The Portland daily press., 1875-10-22
The Picture Reversed.


agricultural interest in Maine has been a topic
for comment, and the exodus of young men
from the country to the cities and large vii.
lagos has been constantly deplored. Grave
apprehepsions have been felt. Indeed the
situation was serious. Not few farms were
entirely deserted, turned over to pasture. II
was not infrequent in travelling along country
roads to come to farm houses blackened by
sun and wind and rain, with broken window
panes and leaky roots and crumbling chin
neys, with out-houses fast falling to the
ground, and with fences that had forfeited all
sembance of protection. The houses were
deserted, the land about growing up to grass
Decay held mortgages on the places, and was
getting ready to forecose. The farms still
held in cultivation were imperfectly titled
They were running out'' people said,
ming out because they were not half worked
The farmer who once had three or four stal.
wart sons to help him was left alone. Labor
was scarce. So the soil was neglected. One
man with irregular and infrequent assistance
attempted to work farm which could easily
give employment to half dozen men and
boys. The land was only ''skinned." Time
could not be spared for fertilization or thcr.
Cugh cultivation. Labor could not be had for
needed improvements. Some fancied the
land was nearly worked out, and so bought
more land, thus increasing the evil and rem
dering the cultivation thinner than before.
Some had recourse to timber lots, and sold
their pine and hemlock to the mill men, and
SO met their expenses. Others went to the
money-lenders. A mortgage on farm was
almost as common as barn. A few, wiser
or more fortunate, carefully titled their farms,
and throve apace. The trouble was not that
the soil had deteriorated, that good farm.
Ing had ceased to pay. There were not men
enough to work the farms as they should be
worked. The boys were in the cities, in
trade, in manufactures.
The last two years have changed all this.
The great manufactures, which had accomo-
dated themselves to the demand caused by
the wear and waste of war, have had to
greatly curtail production. In consequence
the army of statesmen required to sell these
goods have been diminished. The ranks of
the middle-men have been thinned out. The
suspension of railroad building and the iron
industry have thrown many people out of
employment. All occupations are over
crowded. Thousands of men are forced to
leave the cities or starva. The time is now
come to talk of che exodus from city to coun-
try. There is hardly rural district in Maine
that has not received accessions to its male
adult population within the last six months.
All will receive greater accessions in the
six months to come. The laborers have
come back, unwilllngly, to the farms. 1t
will be many years before we shall again wit
ness general influx TO manufacturing CEN
tres. Meanwhile these men must live, and
live by farming. In consequence the farms,
titled as they should be, will constantly i'm
prove. 1t will be found that the work of two
men is better for an acre than the work of
one. Every inch of arabic land will be highly
cultivated. More will be produced on sixty
acres three years hence than is produced on
"Au oiAoy INV. LII OtueT TtSD6ClS,
moral and physical, the cou untry as whole
will be the gamer. In time probably, on
account of war or of great speculative ex-
element, the drift will again set in to the
city-to sweep back again after time. In
the long run city and country maintain their
normal proportion.
Another circumstance is strengthening the
country. On account of scarcity of labor, of
consequent careless cultivation and unre-
muneratve return from products, the value
of real estate in the rural districts has not
become inflated. Very often it has fallen
more below its true value than city property
has risen above. So now it is not forced to
meet and yield to the shrinkage of values.
On the contrary it is beginning to appreciate.
The law of supply and demand will cause a
further advance. High state of cultivation
and larger crops will enhance its value still
more. The process is now going on. Real
estate in cities is falling. In the rural dis
tricts it is is slowly rising. Unless values are
once more unsettled by an imitation of the
currency the farmers have prosperous time
before them. The cities have grown for
years at the expense of the country districts.
The farming regions are now to win prosperi-
ty at the expense of the cities.