The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1892-12-21
THE ABANDONED FARMS OF MAS
SAOHUSETTS.

OF migration IN this country has been
westward. Over the Allegheny noun
tains, across the valley of the Ohio, past
the great lakes, across the Mississippi
and the Missouri, along the plains, over
the Rockies, and down to the coast of
the Pacific, has this stream of humanity
poured. Vast commonwealth have been
formed; cities have been built; railroads
and canals have been made; churches and
schools have been founded; manufac.
tories of vast magnitude have been es-
tablished, and farms haye been opened,
occupied and some of them abandoned
Whatever has been the order of the
founding of institutions and industries
in the opening of the new countries, the
development of the farming industry has,
in every case, been attended with the
privations and hardships Of pioneering.
But sustained with the hope and belief
that, il not for themselves, at least for
others, they were preparing the way for
an ideal American farm life, the pioneers
have borne their trials with meekness;
have battled the difficulties bravely;
have met disappointment heroically and
have contributed to the general welfare
more generously than they could afford
In every new community there has been
q current conviction that these burdens
were incident to the new country and
the belief has been cultivated that in the
older settled portions, where the farm
buildings have been completed and other
permanent improvements have been
made, the farmer dwelIs in peace and
plenty; is content with his lot, and has
grown wealthy on account of the appre-
clation Of the value of his land. This
has been the idea in Kansas, and it has
been expected that, as matter of course,
the enhanced value believed to be due to
the advanced condition of the older
settlements must very soon reach her
borders. There are doubtless good
reasons to expect that the worlds de-
mand for the products of food produc- |
ing lands will in the near future create
a competition for opportunities to till
the soil which will change the relative
valuation of land and labor
But possibly a rude awakening as to
ideal conditions of agriculture in the
older American communities has been
prepared by the Massachusetts state
board of agriculture in it's publication Of
a descriptive catalogue of abandoned
farms in Massachusetts. A copy of the
third edition of this catalogue is before
the writer. From this it appears that in
1890 there we're in the state Of Massa-
chusetts no less than 1,461 farms which,
to use the language of the report, "were
formerly cultivated but now deserted,
upon which cultivation is now abandoned, |
and the buildings, if any, unoccupied |
and permitted to fall into decay. In |
some cases the grass is still cut on these
farms, but nothing is done in the way of |
enrichment of the soil and the land is
practically unproductive and left to run
wild"
However much the western farmers
complaints have been answered by the
assurance that his troubles we're purely
local, or incident to a new country, and
therefore transitory, or the result of his
improvidence, or his lack of industry,
and that nobody else was similarly af-
fected; and however much he may have
hal;avad 4baA fha o;,o,, .t,s.aa. ..l:-l |