The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-01
The Yankee Farmer and His Sue.
CesyOrs.

The decay of New England farming
communities has been the theme of much
gloomy discussion ever since they began
to suffer from the competition Of the great
grain fields OF the West; but Mr.. CLAIR
ENCE DEMING Of Connecticut now dis
Germs signs that period Of resuscitation
for them is slowly approaching, though
il involves the building up Of new
composite farm race That is, the old
Yankee farmers are to be replaced by
people of foreign stock brought hither
by immigration,
Mr. .DEMING, writing in the Independent,
says that already the depopulation Of the
farm towns is beginning to be checked.
For example, of the 90 essentially farm
towns, out Of the total Of 1853 townships in
Connecticut, the population diminished
from 12l, 124 in 1880 to ll5,054 in 1890, or
about per cent, but in 1900 more than
half OF that loss was recovered by the
increase Of the population to MIA. In
the three peculiarly farming counties Of
western Massachusetts,, excluding large
towns and cities, the population fell from
$3.50 in 1880 to IS, 1852 in 1890, or about 4
per cent, but in 1900 it made slight gain,
rising to 1920.
Because of the loss in farmers many
farms were practically abandoned, and
these became purchasable at very small
prices; and such land Ia still obtainabe in
New England at rate so low, few dol
lars an acre, that it attracts thrifty for
eigners bred to agriculture. The old
Yankee stock may be dying out or dis
appearing from the region, but new
exotic race" is coming in and it is reviving
the prosperity of New England farming
and proving that the farm problem in
New England is not so much one of lost
opportunity as of old-fashioned industry,
thrift and self denial-the substitution
OF the old economy and hard work for
rule under which the ancestral farm lux
uries have come to be classed as the
necessities Of to-day
Swedes, Italians. Germans and Irish
men are beginning to reclaim these old
farms, and they are doing we'll on them
by enduring the same sort Of deprivations
and practising the same economies which
were incidents of the Yankee farming
OF the old days. Moreover, Mr.. DEMING
speaks Of a new element as having begun
to enter the farm lands, the Russian
Hebrew. The Swede he puts first in the
order Of racial success on the farm"
the Swede. toilsome, intelligent, re-
ligous and making every dollar pay"
To the Italian he gives the second place,
az industrious and thrifty, but more
often truck and suburban farmer
than solvent of the problem on the large
tracts OF the uplands. Then comes the
German, industrious enough, but apt
to be little too free liver" The Irish
man is often as successful as the Swede
in retaining the rundown farm, but Ia
unable to hold the boys, who, like the
native sons Of the farm, yield overmuch
to the attractions of the city and the
factory town"
The changes of race in the farm popu-
'ation pointed out by Mr.. DEM1Na are
made strikingly manifest in some OF
the New England farm towns by the
growth of Roman Catholic churches.
About these at the Sunday services there
may now be seen the vehicles Of many
farmers. whereas once these were found
only at Protestant churches. In the hill
counties Of western ssachusetts, for
example, Irishmen have restored to fer
tility old and exhausted or abandoned
farms, and Italians. than whom there
are no more skilful farmers of small
spaces. are beginning to create beauti-
fully ordered truck farms in the