Year: 1861

IN New t1aNcn, the homestead uttcrS
the following significant language:


"Wc are going to have use for
all that we know or can learn about
agriculture. There is going to be
closer strife than ever between East
crn and Western farmers, and the bat
tie will be won by those strong in the
knowledge of their profession"


There can be no doubt but our con-
tcmporary's point is we'll taken. IF a
contest between East and West in the
matter of farming is to be entered in
to, there will be need Of more thcorcti-
cal and practical science than can be
got from Prof Porter and his collaho-
rators, to enable the East to come out
victorious. The West has better land,
a better climate, more enterprise, and
equal intelligence. There are many
men Of leisure in the Eastern States
who have become rich in other pur-
suits, who work farms for occupation
and amusement, whose results in the
way Of fancy agriculture are praise.
worthy. But such men do not get a
living from their farms. Their farms
are pets, like their horses or boats,
upon which they spend their income
for amusement and exercise. When
we come to look at the farms in the
New England States, which are culti-
waited in good faith as means of live
lihood, they cannot for u moment bear
comparison with our own part of New
York and the older States Of the
Northwest. Here, men cultivate
farms with the confident expectation
Of becoming wealthy. The relation
Of the farmer in all financial matters
TO the manufacturer and the merchant
is altogether different from what it is
at the East. Consequently there is
more capital employed on farms, and
also in general i higher order Of intel
ligencc is devoted to agriculture as a
business. This may sound strange tc
those who have been bred in the con
viction that all the forces Of civiliza'
tion diminish in the inverse proper.
ton of their distance from the site OF
the Charter Oak or Bunker Hill Monu-
mcnt. 1t is an undoubtcd truth that
our friends in Connecticut :. have Il
use for all they can know or learn
about agriculture" That we have u
better soil and climate for farming
and horticulture than they, is no cred
it to us, and no disgrace to them. But
our Eastern periodicals. must wake up
to the truth that we, in the West, are
their equals in knowledge Of scientific
farming and in skill to put it to prac-
ticc. We are aware that the preju-
dice obtains i'll New England that a
sound, liberal, professional, or practi'
cal education can hardly be obtained
out of her limits. New England is
not vet aware that it is becoming pro-
vincial, and from the nature of hui
man progress cannot maintain the po-
sition relatively to the West, that it
did twenty-five years ago 1t is a fact
that she no longer controls the iinan'
ces OF the trade of the United States


She no longer leads, as formerly, the
science or scholarship of the country


She no longer leads in politics. Though
her civilization was the first to ripcn
| it does not follow that it still holds its
place in advance. She must rccog.
nizc the fact that she does not give
an adequate career to the enterprise
of her own sons,-that the vigorous


the bold, the cnterprising. leave hei
soil for wider sphere of activity


By the law of natural selection, the


least vigorous are left, while the
strong seek for conditions of life adc'
uuatc to develop their conscious inter


nal power. The Yankee man, like his


fruit and cattle, thrives by transplant


ing. The New Englander in the Yves


shows the good points Of the old stock


but he shows them raised to higher


power. The California and Kansas


migrations took away twenty years


growth of talent and enterprise from


New England.


There are multitudes of villages il


the older Eastern States which hav,


been almost stripped Of their young


men by these migrations. Compar,


for moment those who go, witt


those who stay. 1t is sclf-eviden
that the dash, the pluck, and ambitio
of such u village, as general rule
goes away, while the timid, the weak
! and unenterprising stay at home
Man is the joint product of intcrna
, force and external conditions. Let


young man be subjected to the intens
r activities of new Western life, and b
, is enlarged, elevated, invigorated. G
| to town meeting in any of those ol
: towns at the East--look at the boy
: as they come in you can tell almos
at glance who among them will 6
5 West, and who settle on the old home


stead. Look at one with an eye llk
S a hawk, muscles of steel and wliil
5 cord. brain full Of electricity, wit
J. a step and action as if he had a tel
n horse power steam cnigne in him
G Won may be sure that be is alread
U laying up money to buy his time {


his father, with his face already 81
: like flint towards the Rocky MouI
v tains. The time is already upon I
Q when the intellectual and moral, g
I well as industrial leadership of o,


land, is to be sought for out of Ne
c England.


II Light and power will be songl
l. from the West instead of the Eas
# Even within a few days, We have re
s. ponded to orders of clubs as large ;
G fifty, for the Rural New-Yorker, fro
>, the old State Of Connecticut Tree
!. and flowers are already sent East |


thousands of thousands from Monr,
a County. Last year one of our nurs
@ iry establishments sent twenty thou