Litchfield enquirer., 1879-07-24
The New England Farmer.

What is to become of the New England far-
 mer, is question of deepening interest. For
 half century he has at best stood still, his
 cousin the city merchant, his brother the vii
 lage manufacturer, and his son the Western
 farmer, have been monopolizing that wonder
 full American prosperity of which we never
 tire of boasting The New England farmer
 has not even held his own A constant de-
 cline in numbers, and large substitution of
 thrifty foreigners for decaying native stock,
 is among the noteworthy features of rural New
 England. All this went on steadily through
 the years of prosperity up to '73 What has
 happened since? All at once it was, discover
 cd that our cities were over-populated and
 that our manufacturing towns were overstoclz-
 ing the markets. Unemployed thousands have
 been obliged to leave city and village for pla-
 ces where they could earn livlng; but scarce
 ly man of them has found his way into rural
 New England. Kansas, and other Western
 States, are being rapidly filled up, but the re-
 action from mercantile and manufacturing
 enterprise has done nothing to benefit the dis
 tricts former years had drained. In the mean
 time land was never lower in New England,
 during the present century, than it is to-day i;
 farming was never more unproductive nor the prospect for the future, more gloomy. Must our history be one of steady decline in vital force, far beyond that indicated byour decline in population, until the wave shall finally set back from an over-populated West?
 There is another possibility worth contem- plating, though we do not believe it likely to occur. The progress of commerce and manu- factures in Old England has led to great in- crease in the real value, and to still greater increase in the artificial value, of land The reason of this we take to be that the govern ing power in England has been her landed aristocracy. Her aristocracy of wealth has seldom found much weight in parliament un- til it also acquired property in land. There was no other way for rich man to become a power in politics, and to 'found family" The consequence has been monopoly of land that has driven the men of moderate means out of the business of land-owning. The small farmers who were so strong in CremwelIs time have been swept from the face of Eng land. Land has commanded prices out of proportion to it's producing value, from the so- cial and political importance which it's posses sion has brought to the rich purchaser No doubt there has been real increase in the val ue and productive capacity of the land in Eng land during her wonderful career of conner cial and manufacturing prosperity; but the price of land has increased in a still greater ratio. Far sighted Liberals see no prospect for freedom of political action, on the part of the masses of Englshmen, till this monopoly of land is broken up; but how that can be by any means short of a revo- lution, is the question.
 AS yet the rich American has developed lit tie of the Hand hunger" of the European aris- tocrat He looks forward to no such political power, to no such social standing, as follows the ownership of land in Great Britain Un- der Slavery, indeed, the owner of the large plantation attained to something of the politi- cal and social consequence of the large Eng fish land-holder. At the North, no such ten dency IS yet observable. Yet what is to fol- low if New England farming in the old fash toned way proves such an indisputable failure as to send down the price of land, still lower and lower? Will it not eventually reach the point where the capitalist can afford to buy it, not for general agriculture, but to turn to some special purpose in which he can escape the overshadowing competition of the West We are not even sure that the possession of land will not eventually bring political power, here, as well as abroad. More and more the influence of employer over employed is enter ing into our politics. The man who should own half of Litchfeld county. even with a population, might be great polt- ical power. If wealth and local Influence seem even now the keys to political prefer nent in rural Connecticut, what might they not then become?
 We hope some better fate is in store for us. The Roman republic perished with the des- truction of it's small farms Great Britain seems following in it's footsteps. No process of heaping up money in our cities or pilingu up goods in our manufacturing villages, will ever make New England good for the loss of the rural population which has given it it's most valuable characteristics, and which has to so large an extent stamped it's own peculiarties on the history and institutions of the nation at large