Do city people know where some of the abandoned farms in New Hampshire are located, which the State is trying to people with foreigners ? Some are reported in the town of Jackson, which is near the heart of the mountains, and the grandest scenery in New England. Jackson is beyond North Conway, not far from Tuckerman's ravine, the Glen House, the Crawford House, and probably the nearest point to the largest mountains where land could be bought at any price. Much of the scenery that has been credited by artists to North Conway, is in the town of Jackson and vicinity. Why not buy a delightful summer home ? This land will be priceless some day. - Boston Suburb.

Abandoned Farms #1

THERE IS much talk of the enfeebled condition of agriculture, and the abandoned farms of parts of New England are cited as proof of it. There is no doubt much farm land in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont which is no longer tilled. It has been given over to pasture ranges and second growth forest. But so far from forecasting a general decline or enfeeblement of agriculture, we are confident that this abandonment is the strongest proof of advancement. It indicates that fanners are outgrowing the traditions of their fathers, and are beginning to adapt their business to their conditions. The greater part of the abandoned farms are not fit for tillage, and we rejoice that their occupants have discovered the fact.

We had almost said that these lands ought never to have been tilled, for this is a common statement; but the rugged New England farms have bred a hardy and determined race of farmers which could hardly have arisen on the softer soils of the west. Having bred the men, they have accomplished a mission, and they are now entering upon their true and proper sphere - that of timber lands and grazing ranges. The more tillable and richer lands of the central and western states must forever supply the greater part of the gross crops, and the abandonment of eastern hills is but a realization of this fact. Farming must be adapted to regions.

There is no question but that the area of grain growing will soon begin to work eastward. The slovenly and speculative farming of the prairies is exhausting the soil and breeding a deplorable and weedy recklessness. The grain-producing capacity of the western lands is constantly decreasing ; that of New York lands is increasing. Slack methods are responsible for the one; clean and scientific methods account for the other. Wheat growing in the Genesee valley is even now more profitable than in Dakota.

But we do not expect that grain growing will again become the staple of New England agriculture, for the conditions are not adapted to it. The fertile valleys are as profitable as ever, and they can be made still more profitable by the use of special crops. Horticulture must supplant agriculture in many regions. Many of the hill-sides afford admirable ranges, and the wilder and more barren regions must be given over to forests.

This is what the abandonment of the New Eng-land farms means. Agriculture is undergoing revolution. We are learning to work with nature rather than against it. Massachusetts is still a desirable state for the intelligent and energetic farmer; others must go elsewhere.