26 



NEW ENGLAND FARRIER. 



Jan. 



A GOOD SOIL. 



So much is said and thought of the superior 

 fertility of the Western prairies, that probably 

 but few of the farmers of New England, in count- 

 ing up the mercies and blessings for which they 

 ought to offer up special "thanksgiving and 

 praise," on the occasion of the late observance 

 of the Puritan festival, enumerated that of a good 

 soil. It is, however classed, by the editors of the 

 Ilomesfead, with the following six special reasons 

 why New England farmers should be thankful, 

 viz. : — A Homo in the Country — A Good Soil 

 — A Country well Wooded and Watered — Fine 

 Scenery — A Healthful Climate — Good Markets — 

 The Blessings of Education, of Society, and of 

 Religion — and upon each of which they discourse 

 in the number of that paper, dated November 24, 

 1859 — the Thanksgiving Day of twenty-two 

 States and one Territory. We copy their remarks 

 on this topic, in the conviction that a mere habit 

 of speaking of the sterility of New England — of 

 its rock-bound coast and granite hills — not by 

 farmers only, but by our orators and writers, has 

 done and is still doing our soil great injustice ; 

 and that multitudes leave our hills and valleys, to 

 learn, by dear-bought experience, elsewhere, how 

 little they have gained by emigration, so far as 

 respects soil alone. 



A GOOD SOIL. 



It may seem invidious to the dweller in the 

 We-:!torn valleys, that we should speak of a good 

 soil as one of the advantages of the sea-board 

 States. Yet if we go back two centuries ago, when 

 these States were mainly a wilderness, we shall 

 find the settlers very much in raptures with the 

 vegetable productions of these worn-out lands. 

 Whether or not New England ever had so rich a 

 soil as Ohio or Kentucky, is not now very easily 

 determined, for w-e have no reliable statistics of 

 the productions of our farms in colonial days. 



It is a good soil, even now, after two centuries 

 of persistent abuse, and abundantly rewards cap- 

 ital, labor and skill, wherever they are applied. 

 We have very little, originally poor, arid land, 

 and very little land now worn-out that will not 

 pay well for reclaiming. The average product of 

 corn to the acre in Connecticut is said to be 

 larger than that of any State in the Union — a fact 

 quite as complimentary to our soil as to our cul- 

 tivation. Eighty to one hundred bushels are 

 quite common among cultivators who use manure 

 liberally, and with the skill and capital that arc 

 attainable in this occupation, we may make sev- 

 enty bushels of corn to the acre, the average for 

 the" Slate. 



We have within our own borders, if rightly dis- 

 tributed, the means of making our lands as rich 

 as they need be. We have clay beds enough to 

 make tile to underdrain every acre in the State 

 that needs drainage, and muck enough to make 

 our uplands as rich as a garden. The most of our 

 farms have muck deposits within their own en- 

 closures. The soil itself in most parts of the 

 State, as the growth of forest trees bear witness, 



abounds in elements of fertility, and only needs 

 skillful working to give an ample rew^ard to the 

 labors of the husbandman. It is also 



A COUNTRY WELL, WOODED AND WATERED. 



Looking out upon the landscape from almost 

 any of our hill tops, a large part seems still to be 

 covered with forest. We are inclined to think 

 that there is more woodland in the State now than 

 fifty years ago. Since the introduction of coal, 

 wood for fuel is cheaper in many of our cities and 

 villages by twenty-five per cent. Almost every 

 farm has a liberal supply of fuel and timber, and 

 with good husbandry these may be perpetuated. 

 These woodlands afford an important shelter to 

 the cultivated fields ; and it is doubtful if their 

 extent can ever be much curtailed without injury 

 to our agricultural interests. 



We have, too, in all parts of New England, 

 clear running streams and springs of water ; wa- 

 ter that it is a joy to look at as it leaps and foams 

 and sparkles in the rivulets and brooks, or as it 

 whirls and roars in the broader, deeper current of 

 the river. One needs to see the turbid brooks of 

 the Western valleys, and to taste the waters of 

 their stagnant cisterns and wells, to appreciate 

 that stereotyped item in the advertisement of a 

 New England farm — "well watered." On the prai- 

 ries you may go miles without beholding a water 

 course of any kind, and hundreds of miles with no 

 other sight than muddy water. Here springs 

 gush up on all our granite hill-sides, and almost 

 every enclosure of a few acres has its spring or 

 separating rill, to allay the thirst of man and 

 beast. The time is not distant when these idle 

 brooks will be turned over the adjacent fields to 

 irrigate them in drouth, and to add largely to 

 their productiveness. 



FINE SCENERY. 



This of course is a matter of small importance 

 to those who only value the soil for the crops that 

 will bring silver and gold. But the number is in- 

 creasing every year who have a higher standard 

 of value, and appreciate a region as it ministers 

 to the ajsthetic wants of man. New England can- 

 not boast of the sublime scenery of the Alps or of 

 the Andes, but no country can surpass her char- 

 ming hills and valleys, her beautiful lakes and riv- 

 ers. One hardly needs to go abroad in pursuit of 

 the picturesque, the wild, or the grand in nature. 

 The mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire, 

 and the hills of Berkshire and Litchfield draw 

 their annual crowds of summer tourists, in ])ur- 

 suit of health and happiness. The valleys of the 

 Connecticut, Thames and Housatonic, abound in 

 charming landscapes, that, however unappreciated 

 in youth, are certain to be cherished by the emi- 

 grant to the prairies and valleys of the West, — 

 pictures of loveliness forever. 



A HEALTHEUL CLIMATE. 



We have a great advantage in this respect over 

 the newer States of the South and West. There, 

 diseases of miasmatic origin, chills and fever, are 

 the lot of all, until they beconre acclimated, and 

 with many, this period of trial never expires until 

 they drop into the grave. Here, multitudes have 

 almost uniform health, and many pass through 

 life with no serious illness. In a parish in this 

 State, one-third of the people born attain the age 

 of seventy years, and this perhaps is not an over 



