The Republican journal., 1903-02-05
TAKE UP ABANDONED FARMS.
New England Women Are abilitating
the Waste Places.

D
Throughout New England, particular
" in New Hampshire and Vermont,
scores of farms have been abandoned
by their owners OF late years as being
too unproductive to pay the working.
These places are of late being redeemed
and beautitied in considerable numbers
by intelligent single women from Bos-
ton and elsewhere, some OF whom spend
only their vacations IN the country.
Within a circuit OF about twenty-five
miles among the foothills of the White
Mountains one who has the entree OF
these delightful homes may visit sew
eral
These women, and others similarly
occupied many of whom are we'll
known and well educated, are distinctly
recognized in the farming communities
where they have become property hold
ers as residents to be counted upon
when public improvements are to be
undertaken and public opinion is to be
formed.
One woman, fer example, who has
for the present given up her profession
on account of her health, has bought a
farm of rather exceptional value, be-
cause it includes fertile, ''intervale'
u.
crops. She has put dormer windows
into the quaint old house that she
found on the place, fitted it up with old
fashioned furniture, put setiees beside
the big fireplace in the living-roOm,
hung crane and kettles in it and placed
odd, Old paintings and prints on the
walls. Here she entertained summer
boarders and winter house parties.
Another woman farmer, Miss b., has
come from the west and established her
self on so high hill that she Is unusul-
ly safe from intrusion. She raises an
abundance of fruit and vegetables OF
unexcelled quality and enough hay Tor
her stock. With her own hands she
makes the delicious butter served on
her table One man can do her outside
work One strong woman does the
heaviest work of the household, and,
with no temptations to spend her wages,
she is making money. Her mistress is
not doing this, but she is making enough
to live on and is spending her days
amid glorious mountain views, III dust
free and oZone-charged air, where her
relatives and friends from far and near
are only too glad to join her IN summer.
In winter she has time for cOngenlal
pursuits.
Within neighborly distance of this
place yet q third woman has bought
farm as an investment rather than a
home Shegoes up in the early summer
to do the needed repairs and cleaning
and to get her quaint old stuff into its
most effective positions. Then she
leaves it for the tenant, who has seen
her advertisement and has come hun
dreds of miles, perhaps, to this spot
hidden among orchard and forest trees,
far from any much-traveled road.
One enterprising woman has made
her house an absolute model of com
fort and beauty-an object lesson to
farmer folk and city people alike. and
both come from miles around to see 1t.
She is improving her place in many
ways. Valuable timber is carefully
guarded; wild fruit trees are being
grated; rare plants, like Labrador tea,
are cherished; comfortable benches are
placed where specially fine views OF the
mountains are commanded. Many va
rieties of wild berries, reindeer moss,
curious ground pines and other plants
native only in high attitudes add their
interest to the place, while MASSIVE
granite powders and cleaning quartz
lodges add their picturesque charm.
In another part OF the SCaCe young
woman, who is an amateur artist, has
converted an abandoned farm into an
all-year-round home of such elegance
and proportions as to suggest an Eng
lish estate. Landscape gardening is a
conspicuous feature in her undertaking.
She raises cattle, horses and sheep on
considerable scale and goes so far as to
have her wool woven into fabrics and
designs of her own selectlon.-Max-
wells Talisman.