working, with dogged industry, for a moderate reward. However
enterprising and intelligent a farmer may be, when he goes to market to
sell his crops he finds himself in active competition with men who are
working for their bare subsistence.

Much is said about the competition of the farmers of the rich West as a
serious obstacle to success at the East. This is the case only in so far
as the Eastern farmer attempts to compete with the Western in the
production of crops which will bear storage and long transportation. As
a business proposition, it seems clear that this drawback is to be
overcome only by the cultivation at the East of such products as it is
not within the power of Western competition to supply, or only such as
our situation and the good quality of our land will enable us to produce
at low cost. Milk, fresh butter, and hay are the three most promising
staples, for which so large a demand exists as to furnish employment for
the whole farming population. Hay from its bulk does not bear a very
long transportation. Milk will always bring a higher price when
produced near to the point where it is to be consumed. Butter-making is
not an especially profitable industry if we depend upon the average
grocery-store demand; but it is possible for any farmer at the East, who
will take the trouble to make and to retain a good reputation for his
dairy, to secure a price enough higher than that of the regular market
to constitute a good margin of profit.

So far as relief in Eastern farming is to be achieved with no material
change in the character of life and work, it must apparently be sought
in these directions. In his relation to Eastern civilization, past,
present, and prospective, it may fairly be questioned whether the
influence of the Eastern farmer is increased since the general
introduction of railroads; and we are justified in looking with some
anxiety to the relative position which he is to hold hereafter.

There are well-known influences at work which are not promising. The
desire of the sons and daughters of the farmer to obtain some other
means of livelihood, and the too frequent yielding to this temptation on
the part of the more intelligent of these young persons, is the most
obvious danger to the future of the industry.

Much has been said of the dignity and independence which come of the
ownership of land; but it is possible that this influence has been
over-estimated, and that our ideas of it have b