Morning journal and courier., 1889-08-12
RK.sErrLING NEW ENGLAND.

The East Adopting western Tactics to
Attract Settlers TO the Farming Dis
tricts - Tho Abandoned Farming
LANDS Again TO Blossom Like tho
Hose, Perhaps.
Much has been said of late years of the de-
terioration in value of New England farms.
and farming lands, especially in certain local.
tiles. New Haven clergyman used to oall
sadly to mind the fact that in the farming
town In New Hampshire (Croyden) where he
was born and raised, farms still fertile and
desirable, have been abandoned one after
another until desolation had taken the place
Of prosperity. Farms once valuable there
were no longer saleable, and the old PASTORS
summer journeys to the home of his child
hood brought him many sad reflections. The
population had also greatly fallen off. This
was also the case in many other parts of New
England, and our own state has felt the
blight in many farming district. The fol-
lowing from yesterdays New York Tribune
has a direct interest to many in
| our state, and it's reference to the
French Canadians has a special interest
here In view of the state convention of French
Canadians to be held in this city this week,
at which the subject of education in the
hukAlbn Ahukunkcy huu uhbuIhllLhIlOu WILL 10
among the leading topics discussed
'srhe gradual diminution of the population
in certain parts of New England by reason
of emigration to the West is having curl
GUS sequel. Steps are being taken in YER
| mont, for example, to attract good class of
immigrants from abroad, and thus the first
state to be admitted under the Federal Con-
stitution comes into competition with the
young commonwealth of the Northwest in
bidding for settlers. The census of 1880
| showed the population of Vermont to be
practically at standstill, there having been
an increase of less than 5000 in twenty years.
Maine and New Hampshire made even a
poorer showing, though in both cases there
had been some increase since 1870. The re-
suit of the drift westward has been that many
farms are abandoned, and the prices of good
farms, as we all know, have fallen to singu-
larly low figure.
The last Vermont legislature was there
| commissioner, whose duty Ii should be to
attract public attention to the advantages
offered to farmers by settlement in Ver-
mont, and that officer is now hard at work.
In circular he has sent out he declares that
there are 200, 900 acres of land, formerly un-
der cultivation, but which have since been
abandoned, and that this land Is, as rule,
Capable of as successful cultivation as the
prosperous surrounding farms" Good lands
are offered for sale as low as SO an acre, and
1t is said that 1t will be necessary to make IS
an acre the maximum price for settlers If
the new Vermont "boomers" expect to
compete with Western lands. Negotia-
tions have already been opened with a
view to bringing Swedes over to fill these
vacant spaces. 1t may serve to give vivid
notion of the extent to which the depopula-
ting process has gone to say that no difficult
ty was encountered in finding enough aban-
doned farms in one locality to furnish con-
tigous farms for the first proposed colony of
fifty families. In fact, four such localities
l were found.
This movement may be successful, though
similar undertakings In other parts of New
England have not proved 30 In times past.
Lands have grown SO cheap that settlers can
be offered homes near the seaboard for nearly
the same prico as they would have to pay for
lands that are no better, perhaps, but are
half way across the continent. Only the best
class Of immigrants should be brought In,
that thus the bone and sinew of the State
can be renewed.
While the disappearance of the original
American stock from the farming districts is
| leading to the consideration of methods for
filling the gap by foreign immigration, there
10 a widely different movement in progress
in the cities and towns of New England.
The foreign elements in their population are
growing so rapidly that the native class is
4
instances, is even being overshadowed. An
article in the Forum, treating the subject
from another point Of view, gives some
striking figures of this foreign invasion.
The French-C Canadian element is noticeably
large, and presents one peculiar problem
in the fact that 1t carries the French
language with it, and tenaoiously adheres
to 1t In the parochial schools. A recent
school report IN Manchester, N. H., states
that out of 25S French children less
than 8 per cent. could read the simplest
English words. The French Canadians in
New England are said now to number half a
million souls. In Manchester and Nashua,
N. H., and Lowell, Mass, they constitute
one-third of the population. In Fall River
they have increased in thirty years from one
family to 10000 persons. This is the per-
centage of illiteracy among the leading for
eign nstionalities that are crowding into
Massachusetts,: French Canadians 81 per
cent, Italians 80, Portuguese SO. This Is
putting heavy task upon the assimilatipg
and educating powers of the old common
wealth. Fortunately, she seems equal to it
thus far. But the New England which is in
cooperating these diverse elements into its
body polite is not the New England that
| once was.