NEW ENGLAND FAR:MER. 



JUXE 



straw I suppose is flail threshed, unbroken 

 and put up in nice bales. Do not these 

 prices look as if there might be a profit in 

 producing them ? I think so, and that it can 

 be made to appear to the satisfaction of fair 

 minded men. 



I propose trying to do this in a subsecpient 

 connnunication. K. O. 



jMarch 30, 1871. 



For the Neic Knglund Farmer, 

 DEPOPULATION OF RURAL TOWNS 

 IN" NEW ENGLAND. 



This subject is one of some import, and to 

 be fully understood it must be viewed from 

 different stand-points. Your correspondents 

 have in the main considered it as a retrograde 

 movement, a "backward tendency" in the 

 march of civilization, and the inevitable re- 

 sult, in their opinion, will be a general depreci- 

 ation in the value of farm lands and all agri- 

 cultural interests. 



They sing in plaintive tones of "neglected 

 homesteads," and notice "instances, where 

 the cellars and foundations over which once 

 stood the homes of prosperous families out- 

 number the present dwellings of its inhabi- 

 tants." They tell us unless something is done 

 to stop this tide of migration "that ere long 

 wild animals will return to their former haunts 

 amid the hills and valleys of our dear old New 

 England." 



For once we must beg leave to differ in 

 opinion from those much esteemed corres- 

 ipondents. The cause of this disagreement 

 may perhaps be traceable to the fact that we 

 .are located in one of those rural towns that 

 #re becoming depopulated, and know but 

 Kttle of the outside world. This depopula- 

 tion of purely agricultural towns we regard as 

 the legitimate result of progress in the art and 

 science of agriculture. 



Improved implements and machinery have 

 been brought into use, with which the labor 

 of the farm is performed in less time, and by 

 an entirely different class of laborers than 

 formerly. 



For instance we now see the youth of 14 

 years accomplishing as much work with a 

 mower as a number of strong, robust men 

 "Would in the same time with scythes. A few 

 hours later in the day, we see the younger 

 brother of that youth seated upon the tedder 

 driving through the field turning the hay. In 

 due time he is followed by a boy still younger 

 with a horse-rake, and we have only to look 

 once again to see the trio amusing themselves 

 with tiie horse fork while they remove the hay 

 from the cart and deposit the same upon the 

 top loft in the barn. In a word, the haying 

 season, which once required all the available 

 help, now calls for boys only, and it is merely 

 a pastime for them. This may have the ap- 

 pearance of an overdrawn picture, yet it is 

 'precisely what our watchful eyes behold in 



connection with every department of farm 

 labor. We see it in the preparation of the 

 soil, in sowing the seed, in the after culture, 

 in harvesting farm crops and transporting 

 them to distant jnarkets. 



Formerly the farmer that raised two or 

 three acres of onions, must sjiend days and 

 perhaps weeks of laborious, back-breaking 

 work sowing the seed, now the stiijiling will 

 accomplish the same work in a more satisfac- 

 tory manner with a seed-sower in a single day, 

 having spent an hour after his mid-day meal 

 perusing the "New Exgland Farmer" or 

 some other first class periodical. 



Once our surplus labor, and draught ani- 

 mals enough to consume all the forage crops 

 we could grow, might have been employed 

 transporting farm products to market and re- 

 turning implements, fertilizers, seeds, &c. ; 

 but the railroads come in and carry our 

 freights for about twenty percent, of what it 

 formerly cost to do the same work. 



Again, fertilizers are introduced that can 

 be used in a more concentrated form, — new 

 and better modes of cultivation are adopted, 

 whereby farm work is very much abridged, 

 and the tendency of every progressive move- 

 ment is to diminish the amount of labor re- 

 quired to produce a given quantity of farm 

 products. 



The increase of population in the country 

 has averaged about 33 per cent, each decade 

 of years, and the demand for agricultural 

 products would naturally increase in about 

 the same ratio. Will it employ a larger num- 

 ber of laborers Avith all these improved im- 

 plements and labor saving machines to supply 

 this increased demand ? Certainly not. On 

 the other hand the number of farm laborers 

 gi'ows less each year, and the census reveals 

 the fact that this purely agricultural town is 

 becoming depopulated. While the number 

 of laborers has decreased, our lands have 

 become more productive and their market 

 value has increased. These rapid strides of 

 advancement in the art of agriculture very 

 naturally suggests interesting considerations. 

 Will the manufacturing and commercial in- 

 dustries of New England be able to supply 

 this unparalleled demand for implements, ma- 

 chinery and fertilizers ? 



Will the accumulated wealth of her manu- 

 facturers, merchants and bankers create a de- 

 mand at remunerative prices for this largely 

 increased amount of farm products H If this 

 can be accomplished without attracting labor 

 or capital from agricultural pursuits, crops 

 may be introduced that will more fully de- 

 velope the productive qualities of the soil and 

 profitably employ every class of laborers ; 

 then would the ratio of increase in the popu- 

 lation of the rural towns exceed that of the 

 manufacturing villages. But why explore the 

 broad field of impossibilities to find a remedy 

 for this so called ecil or to prevent migration ? 



It requires no great stretch of imagination 



