No. 4.] NEW ENGLAND AGKICULTURE. 101 



is at least Jive- times as much machinery used now as there 

 was in 1850. The consequence is that, with twice as mueli 

 land under cultivation, it takes ten per cent less men to do 

 the work ; and this reduced number of men is feeding more 

 than double the population of 1850, besides sending enor- 

 mous quantities of food products abroad, the exports of 

 agricultural products in 1895 amounting to more than 

 $570,000,000 worth. The beneficent homestead law has, 

 of course, been a powerful factor in increasing the num- 

 ber of farms, having added more than 2,000,000 to the 

 number and the timber culture acts another half million, 

 and the increase has accordingly been far greater in the 

 new west than in the settled communities of the east. But 

 New England has fully shared in the general prosperity, 

 and, as we have already seen, has more than made up in 

 other directions any relative falling off in agriculture. 



The number of acres of farm lands in these six States 

 increased from 18,367,458 in 1850 to 19,755,584 in 1890, 

 or more than a million and a quarter acres ; while the val- 

 uation increased from $435,154,525 to $585,267,817, — a 

 gain of $150,113,292, or an average of $108.12 per acre 

 for each acre of additional land included in farms. The 

 increased valuation was distributed among the several States 

 as follows: Maine, $55,495,252, or 83.01 per cent; New 

 Hampshire, $13,775,552, or 20.73 per cent; Vermont, 

 $23,055,633, or 29.28 per cent; Massachusetts, $25,743,- 

 761, or 21.11 per cent; Rhode Island, $6,078,839, or 

 31.83 per cent; and Connecticut, $25,964,255, or 31.63. 

 The total acreage in farms was increased in three of the 

 States and decreased in three, as follows : Maine increased 

 1,624,532 acres, or 35.67 per cent; New Hampshire in- 

 creased 66,604 acres, or 1.96 per cent; Vermont increased 

 269,824 acres, or 6.54 per cent. On the other hand, the 

 acreage in Massachusetts decreased 357,730, or 10.65 per 

 cent; in Rhode Island, 84,657, or 15.28 per cent; in Con- 

 necticut, 130,447, or 5.47 per cent. One of the most strik- 

 ing facts shown by a comparison of these figures is that the 

 decrease in acreage in the three great manu Picturing States 

 is accompanied by a marked increase in valuation. Massa- 

 chusetts, for example, shows a decrease in acreage of 10.65 



