The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-21
4 REGION OF ABANDONED FARMS.

4 REGION OF ABANDONED FARMS. Towns in Eastern Connecticut Where
 Farms nre Dirt Cheap.
 | From the New York Times.l
 West of Pomfret, and north of WILL mantle. extending even to the last range of hills that parallels the Con- necticut river on inc cast, there is Il rough, ragged country which is essen- tially abandoned. Beginning at East ford, the writer spent three days in walking to the river. And, although there were some pleasant villages, and in larger valleys, like that of the Willi- mantle river, snug dwellings and good farms. the greater part of the distance was through solitudes, all the more emphatic since their origin lay in de- sertion and abandonment. There was not mile without its sombre old farm house, with the windows gaping and the roof open. Barnes yet stood in places like a cripple on crutches. And often no stick or stone of some old-time home would be left, and clump of li- lac bushes would alone bear witness to the life that once was. Young wood was upspringing on all the hills, and the roads led for miles deep through forests of a sappy growth. To meet any one in the road was rare occur renee.
 Some of the inhabitants gave reasons for the abandonment. At Westford an old man said: There used to be good class of people in here. They were industrious and they made mon- ey. Then they wanted to make life little easier for their children than they had found it. so they moved into the towns to give the children educa- tion. After the children got that they couldn't be induced to take up farming; they had to stay in the towns always. And so the farms have lost their old oc- cupants. and no new ones have come in."
 (, This man also said that he owned farm in Westford that he got at auc- tion for two. hundred and eighty dol lars. It had a good house and barn, and comprised fifty acres. "But you can buy at your own figure" he reite- rated. "The lumber men are active, or have been, in buying up old farms that had any timber on them. They skin it off and then sell the farm for anything they can get" ..,
 Tn Union a great deal of lumber is now being cut. That Is the source of the towns prosperity rather than farming. This activity of lumbermen explains the great area now in young and worthless wood. Some years ago charcoal burning was carried on through here, but now that is almost entirely given up. The principal mar- ket failed the burners because of the introduction of other and better mate rial to effect the purposes the char coal had been used for.
 At Eastford there is a man who makes his living by speculating in lum- Der, cattle, farms-anything that is to be bought and sold in a little commu- nifty. He knows intimately not alone every farm within fifty miles, but eve ry steer, every heifer, every breeding SOW as we'll He was not ready to ad- init that the farming lands were aban- doned. What he said was this:
 T don't know just what you mean by abandoned farms There are many farms through here that no one lives on. but perhaps you wouldn't call them abandoned for that reason alone. Most all those unoccupied farms bring their owners in some revenue; they either rent out the pasturage and mow- ings or else rent out the farms them selves The farms look abandoned enough, with nobody living on them, are some, l suppose, that really are; no one lives on them, and no one gets any benefit from them"
 But tell me the reason why no one lives on these farms Why are they not cultivated? Why given over to mere pasturage and mowing?" -l.. Well, the farmers got discouraged. It is rugged sort of a country to cul- tivate, and it was long way to a mar ket, and times kept getting harder and harder for farmers, till it got so that pretty nearly every man who owned a farm in here owned debt. He couldn't raise a crop that would pay for itself The hired men were better fixed than the farmers. So, then, if a man had chance to rent his farm he rented 1t and never went back to it to live; and sometimes he just simply left his farm and went to work for wages. :" He had many incidents of his experi- ence in trading. to tell, and hel mem toned perhaps a dozen farms within short distances that could be bought "at your own figure" Some Of these | were now under his control He rented l the pastures and had stock on them. or he cut the hay and stored 1t in the old barns. He told one story that indica- ted the poverty of the adjacent section. It was this:
 "A while ago sold a house; barn and two acres of land to q man for fif- ty dollars. It was a nice, comfortable little house, and a bargain. We'll, in six months the man came to me, 60 sick of his place that he would stay no longer, and bought 1t back for forty dollars, with all his household goods thrown in. Then had an auction to get rid of these. The people came in from the surrounding farms to rec what there was they wanted. but. there was no money in their ppckets. The fVsut ' Esxz ke&va