultivators 

 of the soil. After the most diligent and anxious investigations 

 there, it has become a conviction in the minds of those who are 

 interested in the matter, that only by combined capital in joint 

 stock farming companies, can the great mass of small farmers 

 ever hope to compete with the holders of large estates. As 

 they now stand, there seems to be no other mode of relief for 

 those hard working but unfortunate cultivators, whose position 

 and capital are such as to prevent their competing with the 

 concentration of power and wealth all around them. They are 

 but tenants at the mercy of landlords, who have nothing to 

 offer for the misery but their sympathies, and the stern decree 

 which drives them from their estates, and of whom it has been 



