Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1852-01-15
U)G Nous Glcauer.
Notes and Comments.

AN OREGON POTATO.-John o. Waterman.
once of the Freeman Office, but now editor of
the Weekly Times, in Oregon, announces in
his paper, that he saw, during a late trip into
the interior of that Territory, a potatoe which
weighed six pounds, AMI that, after his return,
another was brought 10 his office weighing five
pounds The whole world, out of Oregon, may
be safely challenged to beat this. II the Or
ogonians are DESTROYS of accessions from the
Irish, they would do well to publish this fact in
Ireland without delay. 1t would craze the whole
nation to be off to the land Boosting such :" pra.
ties."
ST.. JoHNsBURY.-Fcw towns in Vermont have
lately improved faster than st. Johnsbury. We
had the pleasure of visiting it recently for the
first time for fifteen years, and had we been
dropped down there unapprised of our where.
abouts, re certainly should not have recognized
the place. What with tho great Scale Manu-
factory of the Brothers Fairbanks, itself a village,
with the beautiful seats of the enterprlsing and
fortunate proprietors, and the cottages of their
$50 employees clustering like bees round the
works on either side the stream and pushing
back even int. the woods Of the surrounding
slopes, what with this, and the village of the
Plain, with its neat dwellings, its stores, shops,
and public buildings, and last, though not least,
its magnificent hotel, "The st. Johnsbury House"
managed by A. c. Jennings, one of those land.
lords who will make every traveller once enter
tanned by them, ride ten miles further than usu-
al for the sake of giving them a second call
what with all these, 81. Johnsbury is one of the
most thrifty and pleasant villages anywhere to
be found. Long may it flourish for while fur
nishing scales for the weighing of half the
world, it will not itself be found wanting when
weighed IN the balance.
RAIL-RoADs AND REsULTs.-The villages
have built the Railroads and the farmers reap
the benefit. But how different is this from the
calculations which all made at the outset! The
inhabitants of our villages on the line of the
railroads, subscribed, even beyond -Aeir means,
supposing their respective towns would at once
be made all but cities by the coming railroads,
while the farmers would subscribe comparative
ly nothing, believing they would receive injury
rather than benefit. But now the railroads are
built, it is found that the farmers are growing
rich while the villages can scarcely hold their
own. This however may be well for the great
whole, as 1t seems to restore an equilibrium in
the advantages which the villages have hitherto
held over the farming towns. Railroads, indeed,
in this respect, are, like death and democracy,
great Jewelers., and before them, all undue advan-
tages, monopolies &C., held by one class, or one
section over another, are evidently fast giving
way. And though villages may have suffered
in their construction, and may not at present re-
ceive any direct benefit, there can be no ques-
ton but the country at large will receive an
amount of benefit to which the cost is nothing.
The rise of real estate on the line OF each rail-
road one mile each way, will probably be enough
in five years to pay every dollar spent in their
construction, and by this token how vast must
be the aggregate benefit to the country through
which they pass,
TEMPERATURE OF THE YEAR 1851.-Sub-
joined is a table of Meteorological observations
perseveringly made through the year by Mr..
Benz. |. Wheeler, a young farmer of East Mont
pelier, of scientific tastes, and kindly furnished
us in a neat form for publication. BY this table
it will be seen that the mean temperature of the
year is but AZ Q in whole numbers, making it,
as we suspected, the coolest year of which We
can find any record kept at the same altitude in
Vermont since 1897, which with 1886 and 1885
were about the same. June and December are
also among the very coolest on record, %particu-
larly December, which is the coolest since 1888
and 1889, and as cold as any, we think, since
1916.
T~hermometrical observations at East Mon
peler IN the year 1851, taken at Sunrise, Noon,
and Sunset on each day: