Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1859-08-26

I Of the products Of his farm, and while he can
do this without ditching and draining his
swamps and swale lands--or grubbing the
bushes from the margin of the fields, or free
ing his fields from rocks and stones by their
use in the construction Of fences-and with
out compost beds for the preparation Of arti-
fetal manures, and without the gathering of
decayod vegetable matter and proper chemi-
cal ingredients for this purpose, and without
subsoil plowing, and the like labor, TO fit the
field according to its condition. for particular
crops and any sort Of weather to affect them
such extra investments of labor he regards as
entirely suporAuous. The outlay of capital
in agriculture, for fertilizers, for machines,
such as mowers, rakes, reapers, drilling ma
chimes, cultivators, cornshelers, farm mills,
and the like, will not pay in Vermont, say
hundreds with whom / have conversed on
this subject. But these people seem not yet
TO have learned that railroads have brought
markets TO their doors. and cash paying mar
kets too. The idea that thorough, scientific
farming will not pay in Vermont is quite alb
surd, and yet its practical effect on the indus
trial enterprise Of the State is everywhere
visible. The conversions Of dairy and grain
farms into sheep pastures are striking indica-
tions of retrograde movements in the hnan-
cial condition Of the State. 1t was not with
out some other feelings than admiration that
/ saw hundreds of acres of bottom lands
along the shores of Lake Champlain, in the
town of Sholburne, converted into sheep pas
lures. Some three thousand acres of these
garden plains have become monopolized by
one Mech and his sons, and the thirty e
I fifty families who ought to subsist out Of
grains and vegetables, which these lands are
| capable Of producing, are ostracised from the
land Of their birth, by the prerogatives oi
I wealth, and the State is thus far mpoverish-
ed An equal number of acres of mountain
lands, where a scythe or plow could not be
used on account of the rocks, would pasture
these sheep great deal better, and though
am no agrarian, and would not infringe the
/ right of this millionaire to use his property
as he pleases. yet property does not free it:
possessors from the moral responsibility o.
using the things of this world and not abus-
ing them. lie is not justified in making
town or country waste, because he own.
it, Besides. this Mech was once a candidate
for Governor of the State, but his pervcrsior
of agricultural enterprise, in his magnificent
sheep pastures, did not convince the people
Of Vermont Of his fitness to preside over al
agricultural State. But the very useful in
stitutions Of county agricultural societies arc
I doing much for the farmers of Vermont. and
/ trust they will gather and set out in proper
reports, a body of statistics that Will con
vince the public that it is bad economy tc
use lands susceptible of easy grain culture
and promising abundant crops, and Of tho
intrinsic value Of from fifty to one hundred
dollars an acre, as sheep pastures. The at
tention of these societies should be dirccteC
to economical questions. to be answered b
general and special statistics Of the agricul
ture Of the county. Facts and Information
to be found in these statistics will go further
in promoting plans of successful farming thar
prizes for fast horses and mammoth cattle
Economy in the use and appropriation of lanC
is general principle by which to regulate
special undertakings and peculiar plans in thi;
department. And the conviction that labor
in the improvement of land, by irrigation
the production of artificial fertilizers, and the
use Of chemical elements that supply def
ciences in particular soils to be used for par
ticuar crops, will pay in subsequent superior
crops, must be fixed in the mind, & thorough
purpose to resist the spectators and middl,
men forestalling legitimate markets, will in
short time make the business Of farming az
mathematcally certain as the accounts of 4
banker j. NJ SrEARNs.