Connecticut western news., 1890-11-12
MORE FACTS FOR FARMERS.
[Litchfeld Enuuirer,l

[Litchfield Enquirer.
 The census reports, though yet far from complete, indicate very consid- erable falling off from the usual rate of increase in the population in the country. Hitherto the gain each ten years has been about 35 per cent, the only excep- tion being the decade of the war, when it was but 23 per cent. During the last decade the increase has been but 25 per cent, very serious decline when we re- member that large part of this increase has been through immigration. The actual increase of the people in the country in 1880, cannot have been more than 15 per cent.
 Another important fact is that the in- crease, east of the Mississippi, has been mainly in the cities and manufacturing villages. New England affords the most striking instance of this fact. The popu- lation of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire has increased but three per cent, while that of Massachusetts, Con- necticut and Rhode Island has gained about "A per cent, or nearly the average of the entire country. --
 The population of Maine, New Hamp- shire, Vermont, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and of the entire South, east of the Mississippi, has increased but l3 per cent as against 24 per cent in manu- featuring New England. Even such 9 fine agricultural state as Iowa shows but
 per cent increase, much less than the average of the nation, or of the manu featuring states of New England.
 If such is the case with perhaps the finest agricultural state of the West, what must it be in the purely agricul- tural portions of New England Recent calculations show that the benefit de- rived by the farmer from being near cities and manufacturing towns is by no means as great as is generally bel1ev- ed. The Litchfield county farmer need not go out of his own county to see the steady decline of population outside of Q few manufacturing villages.
 The great decline of agriculture in the United States east of the Mississippi River is clearly established fact. It would be at once acknowledged but for the fear on the part of certain political partisans and journals that people will be made to believe that this steady de- cline in all the older agricultural states of the Union, this ruinous decline in agricultural New England, will be attri- buted to our protective tariff. We have frequently stated our belief that it is to over production that the present l troubles of the Western farmer are due. His future is not so dark as the future l of the New England farmer.
 Is it any wonder that the Litchfield county farmer is discouraged :? To find 1 oneself, in the midst of the most won derful general progress, engaged in a l losing business, is more disheartening | even than if ours were worn-out, de- 1 crepid nation. The farmer sees his property declining rapidly under his 1 very eyes. His farm, though just as l productive, will not sell for over two l thirds what it would have done ten o1 l fifteen years ago. He feels as the inhabi- tants of beseiged city feel when they see the lines lightning about them, and no present hope of succor. We do not propose to play the part o1 l the alarmist. We have personally much 1 to lose in the decline of farming. We ! hope, indeed, for better times, though we cannot at present see any sure way of bringing better times about. But ar
 honest paper situated as ours is, in the
 midst of suffering, an alarmed farm
 ing community, cannot but recognize
 existing facts however disagreeable they
 may be. We should not have been g ! mere falsifer, we should have been {
 downright liar: had we taken any differ
 ent position than we have done regard
 ing the condition and prospects of the
 Litchfeld county farmer.