The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-09-30
OLD FARMS IN MASSACHUSETTS.

OLD FARMS IN MASSACHUSETTS,
A correspondent of the Brooklyn, n
Y, Standard Union, writing from Bos-
ton gives the results of advertising at
public expense Lovely places that may
be had for a song" 1t will be remem-
bered that the same policy has been pur-
sued by Vermont for two years past, and
that this is in direct opposition to the
earlier method adopted by Maj. Valen-
tine. We have always claimed that the
Commissioner was right in his plans of
1SSS-90, and here is the evidence that the
change has not worked in Massachusetts
at least. The letter says:
When the furry over the abandoned
farms of the State occurred year and a
half ago, and the Legislature appropri-
ated $4,000 for an effort under the aus
pices of the State Board of Agriculture
to bring people back to these forsaken
abvdes of civilized men, it was supposed
that people from the cities would sieze
the unequalled opportunity of getting a
zinc farm for mere song. But they
haven't done anything of the sort. That
is the one most singular fact about this
enterprise. Popular pity goes out to the
crowded and stihed workers in the city;
much is said about their physical suffer-
ings, and then come the narrowing tales
about their physical, moral corruption
and degradation which follow the physi-
cal squalor One would think that every
denizen of poor tenement needed only
| to be told of the fresh air and morning
dew upon the Berkshire hills, all wait
ing almost as free as air and sunlight to
make break for them Immediately as
soon as he saw the publication of the
catalogue of abandoned farms on the part
of the State authorities.
Well, the catalogue was published, an
edition of 1000 copies. Hundreds of in
| quiries poured in for it. The edition
was soon exhausted in response to the
popular demand to see what fine farms
had been abandoned and letrun to waste
in the hill towns. A second catalogue
was prepared, a second edition of ] 800
copies, and corrections were made bring
ing all the information up to the most
accurate level possible. This, too, was
in good demand. 1t has been exhausted
and now third edition is in process Of
preparation. Special efforts are being
made to bring into it every sort of farm
which can come under the head of aban-
doned, and the Secretary of the Board of
Agriculture is daily receiving letters
about these places. Inquiries for the
catalogue come from all parts of the
country. New York City is especially
represented in the list of correspondents
of the secretary. Men and women from
Michigan, Wisconsin. Illinois, Indiana,
Nebraska and other Western States, have
asked what they can do.
Within the last two weeks there has
been decided increase in the inquiries
for the catalogue. The explanation at
the Office of the Board is that city people
have been off on their vacations and have
seen what the farms are and want to
learn if there is any chance for them to
buy summer places for another year.
But thus far the expectation that these
old farms would be bought up by city
people has been almost entirely disap-
pointing. l know bright newspaper
man of Boston who has bought an old
abandoned farm in Vermont, some
eight miles up among the hills back from
the Connecticut river and from the near
est railroad station. He has been up
there this month fixing up the old house,
getting what satisfaction he can out of
the local carpenters and working himself
in way that would surprise his Boston
friends. His wife and family have spent
the summer there. He says that he is
going to improve the place little by little,
year by year, and after he gets too old to
do newspaper work longer, then he will
retire to his hill home for the remainder
of his days. 1t is pretty picture which
he draws of the situation and it is a
plausible plan. but there is not case
like it in the experience of our Massa-
chusetts officials in their sale of aband-
oDed farms.
The enterprise of the State has been
something of success. In the first adj
dition of the catalogue there were $3.50
farms described as for sale. In reply to
the circular which was sent out recently
asking how many of these had been sold,
105 answers have already been received,
and out of these twenty-five have re-
ported that the farm has been sold
through the efforts of the State. If that
proportion should be kept up through
the remainder of the list, it would make
at least satisfactory showing for the
enterprise of State interference for the
repeopling of these deserted hills. But
the way the city people stick to the city
is the most noticeable phase of the mat
ter. Perhaps something will come of
the matter later, but certainly the city
residents show not the slightest haste to
escape from the evils from which they
have been popularity supposed to be suf-
fering. Either the suffering has been
overdrawn or there are compensations in
the close city life which the philanthro
phist does not take into account when
he laments the situation of the poor in
the most crowded parts of Boston or
New York. Though many requests for
the catalogue came from New York city
and, presumably, Brooklyn, too, yet not
solitary farm has been bought by
resident of either of these cities. They
keep writing for the catalogue and per-
haps are getting ready to come. Massa-
chusetts will welcome them. The hills
are glorious in summer and horrible to
live on in winter. But they are Just the
same as they were forty and fifty years
ago when they had two or three times
the population they have now. The pop
ulation is becoming more dense. The
railroads are penetrating these remote
districts little by little, and the condi-
tions of life are not beginning as hard
as they were for the early settlers. Thus
far, as some one has shrewdly remarked,
the railroads which have been built into
these hill towns have given the people
better ODDOrtunities To GET awav Tn