The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-19

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 the agriculture of New England is on
 the decline is a myth. The agriculture is only changing. Rural New England is prosperous. This highway from Springfield to Hartford and Portland runs through as thrifty q country as one could hope to
 see; and the one industry is farming.
 It is not a district of summer boarders,
 nor of suburban residence. The clean,
 Well-tllled fields, snug barns, ample and
 cozy houses, all bespeak happy and prosperous people These homes have
 been paid for from the land; and they
 are replete with comfort. No other
 country can show such kingly farm
 homes, in such numbers, as America,
 There is a flavor about these New
 England farmsteads which suggests
 thrift frugality, stability, contentment. The old houses are preserved as long as
 they are habtable. Modern conven-
 fences are added porches may be built;
 large panes are often substituted for the
 six-by- eight 'lights;" but the spirit of
 the building is still that of the colonial
 days. One feels that. the home nest is
 carefully nourished and guarded, and
 that whims of mere fashion are not al-
 lowed to perturb the more serious cur
 rents of life.
 A few miles from Springfield we pass
 through the charming little village of
 Longmeadow. The centennial anniver-
 sary of the incorporation of the town
 was celebrated in 1883. A few miles to
 the south we reach Enfield, which is in
 Connecticut. It is town of many his
 toric associations. In the graveyard, on
 Memorial day, the graves of the soldiers
 of the Revolution are decorated as we'll
 as those of the soldiers of the civil war;
 and there is a grave of one who fought l in the French and Indian war. The
 news of the battle of Lexington reached
 this hamlet on a Sunday. The people
 were summoned from meeting by the
 beating of a drum; and the following morning seventy-four men marched to | Boston.
 | Enfield is an offshoot of Springfield.
 Settlement was begun in 1878. In 16SS
 Totaps, the Indian chief relinquished ti- | tie to the land. Thereupon town meeting was called; and in 1891 all in- | habitants were compelled, by @ fine of 1 two shillings for an absence, to attend the meetings. Thirteen constituted a le- gal meeting; and the statute remains to 1 this day. Tn 1899 a minister was per 1 manently settled at Enfield, and his sti- pend was twenty pounds yearly and every year." but a meeting-house was undertaken iu 16S3 An time covered bridge, built in 1892, here spans the Con- necticut. It is a green and quiet haven, this ancient town of Enfield. One is minded to say of it, as Bushnell said of Hartford, that it would be "a good place to be in on the morning of the resurrec- tion.''
 Of other towns similar remarks could be made; for this is q region of charm ing hamlets. East Windsor hill occu- pies an eminence some distance south of Enfield. It is a rambling settlement along one side of the highway, with a combined store and post-office An an- clent building stands opposite, conspicu ous for it's high white columns. This was once the residence of the master of the theological institute of Connecticut. A short distance beyond is the site of the seminary itself.
 The orange-red carpet of fallen leaves and the mellow sunlight in the half-bare tree-tops awakened flood of memories and conjectures respecting the early days of this once ambitious institute Two buildings stand in the quiet grove. | The older one, and the seat of the insti- | tuition, Is now q half-occupied tenement. | Its cornerstone was laid in 1884, and it | was taken from the cellar steps of Jon- athan Edwards-for this saintly man | lived but a short distance down the road, | although there is no mark to locate the | exact spot The chapel, with its severe | Grecian columns, bears the inscription, | "Oracuum. University of Benefcence." There was once @ farm in connection with this institution. The institution was finally transferred to the city; and it's descendant is the Hartford theologi- cal seminary.
 Theological institutions as we'll as farms are abandoned. A short ride be- yond East Windsor hill one passes the only evidence of farm abandonment to be met in all the distance from Spring. field, down this road. The farmhouse roof is fallen in, the sheathing hangs in strips, the place is grown to weeds and bushes. But even this place is not abandoned, for an ancient maiden lives here alone. A few miles further one passes two abandoned factories.
 The buildings of the seminary and the factories are abandoned; but the busi- ness of each is transacted elsewhere The teaching of theology and the manu- featuring of horseshoes and sheeting arc not abandoned and no one thinks that they are; and yet people think that farming Is abandoned because now and then farmhouse or a field is deserted In the change from old economic condi- tions to the new, all enterprises must change. Small farms are amalgamated into large ones, large ones are broken up into small ones, old buildings are broken up into small ones, old buildings are de- serted, families move away or die out. The full readjustment of farming to the new conditions is not yet complete, be- cause farmers are the most conservative Of men; but farming is not passing away.
 One reason for the abandonment of farms is the fact that lands were put under the blow when they were fit only for forests. If settlements had first been made in the Mississippi valley, many of these New England areas would never have been cleared. In the light of these experiences, one sees additional mean- ing in the words of Jared Eliot 174S StAx, ,E,t1 |, |