Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1835-12-10

hills, and unsubdued valleys nt home, and
New England would be garden, and we
could have population, hesitate not to cav
of ten to one. Try, then, to raise the stand.
ard Of farming by subduing our soil, and you
keep our youth at home. Till this is done,
and till our young men sec that they can
live here and be Independent, they will go Off
They ought to go off. Now there is great
mistake among farmers, which has bearing
on this point .4ad that is, they coret foo much
land Almost all our farms are probably
from four to ten times too large. A farmer
never feels that he has got land enough. He
adds field to field, does not half subdue, or
manure what he has got, and still wants more.
One of the most productive and profitable
farms | ever saw. contained but fourteen
acres. II was every inch subdued, improved
and manured; and the owner was what was
called very thrifty, if not a rich man.
while his neighbor who skins over three
hundred acres, and works full as hard, grows
poor. BY proper management, am satisfied,
every acre of land which is fit to raise corn
upon, can be made to yield one hundred BUSH
els to the acre. Is il not better to put the
manure and care and labor upon it, and raise
the one hundred bushels, than to spread the
same over four acres, and thus drive away
three Of your sons TO the west? AS long as
farmers feel that they must have so much
land, they will be in debt, will hate Life In
surance Offices, will never see what the earth
can be made to yield, and never have New
England filed up with great body Of intel
lig Mt farmers. As things now are what is
the process? | will tell you. A man owns
raises up large family. The girls are mar.
of La har ritz
He himself dies, and his farm falls TO his five
sons. One of these five sons takes the farm
and agrees to pay the other sons their shares.
They 60 off to the west and return no more.
He undertakes by economy and industry to
keep all the farm, and send four fifths of its
value to the west. BY and by, he finds he
cannot do it as fast AS he agreed to do it
He goes to the Life Insurance company, or
else, mortgages his farm, and
starts anew to pay for it. All his life he tolls,
pays interest, thinks the farmer has very
hard row to hoe and it is not till the close of
his life that he gets free from debt. When
he dies the same process has to be gone over
again, and thus, about every generation, we
send four ffths ofthe value of our lands after
hem. Now this is poor policy; and some
times wonder that our farms are in any con-
1ition tolerable; for their worth many times
over, has been sent away to the west. Ii, in
stead of this, our farmers would divide up
heir farms and make every acre yield all il
ian, our towns would not have that appear
lnce of age and decay which too many of
hem have. 'Praise great farm, says the
Poet of Rome, but cultivate little
me- have noticed that men as they grow
I'D, seem to want more land, and seldom do
ou find man who feels he has enough. I l.
now they talk of the fertility of the West, and
he beautiful land to be found there. And
now too, that young man going out there,
he do not die under it, will in few years
ecome thrifty. And why? the process is ca
lily described. He goes into the wilderness,
urchases his land, lives in his log cabin,
leeps on the floor, or more likely on the
round, eats upon slab pinned up into the
ogs, and eats what comes to hand wears
that be can get, and so he lives, working
arly and late, and it would be wonderful in
eed if he did not gain property. And so
'ould he here. Let a young man take the :
oorest farm you can name, and labor on it :
9 hard, and live just as he does at the west, |,
Or fifteen years, and he will be rich here's
is not so much the land that makes the diff I
erence, as it is difference in the manner Of
wing, between the west and the east. was
truck while riding in the stage in listening
} the conversation between two farmers, the
ne from Illinois, the other from the state of "
1aine- The western man was describing :,
nc fertility Of the soil, contrasting it with !
'ew England. why how much corn can
ou raise to an acre." says our man from
laine. Il can raise all of seventy bushels ,
18th all ease.' And how much do you get
" it bushel7' 'Nne pence bushel at my
oor.' WELL says the Maine farmer Il can
lise three hundred bushels Of potatoes on I
y land and get twenty cents bushel at my
Dor.' Aye but you have to dig them.'.Iv '
True and don't you pick and then shell your
'rn, and after all get but twelve and half D
snts, and only seventy bushels on an acre"
repeat it, with the same economy, and the g
'me industry, ayoung farmer here can get =. y
ch as easily as at the west. Whether they =,
i'll practice equal economy and industry, is =,
ore than can say. But let the fashion =,
ice prevail Of having smaller farms and hav- A,
g them better cultivated, and you will be cI o.,
rrounded by your own sons, instead of Ar
rye landhoders, and floating population
no hire themselves out to cultivate it, and III
no own no land. w