Old and New Homes. 195 



far more refreshing than any which a stranger could show. For such rea- 

 sons, the science of farming is being studied by a different class of people 

 from those of former days. Men of education and refinement are bring- 

 ing their learning and common sense to bear upon questions of soil and 

 subsoil, labor-saving machinery, and other details of farm-life ; thus pro- 

 ducing great changes in the old routine of agriculture. Most of those, 

 who, as yet, had been unable to break away from the irksome business of 

 the city, had some treasured dream of the future, whose consummation 

 was only awaiting their convenience. 



During the latter part of the time to which I now refer, quite a change 

 had come over my father. He had read the various accounts of farm- 

 ing and farmers in other sections of the country, and was surprised 

 to find how different were the modes of proceeding. There were the rich, 

 rolling prairies of the West, just ready for the plough, and suited best for 

 grain and grass. No manure was needed, for there had been no exhaust- 

 ing crops to impoverish the soil ; there were no stones to dull the plough- 

 share ; with many other real or supposed advantages, which seemed to strike 

 the attention of a Connecticut farmer : but then there was the long dis- 

 tance from home, from markets, from churches and schools. When he 

 sometimes broached the subject of a removal to the West, we all, with one 

 accord, clung with longing to the old homestead in New England, prefer- 

 ring its rocks and hard-earned crops, with those other precious advantages, 

 to the most promising of Western prairies. 



Still, it was evident that his mind was bent upon a removal somewhere. 

 As winter wore on, we were not surprised to hear him propose a trip 

 down through New Jersey, the great fruit-growing section, of which he had 

 so often read. It was a new field; for he had never before travelled beyond 

 the boundaries of his native State, nor witnessed the style of horticultural 

 farming which is peculiar to some portions of that region. The Camden 

 and Amboy Railroad, let me here remark, traverses a belt of country from 

 the south-west to the north-east of New Jersey, which is wonderfully pro- 

 ductive ; but to his eyes, accustomed to the stubborn soil of New England, 

 it had a strangely unpromising aspect. 



It was the end of February, and the Connecticut farms were still covered 

 with snow a foot deep. Not a thought of out-door work had entered the 



