ABANDONED FARMS. 63 



yet the foregoing is the report with which a leading jour- 

 nal furnishes its readers. The article further states : 



" Take the farmers of Franklin County. It has been 

 estimated that their average surplus of profit above 

 expense does not exceed $75 a year. In some localities 

 in that county, a farmer, who, at seventy-five, has ac- 

 cumulated $3,000 or $4,000, is thought to have attained 

 to the greatest measure of success. 



" But many have found themselves unequal to the strug- 

 gle between the expenses and the profits. Not, indeed, 

 the large proportion of the farmers of the preceding 

 generation, but the sons, who, though laborious and 

 well-meaning, have not had the discipline that comes 

 from originating an enterprise, but have depended upon 

 their father's training and instruction. In the unequal 

 battle they have given up and fled from the field." 



The cause assigned for the abandoned farms of New 

 England ' is one that is given by many — the competition 

 of the Western farms has been too severe, and in the 

 unequal contest the New England competitor has been 

 obliged to give up and flee to other parts. 



The Hon. David A. Wells says : " A few years ago 

 the inhabitants of Ludlow, formerly a most prosperous 

 town in Windsor County, Vermont, memorialized the 

 legislature to the effect that there were twelve deserted 

 farms within the town limits, and asked permission to 

 guarantee to any persons who would lease and work 

 them exemption from taxation, local and State, for a 

 considerable term of years." He also states : ''All over 

 New England, farms in abundance can now be pur- 

 chased for less than the cost of the improvements upon 



' Official reports state that in six towns in Massachusetts the un- 

 occupied dwellings number from ten to forty-five. 



