February io, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



5i 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



entered as second-class matter at the post-office AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1897. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Abandoned Farms 51 



Proposed Change in Forestry Practice in New York 52 



The Visalia Oaks. ( With figure. ) Charles H. Shinn. 5= 



Paradise Valley U. P. Hedrick. 53 



Foreign Correspondence: — London Letter W. Watson. 53 



Cultural Department: — Notes on Cherries J. Troop. 54 



Green house Notes William Scott. 56 



Flowers in January I!'. E End loot t. 56 



Sowing Flower Seeds T.D.Hatfield. 57 



Notes from Baden-Baden Max Leichtlin. 57 



Correspondence : — Evergreens in Winter Danske Dandridge. 58 



Meetings of Societies : — Western New York Horticultural Society 58 



Recent Publications 59 



Notes 60 



Iliustration : — View in a Grove of California White Oaks, Quercus Iobata, 



near Visalia, Calif., Fig. S 55 



Abandoned Farms. 



AT a Farmers' Convention, held not long ago at Danbury, 

 L Connecticut, Mr. R. S. Hinman read a paper on "The 

 Deserted Farms of New England," in the course of which 

 he presented some novel phases of the problem which has 

 caused so much discussion. It was admitted that there 

 are deserted farms in Connecticut, but in the first place 

 much of the land which has been abandoned ought never 

 to have been cleared or tilled. As an illustration of this 

 statement Mr. Hinman referred to one cold field facing the 

 north-west and so full of fast rocks and bowlders that it 

 would be hard to turn in it a straight and continuous furrow 

 for a rod, while the scanty soil between the rocks is thin and 

 sterile. A man now living remembers that in his youth 

 he had planted this field with Corn on shares, and both he 

 and the owner of the land were content with the crop and 

 its cost ; but the field has never been tilled since and will 

 not be tilled again until men are content with wages of 

 fifty cents a day while boarding themselves. In contrast 

 with this, Mr. Hinman admitted that there are lands in the 

 state which are easily tilled, readily accessible and appar- 

 ently once productive, which have long been allowed to 

 grow up to brush. In explanation of this he argues that 

 the very fact of easy tillage and access wrought ruin to the 

 land. The owners took crop aftercrop from it and returned 

 nothing, because the process was temporarily profitable, 

 until finally the available plant-food was exhausted. Then 

 the cost of enriching the soil with fertilizers to the point of 

 profitable productiveness was so great that the crops would 

 not pay for the raising when they came in competition 

 with those grown on cheap new western land. 



But, besides rough and sterile lands and lands which 

 have been rifled of their fertility by covetous owners, it is 

 further admitted that thousands of acres of excellent pas- 

 ture-lands have been abandoned to Hardhack and Black- 

 berry vines, because Connecticut farmers preferred to lend 

 their money to western competitors at eight or ten per 

 cent, interest, rather than hire men to cut the brush and 

 keep their farms in good heart for the future. When Con • 

 necticut passed a law allowing the registration of notes and 

 bonds at a low rate of taxation, the farmers in one tovvn of 

 Litchfield County filed evidences of $60,000 loaned to 



western farmers. If that money had been used to improve 

 their roads and enrich their lands these farmers might not 

 have received ten per cent, on their savings, but they cer- 

 tainly would have had an investment safer than many 

 western mortgages have since then proved. The plain 

 statement of the case is that instead of using some of their 

 savings to make their farms more productive, eastern 

 farmers furnished working capital to their competitors, who 

 naturally undersold them in their own markets and then 

 never repaid the loans which gave them their start. Again, 

 many an owner of a small farm found out years ago that 

 he could make a better living in the city than at home, and 

 although the land can be sold for a fair valuation the owner 

 prefers to let it lie as an investment, in the hope that it will 

 some day be worth still more, as will probably be the case 

 if it is near a thrifty town or has some attractiveness of 

 location. 



It is to be remembered also that more people were needed 

 to raise the same crop on the same land fifty years ago than 

 are needed now, and that while horse- rakes, cultivators and 

 mowing-machines take the place of men in the field, they 

 do not need farm-houses to live in, and this accounts for 

 the remains of a cellar and perhaps the remnant of a Lilac- 

 bush, often seen along the roadside, to testify that here was 

 once a home, where now there is none. These little farm- 

 houses all over New England were once occupied by shoe- 

 makers, wheelwrights, tailors or people engaged in other 

 home industries that are now carried on exclusively in 

 cities and towns. This does not imply a diminishing 

 population ; it simply means that the concentration of all 

 these mechanical industries in the villages makes fewer 

 houses necessary on the farms. These old-time artisans 

 could keep a cow and a horse, and by making boots or 

 mending chairs at odd spells could live on land which 

 would not of itself suffice to support a family. That they 

 have left these farms simply means changed conditions, 

 and not necessarily any deterioration in the number or 

 general comfort of the population. And, finally, there is 

 now and then a deserted farm-house which is fit for occu- 

 pation and a deserted farm upon which a living can be 

 made, but this is because the owner leaves it for his 

 pleasure or his profit and does not choose to sell. Very 

 few farms have been sold under mortgage, and where 

 farms have been taken by foreclosure, this, according to 

 Mr. Hinman's observation, has always been under condi- 

 tions that would have produced the same result in whatever 

 business the owner was engaged. That is, the number of 

 farmers who fail because they conduct their business with- 

 out adequate foresight, intelligence and industry is not 

 proportionally greater than the number who fail in manu- 

 facturing, mining or commerce. 



And what of the future? Very plainly the forests never 

 should have been cut from land where nothing else 

 will flourish. The natural suggestion, then, is that the best 

 use to put these acres to now is to encourage a new forest 

 growth upon them as the cheapest crop they will produce. 

 Undoubtedly, if all the land in Connecticut that cannot be 

 tilled with profit could be helped to reproduce its original 

 forest cover this would not only help to furnish the needed 

 wood-supply of the future, but it would add to the fertility 

 of the remaining farm-lands by breaking the winds, miti- 

 gating hard-weather conditions and helping the supply of 

 moisture. While it must be admitted that where hundreds 

 of acres of soil have been made unproductive by careless 

 cultivation, there must be a loss somewhere, Mr. Hinman 

 does not consider the abandonment of many Connecticut 

 farms a misfortune to the state. Gardens run to weeds, 

 barns with rotting timbers and tumble-down fences, do not 

 add to the beauty of a landscape, but whether the com- 

 munity will be improved by a new occupant who will 

 restore the land to its former use depends on the character 

 of the newcomer. No doubt, much of the land could be 

 reclaimed — that is, if it were managed by the highest skill, 

 it might pay men who are willing to live cheaply them- 

 selves and bring up their families cheaply. Mr. Hinman 



