The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-12-03
AGRICULTURAL.
Sticking bv Home,


Statistics, however skilfully handled. set
tie nothing as regards human preferences,
after ALL 1t may be perfectly easy to show
from them how much more wheat, corn and
other staples may be raised by New Eng
lander out of New England than in it. and it
may be easy, to prove by figures, that accord
ing to the fewness of stones and the number
of bushels per acre ought agricultural con-
tentment and happiness to be adjusted. But
human nature itself remains as the fixed
quantity, however variable the agricultural
products may be. The arguments for prai-
RE farming over hillside and valley farming
are familiar from repetition, and may still be
repeated without changing that constant
factor in the problem, human nature.
What men and women love best, be it ever
so homely and simple, that they will cling to
all the way through. Let us admit that our
New England soil is in places sterile, that
our climate is stern, and that cultivation is
labor indeed. Suppose it be confessed that
more wheat and corn can be raised on a
Western than on New England farm, and
even that it may be marketed at better prof
it than the varied products of New England
farming right at our doors. Is there moth
ing more to be taken into account after that?
Does the mere money result include every
other? Suppose all other people were as
ready to abandon the homes OF their youth
for untried fields as the people of New Eng
land at different periods have been; would
there be any character and stability in such
q society of sand, washed by the tidal cur
rents dissatisfaction and desire for change?
The sum and substance of it is, then, that
there is more in assured prosperity and con-
tentment Herewith than in all the dreams
of wealth that were ever INDUCED in. indie
pendence is of course the first thing to be
considered, but no independence on earth
is worth having that is supposed to absolve
one from the necessity of regular industry.
A man may perhaps be just as happy in
working his farm in New England as ii he
were working it in Wisconsin and beyond.
There is something else to be considered, af
ter all, than the comparative ease with which
crops can be produced As much real en-
joyment is to be had by the farmer here
among the hills of New England as out on
the limitless prairies of the West, and we in
cline to say good deal more. Say what we
will about it, there is an underlying sentiment
in it that regulates the business. No man
can very well afford to ignore that sent-
ment, either
And farming is unlike other business in
that it possesses strong domestic elements,
in constant and visible operation with it,
which no other occupation can claim as its
characteristic. The farmer works all the
time within sight of the smoke of his own
chimneys. Where he is occupied among his
crops and his creatures it is always home.
And home in New England, we are fully
warranted in saying, when it is made what it
is capable of being made, holds a mans heart
to it with very different power from home
in the West, which is almost always for sale
as an aid to further migration. So that, all
things considered, we advise the man of New
England who is already well placed as a far
mer, or who possesses the sincere desire to
be SC placed, to stay among the scenes of his
childhood and youth, and to perpetuate So
ciety worthy of his own free Inheritance.
--Ploughman.