Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-07-16
FIFTEEN CENTS A WEEK
THE SUMNER BoARDER.
He IL Making Useful the Deserted Farms
of New England.

OF New England.
| Maine farms are now center of attrac-
tion, for the twofold reason of their desira-
bility as place for summers outing and
of the agitation concerning agriculture as
business Whether the motive be obser-
walton or pleasure, the tide of travel is
countryward. Contrary to generally pre-
vailing notions, the more remote, obscure
and quiet the district, the more 1t suits a
certain and better class of summer visitors.
The fisherman, instead Of the lakes, tries
the brooks of his fathers; the hunter wan
ders over the paths he trod in boyhood and
the college professor or the clergyman
studies nature In the country fields rather
than the forest depths.
This blending of city and country Is
helpful to both, and perhaps In time may
bring about solution Of rural troubles,
which all the wisdom Of legislators and
writers SO far had failed to do Farmers
In New England / think, have failed to
properly understand the functions of their
business, and have considered their par
ticular stretch Of territory as valuable
only when certain crops could be raised
with profit. The great crops for national
consumption are now produced on the al
most illimitable prairies with thrift, q
business enterprise, a ferceness, almost,
and certainly a success that has caused the
eastern farmer to thrust his hands into his
pockets with despair, while his fields fill
with friendly pines and his barns are
empty.
1t Is at this stage that the summer
boarder steps in, a bright bird Of passage
and brings to his notice that there are
products on his farm that he has never
cultivated. He sees the transformation in
the pale cheek of the city child which a
few weeks sunshine and pure air can give,
and now that his jealousy Of the we'll
dressed stranger has ceased, for almost
the first time in his hard scramble for
living he looks up to notice an unbounded
sky and around diversity of landscape.
Surely this is no place for matter-of-
fact business, but vast pleasure ground
for rest and recreation, and now he under
stands In part the wise order Of the Gre
ator and the fierce struggle with competi-
tion he has been through He is learning
principle.
Sky and landscape have commercial
value. Already the problem of the do.
serted farms is being solved. The dwellers
Of cities are buying them, not as battling
grounds with the agricultural west, but
as pleasure grounds. But the farmer, the
bone and sinew Of the land, whose puri-
tanic sternness and simplicity have for two
centuries impressed us and been typifed
by the acres of land reclaimed from nature
and inclosed with miles of stone wall
what Is to become of himS Honesty, hui
mility, simplicity, contentment and thrift
"a word which in his vocabulary is synony-
nous with hard work. were his principles.
Laughter to him was almost a sin and
Artemus Ward riddle. How a man with
such surroundings could "goak" may well
be riddle to any one.
He was not an exotic, and this fact can
not fail to be important as basis for fu-
ture Judgment. The future rural inhab-
liant Of Maine may smile and enjoy his
environment, even though his paternal
fields are covered with forests--a survival,
perhaps, Of the fittest.
The attraction Of factory life, where a
man can earn more In six months without
expenditure Of capital than in twelve OF
farm work, to say nothing Of the loss of in
terest on capital, with pleasure and intel
lectual life not attainable In the country,
is decimating the population of Maine
farms; but those who have tasted country
sweets can never entirely cease from long
ing to return, at least for the summer, and
their cottages, even Of democratic sim
plicity. are dotting hillside and valley with
increasing numbers. Certainly this healthy
summer siesta, this lifegiving vacation on
hill and in valley, is no mean product of
the Maine farm.-Maine Cor. Boston Com
monwealth.