Cape Cod, new & old . Chapter IX EASTHAM AND THE AGRICULTURALFUTURE OF THE CAPE IT was once the granary of the Cape — thisbarren, windswept region, with the dyingsunUght slanting across its roUing fields. Long,low marshes, level and softly tinted, like deli-cate pastels, contribute now to the sad andlovely scene — quite different in its wistfulcharm from the other towns about it. Its soli-tary roads, leading off from the state highwayto remote houses, are wanly mysterious. Itsdesolation is not unattractive. But its beauty— for it has an unmistakable beauty of anunearthly quality — is such as t
Cape Cod, new & old . Chapter IX EASTHAM AND THE AGRICULTURALFUTURE OF THE CAPE IT was once the granary of the Cape — thisbarren, windswept region, with the dyingsunUght slanting across its roUing fields. Long,low marshes, level and softly tinted, like deli-cate pastels, contribute now to the sad andlovely scene — quite different in its wistfulcharm from the other towns about it. Its soli-tary roads, leading off from the state highwayto remote houses, are wanly mysterious. Itsdesolation is not unattractive. But its beauty— for it has an unmistakable beauty of anunearthly quality — is such as to appeal to theeye of the artist rather than to that of EASTHAM 117 My Love lies in the gates of foam,The last dear wreck of shore:The naked sea-marsh binds her sand her chamber door. It seems almost impossible to believe thatthis town, these gently rolling pastures, so bareto-day of anything except the thinnest hay,were once luxuriant with rich and wavingcrogs, and that the Indians had so many maizefields here, and that the early settlers were sosuccessful in their magnificent gardens thatthe Plymouth Colony talked, at one time, ofremoving to Eastham. For this was the veryregion which was at one time the granary ofMassachusetts Bay and Plymouth. What happened, and why? The lesson ofEastham is the lesson of all Cape Cod, and, ina small degree, a warning for all the UnitedStates. The fertile soil was forced to bringforth crop after crop: all the good was ex-tracted and none returned, and in course oftime it became utterly exhausted. To-day itlies, like a beautiful and weary woman whoselife force has ebbed away almost to the last 11
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