Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-15
A Wall FRoM NEW ENGLAND.

The ruin of New England agriculture is
a subject engrossing great deal of atten-
ticn at the East at this time. The pen
picture drawn in the New York Post, and
by Judge Mott in the Nation, of the decay
Of the industry, the abandonment of valu-
able property, the deserted towns, ruined
and falling buildings, rotting fences, neg
lected barns and granaries, topping
churches, deserted farm residences and I'M
cultivated fields, are very pitiful. The
drift of population to the cities, the open
ing up of the cheap lands of the west, the
immigration allurement of the Western
and Pacific States, the immense farming
operations of the prairie sections, low trans
portation, the liberality of Government in
disposing of lands-these are a few of the
reasons given for the decay of farming in
New England. Judge Mott adds
Instead of letting our agriculture grow by
natural causes-bard work. improved methods,
better culture, and slowly extending area-we
have seized the new land which properly be-
lungs W cue next CcutuIl, anu nave sQudUuefeQ
the riches which nature garnered for mankind
vita waste and prodigaiity for which future
generations. if they have any sense, may well
curse their fathers
The tariff, the building of railways, the
over-stocking of markets. also come in for
reprobation, and the conclusion is reached
that,
The highest, pugest noblest agricultural pop
ulatiOa that this world has ever possessed is
being dIssipatsd. and as a race, merged and
lost. As race, it has been Iich beyond COM
parison in human uroducts-in elergymen, SOL
dieTs statesmen, scholars, poets. merchants, in
ventOrs, and men who believe in honesty and
work. Yet the last act of the New England
farmer is not unworthy of his sturdy and up
right lineage. He faces the situation and closes
ms accounts and pays his debts lite man: it
is the business which has become bankrupt,
not he. When we remember how hard it is + r
any of US TO give up undertaking on which
we have spent time and money we
must acknowledge that there is something
grand in the farmer of these mountain towns,
who, rising to the heroic treatment of his case,
turns away from the fields and fences upon
which he has toiled through the better part of
his life. and by decree as unalterable as the
laws of the Modes ana PerSians, writes upon the
closed door, abandoned"
The Boston Journal, while not taking so
woful view of the situation, thinks that
the change is to be mainly attributed to
the creation of manufacturing employments
more profitable than farming, and, of
course, conducted at the expense of agri-
culture. The Springfield Republican, while
admitting that the statement of Judge
Mott is in many respects accurate, says that
the bottom Of the decline has been reached
that there are no more lands in the West
to throw away" and that after all, manu-
featuring New England has been able to
make living
Our New England friends should not
quarrel with natural processes. The de-
cline of agriculture in these States where
the conditions are so hard, was inevitable
in the face of the competition of the more
favored sections of the expansive West
New England can boast of having given of
the best of her brain and Drawn to the con-
quest of the far West, and that to her pro-
gressive spirit, the indomitable perseverance
of her sons and the hardy character of her
human growth, the nation owes the ac-
QUESTION in large part of the empire of
broad States toward the setting sun. That
the hard line agriculture of rugged New
England, with its long winters, has declined,
is not indicative of her recession from the
station of influence she occupies in the
American scheme. Natural development
certainly has been stimulated wonderfully
in the West by Government aid, but no
benefit has accrued in which New England
has not in common with the rest of the
nation, shared.