V 



Id Oame of any Value to the Farmer ? 7 



mouths of rivers and creeks have destroyed the river fish 

 and cut off a large food supply from inland settlers ; in 

 this they should have been protected by law. The ab- 

 sence of shade and pollution of rivers and stream) are 

 given as reasons for tne disappearance of trout. Pollution 

 of streams is illegal and can be stopped, and for shade, 

 forest trees, osiers and basket willows can ba planted at 

 a profit. But the trout and river fish are extinct in 

 rivers and streams which are not polluted, and where 

 there is shade. 



" Common property in game " was no doubt a useful 

 cry for the emigration agent, and in the earlier days of 

 settlement was a necessity. A cry of " property in game" 

 might now induce capitalists to invent in waste and un- 

 productive lands, assist to make interesting, enliven and 

 enrich the country and be a help to many farmers strug- 

 gling f >r exist ;nce on exhausted or incumbered farms. It 

 is worth an effort also to endeavor to check a growing 

 distaste for country life among all classes not already 

 wedded to or indulging in the excitement of city life. A 

 distaste for country life, or symptoms of unrest and dis- 

 content, are not infrequent among the families of the most 

 prosperous and best located farmers. This exodus from 

 the country to the cities has recently attracted attention 

 in the United States. An inquiry has shown that more 

 farmers have left the best farms in Illinois, Iowa and 

 Wisconsin to reside in Springfield city and Janesville 

 city than have abandoned the worn-out lands of New 

 England. The western farmers with fine farms, now 

 subdivide them, and make the best terms with tenants, 

 not infrequently foreigners, tending to foster absentee 

 landlords, and to create an ignorant rural peasantry. 



III. 



H. D. Minot's work, published by the Naturalist Agen- 

 cy, Salem, Mass., has the following description of the 



