184 POWER AND THE PLOW 



entire work. Excessive heat is not a drawback at any 

 time. 



The farms are seldom large and are cut up into small, irregular 

 fields set off by stone fences which were built at the edges of 

 the early clearings. There is a great deal of small truck farm- 

 ing, considerable dairying, and many farms on which prac- 

 tically all the products are used on the farm itself. In the 

 face of competition with the new and fertile lands of the West 

 the farmers long ago abandoned grain raising as a commercial 

 proposition, and much of the land has been allowed to revert 

 to grazing or meadow land. A small percentage, therefore, 

 of the cultivated land is plowed each year. There is no virgin 

 sod to be broken, and only occasionally is an old meadow 

 brought into rotation. 



New England farming suffers from a lack of power, the 

 horse as a rule being small and of racing rather than draft 

 stock. The small native horses of 900 to 1000 pounds and the 

 large Western horses of 1400 to 1500 pounds are not so well 

 adapted to the greater part of New England as medium weight 

 horses of the old Morgan stock. To quote L. G. Dodge, of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture: "With the exception of 

 restricted localities, the lack of efficient horsepower is deplor- 

 able. Better farming was done, as a rule, twenty-five years 

 ago, when oxen were used, and plows set at the proper depth. 

 The average New England farmer is too conservative and 

 controlled by habit, and he dislikes to adopt new machinery 

 if the increased cost is at all evident. He lays the lack of 

 improvement to topography, size of fields, heaviness of draft 

 of new machinery, etc., when it is in many cases due to 

 his own inertia or lack of foresight. The lack of suit- 

 able machinery is one of the greatest hindrances to the 

 New England farmer's producing profitably. In the face 

 of high-priced labor he must learn to use machinery in place 

 of hand labor, and then have suitable horses to draw it, 

 for horses are cheaper than men in terms of product, and* 



