1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



53 



•INFLUENCE OP RAJLBOAOS UPON 

 AQHICUIiTURE. 



ARious departments of 



r^' agriculture are probably 



more directly influenced 



by railroads than is believed by 



„ i^ those who have not given atten- 



>^r tion to the subject. Let us look 



"^i^y at some of the effects that have 



been and are being produced on 



agricultural interests by railroads. 



They tend to equalize the value of land. 

 Land is valuable not merely for its capacity 

 to produce food for those who occupy it. A 

 large portion of the population is engaged in 

 other avocations than farming, and purchases 

 its daily food in the open market, which it. 

 supplied by the* cultivators of the soil, from 

 the surplus which they produce above wh»t id 

 needed for their own consumption. Hence 

 the value of land depends largely upon the 

 facilities for transporting to market its sur- 

 plus produce. It now costs no more to trans- 

 port produce from lands lying within easy 

 reach of railroads, two or three hundred miles, 

 than it does to transport it fifteen or twenty 

 miles by wagons. Many articles are now 

 raised hundreds of miles from the city market, 

 which a few years ago would not pay for 

 transportation. Potatoes, green corn, apples 

 and various vegetables are brought from New 

 Hampshire and Vermont to Boston, and com- 

 pete profitably with the same articles raised 

 within a few miles of the city. 



The same is true of the smaller fruits. 

 Animals of almost every kind are slaughtered 

 hundreds of miles away from the cities, and 

 reach the market by the cars in good condi- 

 tion. Milk is transported daily from fifty to 

 one hundred miles to Boston and New York. 

 Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and various 

 articles for the pickle manufacturers and can- 

 ners, are brought in their season from the 

 interior. Strawberries, raspberries, black- 

 berries, currants and grapes are transported 

 from fifty to five hundred miles in good condi- 

 tion. 



The market gardeners in the neighbor- 

 hood of New York, have cut up their lands 

 into streets and house lots, and gradually 

 crept up the North River from fifty to one hun- 



nois are devoted to the cultivation of small 

 fruits and vegetables for Chicago market, two 

 hundred miles away. Land jn southern Mich- 

 igan and southern Illinois are worth from one 

 to two hundred dollars per acre for agricul- 

 tural uses. New railroads are penetrating the 

 boundless solitudes of the West, affording the 

 means of transporting to market their produce, 

 and thus increasing their value many fold. 



Cities are springing up,— yes, that is the 

 word, springing up,— almost, like Jonah's 

 goard, in a night, creating a demand for the 

 produce of the soil around them, and thus 

 giving value to that which before had none. 



By means of steam, the early vegetables of 

 the South are brought to the markets of the 

 North, some weeks before they are ma'urtd 

 in our colder clime, thus prolonging our vege- 

 table season five or six weeks ; and the pota- 

 toes, apples and onions of the North find a 

 market in the Southern cities, in the autumn. 

 Both are accommodated by the interchange. 

 The facilities for moving live stock are in- 

 creased almost without limit. The herds from 

 Texas are embarked at Abilene for Chicago, 

 460 miles distant, and from Chicago to New 

 York and Boston, a thousand more, and thus 

 the dense populations of the East are supplied 

 with beef, which could not otherwise reach 

 them, and would be of little value, where it is 

 raised. So the swine and sheep from the 

 We3t are transported by (he thousand, to the 

 Eastern markets, on the cars, or are slaugh- 

 tered, and transported in the carcass. Wool 

 and dairy products would not pay, were it not 

 for the railroad. 



Another benefit to agriculture is the dis- 

 semination by rail of good stock to all parts 

 of the country. Every valuable importation 

 of cattle, horses, sheep, or swine, soon makes 

 its mark upon all the stock in the country. 

 When it took four or five weeks to drive an 

 animal from New York to Cincinnati, blood 

 diffused slowly, but now that Short-horns are 

 transported from Canada to Kentucky in three 

 days, the work goes on rapidly. Agricultural 

 machines manufactured in the State of New 

 York, are exhibited at the fairs of St. Louis 

 and Chicago, and every improveim-nt in 

 ploughs and harrows is soon known through- 

 dred miles, and their "truck" in immense I out the country. Guano and^perphosphate 



quantities is daily conveyed in boats and cars 

 to the city. Large sections of southern lUi- 



are transported hundreds of mdey, and at 

 last, pears and grapes are brought from the 



