ness and swamps. The farms fall far short of producing enough to feed the people, and the great food staples, such as wheat, corn, and oats, are largely brought from the West.

None of the states raises wheat except Maine and Vermont, and in those the amount is small. Corn and oats are both important New England crops, and Connecticut and Massachusetts have good-sized tobaccogrowing sections. Apples and other fruits are largely cultivated, and market gardening is done on a generous

scale near the cities. Dairying is a great industry. So much milk is needed in the big cities that it is sometimes carried on trains that convey nothing else

but milk cans from far out in the country. A great deal of milk is used also in making butter and cheese.

There has long been a decreasing population in the upland towns. This dates back to the building of railroads and to the great development of manufacturing that began somewhat earlier. Traffic and trade and invention increased the social attraction of the large towns as compared with that of the country hamlets and lonely farms. Besides, mowing machines and other agricultural machines began to be used. These were ill-adapted for work on the rocky, uneven upland, and remoteness from railways or markets there made it difficult to dispose of crops. Farm life under such circumstances returned so little in pleasure or profit that it could not keep the young people from drifting away to the towns, and deserted houses going to ruin, and neglected farmlands growing up to woods have been common everywhere among the New England hills. Often the only trace of the old homes is some ruinous stone wall, a half-filled cellar hole and chimney heap, or a brush-grown family graveyard.

But on the whole farm conditions are improving. Methods of work are better, and the farmers are learning the needs of their soil, the scientific use of fertilizers, how to combat the pests that threaten their crops, and how to market their produce effectively. Most important of all, the social pleasures within reach of the rustic dwellers have become more varied.

The rural villages continue to be trading points for

the surrounding farms, and the country stores take eggs and butter in exchange for groceries, dry goods, tools, and other wares. Usually each farmer has a

garden and small orchard, and he produces hay and corn. He keeps at least one or two horses, a few cows, and a flock of hens. Some men have half a dozen kinds of domestic animals, and cultivate their land in small plots devoted to different sorts of crops. But the progressive farmers give their attention to a single product or class of products.

ΤΗ

New England's Longest River

HE name of the Connecticut River is a combination of Indian words which mean "the river with the long tide." This descriptive phrase refers to the tidal rise and fall of the water as far as the Enfield Rapids above Hartford. The river's source is in the

primeval forest at the extreme northern point of New Hampshire near the top of the mountain ridge that forms the Canadian line. Here is a little lake of only a few acres which is more than twenty-five hundred feet above the sea level. This is known as Fourth Lake. Within about a dozen miles below are Third, Second, and First lakes, the last of which is also called Connecticut Lake; and all four are linked together by the infant river. The stream flows southward between Vermont and New Hamphshire and across Massachusetts and Connecticut till it reaches

A logman's houseboat on the upper river

Long Island Sound. Its entire length is four hundred and ten miles. It is the longest river in New England, and its valley is one of the fairest in America.