64 AMERICAN FARMS. 



them, — yes, for less than the cost of the construction of 

 their stone walls." ' 



A writer in the Grange Homes, of Boston, mentions 

 seeing farms sold in Vermont for less than the cost of 

 the buildings upon them. He pertinently suggests the 

 query : The fathers among the hills were poor ; but they 

 cleared away the forests, raised and educated families, 

 and built homes. Why do the buildings now sell for 

 less than they are worth, with one or two hundred acres 

 of land thrown in to make the trade ? " Yes, why are 

 these lands being abandoned ? Why are the farmers 

 becoming mere tenants ? Why are mortgages settling 

 down on the old farms of America ? Why is the wealth 

 of farmers all over the land so little increased, when the 

 aggregate wealth is growing so rapidly ? Why is such a 

 large proportion of the agricultural class of the world 

 groaning under the trouble of procuring the necessities 

 of civilized life ? Why all this, while agriculture stands 

 at the base of all material development ? 



' The catalogue of the abandoned farms of New Hampshire contains 

 particulars of 352 of these, referring to which the State Commissioner 

 says, that " in most instances these farms have not been abandoned 

 because the soil has become exhausted, or from the lack of natural 

 fertility, but from various causes appearing in the social and economic 

 history of the State." 



On August II, 1889, the New York Tribune had an article on the 

 decline of the farming industries of Vermont, in which it said : 

 " Good lands are offered for sale as low as I3 an acre, and it is said 

 that it will be necessary to make $5 an acre the maximum price for 

 settlers, if the new Vermont boomers expect to compete with Western 

 lands. It may, as a vivid notion of the extent to which the depopu- 

 lating process has gone on, be said, that no difficulty was encountered 

 in finding abandoned farms in one locality to furnish contiguous 

 farms for the first proposed 'colony of fifty families. In fact, four 

 such localities were found." 



