The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-05-02
NEW ENGLAND HILL FARMS.
How Orcharding is Reckoning Many
Of Them from Barrenness.

How Orcharding is Redeeming Many
Of Them from Barrenness.
Ten years ago the writer took triI
through the stbniest hillside farming
districts OF New York and New Eng
land, and the impression that was made
on the mind was one of absolute hope
lessness. Historic agricultural New
England had gone to decay. The great
march of the west had ruined the hopes
of the fairest part of the country.
There was nothing but Oscillation
Farm after farm lay basklng in the
June SUM-, abandoned, ruined Their
owners had migrated to the. west, gone
to the towns and cities OF the eastern
and middle states, or died with the ag-
| riculture which they had called into ex-
istence and fought to sustain.
A trip last autumn through the same
regions brought a new revelation and
hope to the mind. 1t was not that the
world was more beautiful, or the bud
ding grass or%the trees prettler, the air
balmier or more fragant, but the hill
sides had changed their appearances
under the Transforming powers Of trees.
The scanned rocks and stones, the deep
L uil1tc dild tiiC 81 up'iCs'1 iiSiNo 49, y
hidden from view by the fruit trees that
struggled up and down the hilsides like
serried hosts Of warriors. Even the
small home and the painted barns were
nearly concealed from view by the same
foliage. sif
There was the secret of the change.
The fruit orchards had redeemed the
abandoned farms, and are steadily re-
claiming more from a hopeless decay.
The rocky soil that could not retain the
fertilizers spread over it, because of the
rains that washed everything before
them, has been converted into land that
bears tons and tone of fruit, golden and
green apples purple and yellow plums,
blushing pears and peaches and dimp-
ling cherries and ounces. Why all this
change? First, there was the new sci
entLfic agriculture. which taught the
farmer that the few spare oornstalks
and wheat plants he could raise on
these hillsides could never pay him
profit. Second, there was an appica-
ton of principles of agriculture which
enabled him to save the wasting fer
tility that the rains of winter and
spring steadily robbed him of. Up and
down, across and sideways, he ran his
pillow, turning up great burrows and
laying bare the bowels of the earth with
their stony seams. When the rains fall
In torrents the waters were collected In
drains and reservoirs. They no longer
spread over the fields and made deep
gullies to tear up the sod and wash
away the fertility. With the rains con-
trolled the farmer next planted his or
chards Of hardy apples, pears, plums
cherries peaches and ounces. In the
sharp hollows made yb the pillow, where
the richness Of the soil flowed with the
rains the young roots Of the trees found
abundant nourishment, and they spread
and multiplied and grew fruitful They |
passed into the soil a network of small |
er roots that bound the loose soil tight |
er and closer otgether, and che rushing |
waters could no longer make an impress |
IN them Then the grass sprung up on
This surface soil, and under the benef- |
cent shade of the trees it produced |
strong plants that further added to the
Fertility Of the soil
This was the simple secret of the
'hange that has made SO many aban-
Toned farms of the hilly, stony districts
" the east profitable in the last few
ears. The trees that the early settlers
tut down converted the land into bar
EN- desert. Stern and swift was the
of Nature for robbing her |
# her clothing Of verdure, Year by
ear the land grew poorer, and year by |