122 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



COWS until December 1st, but I do not have a silo. I think the 

 people in the large towns and cities are fortunate if they can get good, 

 pure, clean milk for eight cents a quart, for it is certainly worth it 

 and the dairyman who is producing it only gets a fair return for his 

 labor and capital invested." 



In regard to the Cjuestion of a young man buying a farm today, 

 it all depends on the man and his wife. If they are good workers 

 and have some general knowledge of farming and farm life I know 

 they can buy a farm, raise milk, grow small fruits, raise such market 

 crops as will sell in their locality, keep hens and pigs, in fact all 

 things that go with a well-regulated farm, and by paying strict atten- 

 tion to business, can live far happier and better than they could in 

 town and pay for the farm in a few years. I believe there is now 

 the very best opportunity for young men to start in and make a 

 success in producing certified milk or by raising fine fruits and vege- 

 tables, for there is a growing demand for the best products and at 

 top prices. 



Women have been particularly successful in managing farms, 

 perhaps the most novel of which is the rat farm in Hampden County, 

 Massachusetts, which has given good support to a woman and her 

 mother for ten years. Another lady has cleared over S5000 in six 

 years on a poultry plant. Another has made a handsome income 

 by raising squabs, and another by managing a nursery business. 

 Another has been raising berries for twenty-nine years; another is 

 keeping bees; another is running a market garden farm with great 

 success; and there are scores of others all over New England who 

 have bought small farms and are enjoying their life in the country 

 and as one woman says, "I shall not lose my position as a woman 

 in the city is most sure to do after she has lost her youth." 



A letter from one of the women is so interesting that I am going to 

 read it to you. " Just how did I happen to be a farmer ? I hardly 

 know how to answer you, but briefly because I feel it to be the path 

 God for some reason meant me to tread. As a little girl in tiie city, 

 I longed to make my oAvn place in life and my ambition seemed to 

 be to own a big, big farm with lots of animals, flowers, fruits, etc. 

 At thirty, I had in a way accomplished the first, though not my 

 intended ambition. I still longed for the farm and I bought one, 

 paying a small sum down. I have worked hard but no harder than 



