Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1880-09-30


grouped them, and the result was the falling
off in fifteen years of over 90 per cent. OF
wheat, the next, staple cereal in value, the
yield has fallen off is, $40 per cent in fifteen
years. On the other hand, taking our Eastern
States during the same period, the average
yield OF the corn crop had fallen off but nine.
tenths OF one per cent; had practically main.
tanned itself. The ACREAGE yield of wheat had
fallen off a per cent. only as compared with
16 9-10 per, cent in the West. More than
that, ! found that the average yield per acre
In the East" Che includes of course Maryland
and Virginia named above) sis to-day very
much in excess Of what it is in the West. On
lands which have been farmed 100 years long
er than those in the West we are to-day rails,
ing on each acre more corn and more wheat
than they do in the Vest! =. ..i u. III
ALI this may be familiar 20 your enlightened
farmers, but doubt if it is to the mass of your
leaders II there is comfort in it for the Yam
KEGS, there is comfort for us also. He who
counts on the permanent decay of New Eng
land and the seaboard States reckons without
his host, The crust of the earth is thick part
OF it, the prehistorians would have us believe,
has been in cultivation for tens of thousands of
years; yet, after ages of iron despotism, and
with but surface scratching, it supports mil
lions of human beings. Scientific agriculture
is thing of yesterday; what it is to accom-
plish no man can dream. Tiresome in prac
tice but simple in essence, the problem is
merely to return to the earth the chemical
constituents taken from it. That there is de-
cay in New England: that towns are growing
at the expense of the country that a process
of displacement is going on by which Irish,
Germans and Norwegians are taking up the
hoe where the. Yankees dropped it for the
m nrnpniSiOp h1t oft lol, e
trade is true, and that the New England ma
tive has ceased to be prolific is also true. But
just such displacements and substitutions of
one class or race for another, has gone on in
all ages and in all parts of the world. If the
pot bolls, the particles must necessarily change
places, those above descending to make room
for those ascending from below. France is
the least prolific of nations; but look at her to-
day. One glance out Of the window at which
am now sitting, a single glimpse of the
meadoWsand orchards of Lebanon Just fresh
ened BY q cepious shower, will dssipate alike
the fears of the croakers and the hopes of the
enemies of New England. If the Yam
kee were destined to annihilation, and I
saw the evidence before me, am little
afraid il, would give me pleasure to chronicle
the TACT, albeit there is not the least assurance
that the man who is to take his place will be
oAJ W oS ul1ACiOub, dIlu intellectually.
AS is the habitat, so isithe animal that dwells
therein. Eminent naturalists, know, deny
this, but in the main it is true You can't
grow the Eskimo under the equator; as well
plant bananas on am iceberg. Whatever the
Yankee may have been, is, now, or will be
hereafter, he is going to be on these rook-rib-
bed hills for many long day to come Base
your calculations on that "'
Repeated inquiries fail to bring me exact
answers as to the profits of farming at this
time. On my way hither took supper at one
farmhouse and slept at another. Last even
ing farmer gave me a'lift of mile or two
back, to the village from which / had strolled.
At the first house the widow lady was helped
along by being depot agent and postmistress
A young farmer who came in, suspect, to see
her daughter, said ,yltb emphasis that farm
ing did pay, but could not tell how much At
the other house the farmer was at prayers
when came down to breakfast and went
away before could see him, but the evidence
in the house and out of it showed plain living,
nothing more No bank account there The
man who drove me last evening had left a
factory on account of i'll health, had farmed
for six or eight years, liked it on. some &C
counts, but was far from sanguine.
3 '''The trouble with me is that still owe
part OF the purchase money, on which | pay
six per cent: interest, and that is hard you
know. Apples used TO be good crop, but
now they hardly pay for the picking. / made
$50 this summer on blackberries and buckle
berries, and that is better than farming"
put the question flat to my host, an intel
ligent merchant ''Do you know any man
who has laid up money by farming alone?"
.''Yes; Mr.. has made forty or fifty
dollars by his farm alone.
GLOW long did 1t take him to make it ?"
Fifteen or twenty years"
Ibid he put money out at usurious inter-
terest p
'Never; he invested in stock of one kind or
another, and he may have lent Shall sums at
Six per cent, but that is ALL :.T 7'tt'
i made two visits o,Mr. Starts great dairy
farm at Litchield saw As Jersey cows of fine
blood in stable clean as q parlor; saw the
famous bull "Lltchfield," that took the pre-
MUM at the Centennial exposition, and the
younger and smaller one, Rex" who has 95
out Of a possible 100 good points-so experts
declared The exceeding pains taken with
the milk also saw, ice. being freely used
whenever needed, and each quart BEETLE sealed
with a label to this effect: "This bottle left
Echo Farm Dairy, Litchfeld, Conn, on the
afternoon of--day of---month IL, 1880,
and should be delivered the following morn
ing" 'A'l Il 1885 aii .'..''" 20 ''''' - 2'o !
A workman assured me that Mr.. Starr, from
a small beginning, built up this immense
dairy of 100 head of all grades out of the prof
its Of the business A farmer who admitted
thathe himself barely made buckle and tongue
meet on a farmerof three hundred acres
said Starr was a. New. York insurance man
with an income of $35, 900 a. year, and ''that
is the secret of it an" Others say that Mr..
Starr Claims to make ten per cent on his in
vestment. The truth is, he fills want, viz:
absolutely pure milk, butter, and cream, get
ting7 cents a quart for his milk in Litchfeld,
10 to- IL cents in New York, and for his but
ter an average, as Twas told, so cents. He
ships from 1000 to ], 900 quarts of milk a day,
and makes 100 to 100 pounds of butter at a
neutrality-suspicious. more, 4 have mislaid the
figures, dir ..,i,Er all .5or. ....#5 IF.
A gentleman. retired now from active bust
ness, prides himself on the fact that, being
college man, he astonished farmers bred and
born BY raising sheep weighing 400 pounds,
with fleece twelve to fifteen inches long. He
had also made ,mony on cattle. and on fancy
fowls wien the latter were first introduced in
to- this country. e4e zft "..' Hj les e.''@a'
Gould you make money on cattle, sheep
or fowls now ?'
"No; but man with his eyes open will al
ways find what men not so sharp-sighted fail
to see" tf,-,,.--s.a t.s
but all men cannot be sharp-sighted."
4. True; few of our farmers make much now
adays, but whether they make much or little,
they generally contrive to live on little less,
and in that way they get along. - |'.''
f This was in Cornwall, where the farms are
not near so good as here and in Litchfield. nor
are they encountered Others said that
natnber of the 1argest farms there are mort
gagged, and with one consentthey agreed that
the large farms were not the most profitable:
They instanced the case of an old man on
small farmswho always got more for his pro-
dnce Of every kind than his neighbours 15baa
"And why !" N -,o.tg .bt s,fl{
about everything, sparing no pains to have
whatever heF hade,eefs the very best If he
poured out his wheat, he swept the floor, put
a sheet on top of it. and then poured. Why.
whenihe piled his winter wood he piled it even
as any masonry.Hn7.!1 =" y.917. 1t1 B. g
~ r.
HIGH PRICED BUTTER.~Buyers paw the