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distance without seeing a single work of permanent im- 

 provement in progress. Occasionally he will find a man 

 subduing meadow land, or breaking up a rough pasture, 

 but not in a strong-handed, energetic way, as if he were 

 positive of the utility and profitableness of his labor. 

 Here and there he will see new buildings. The fact that 

 the old ones are tumbling down is as often the cause of 

 their erection as the pressing necessity of enlarged ac- 

 commodations. If he examines every farm carefully, 

 he will be surprised at the number where the pastures 

 are growing up to bushes, briars and brambles, where 

 mowing fields need to be renovated, where the crops suf- 

 fer for want of thorough under draining, where a majori- 

 ty of the fruit trees are upon the decline from old age or 

 neglect, where walls and fences require re-building, and 

 the buildings are behind the times and rapidly going to 

 decay from lack of timely repairs. A large portion of 

 the farms are owned by people who have passed the me- 

 ridian of life; their children are grown up and gone; 

 under increasing years and increasing infirmities, what 

 was once to them a pleasure has become a burden. Short 

 of reliable and efiicient help, they adopt that course of 

 management which involves the least care and labor. 

 These men can tell you of the larger crops this farm 

 has produced, or the greater number of stock which that 

 one kept, and freely admit the backward tendency of 

 their own homesteads. The simple fact that none of the 

 children can be induced to assist in carrying on the 

 farm, causes scores in every county to be thrown upon 

 the market for sale. Everywhere can be seen field after 

 field that does not pay interest, taxes, and cost of main- 

 taining fences. Scarcely a beginning has been made in 

 thorough drainage, and yet the wet lands, which consti- 



