Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1862-09-18
AGRICULTURR IN VERMONT,
Past and Future.
ADDRESS OF HON. HORACE GREELEY.

1dmlly anu sCdutY WOTuly pOsscss'ohs, aH SOu-
tanned in double sleigh, of poor and I'M
successful New Hampshire farmerpassed thro'
this town and halted in this county, with our
faces turned toward that Great West which
was and is the bounteous and hospitable
Land of Promise for the destitute and I'M
lucky. For the next ten years, this section
was my home for the first five of them, my
time and my energies, such as they were,
were devoted to clearing away timber and
tIling the soil. During those five years,
though most omnivorous reader. hunting
far and wide for mental alment, never saw
an agricultural book, and think not even a
single copy of a periodical devoted to farming.
/ did not hear nor even read an address or
speech whereof agricultural improvement or
agricultural method was the theme. | did
not hear of Vermont State nor of a Rut-
land County Fair. A town fair, or a town, =
village or nelghborhood meeting of farmers
to discuss agriculture as pursuit or inter-
change ideas and suggestions concerning
their vocation, was never thought of in the
narrow circle which bounded my daily life.
If it had been suggested to my neighbors and
daily associates that Agriculture was pur-
suit requiring for its wise and effective pros
knowledge-tbat it was science demanding
a profound acquaintance with and accurate
knowledge of Nature-of Geology, Chemistry
and Botany-I am confident the most of
them would have been as thoroughly as
founded as If they had been urged TO send
their oxen to college and take their horses to
hear course of lectures on astronomy.
The agriculture by which we managed to
exist will not say here in Rutland, but in
the then ruder and more rural swestern
part of this County-was what might have
been expected. A few of the best and
most intelligent farmers had sheep, and made
a fair living out of them, though they gener-
ally bought their own bread. On the whole,
the farmers of those townships did not, and
presume now, do not grow so much grain as
they consume. Grass was the principal crop;
yet the clay flats of Westhaven-as good
natural grass land as lies out Of doors-did
not average tun of hay to the acre moved,
and hundreds of acres did not yield half
tun. And why should they? They had
been regularly moved for thirty or forty
years, aud usually pastured from September
to May, yet never fertilizedor helped in any
manner For weeks in Spring, they were
roamed over by quaint and hungry herds, in
ravenous, though badly rewarded search for
anything that would stay their stomach
when every step made hole deep enough
for setting post, wherein no grass grew
thereafter Rye was the staple gram but
there was not enough of it grown to supply
the home demand for bread and whskey,
which by many were regarded as the two
prime necessaries of life. have fields now
= Il.
with this unexhausting grain until the yield
became less than five bushels per acre, when
they were given up to mullen and Canada
thistles Though limestone lodges protru-
ded all around us, never saw a bushel of
lime applied to the soil. doubt that a tun of
gypsum came into Westhavcn while | lived
in it. | never saw compost heap m AIDE,
a load of muck dug from pond or swamp.
The clothing and groceries annually brought
into town were mainly paid for-so far as
paid for at all-with pine board; to obtain
which every Wild corner, every uncleared
intervale or swamp, was hunted over and
over again. Ct trust the last old pine has
long since disappeared, for l am convinced
that there is no use in talking about Agricul-
ture to community which has a saleable
| pine tree left.
| And,as the net result of my observations, |
am confident that the annual product of the
three or four townships next north and east
of Whitehall steadily diminished, so that
| their inhabitants had only choice between
emigration and famine. Hence, there are
to day more of the families who peoped those
townships when knew them living west of
Utica than this side. But emigration is
only reprieve, Snch farming as | wit
messed and helped to perpetuate in this
county will starve out community any
where, except those rare intervales of the
Nile, Pc, Mississippi, &C., where the annual
deposit of rich sediment from the overflow OF
its bank by bounteous river, repairs and
de6es the annual devastations of even the
most thriftless and imprudent cultivation.
The last forty years have witnessed great
improvements in agricultural methods. here
and almost everywhere else. There are still
farmers-snce we are compelled to desocrate
the term--who grow one grain crop after
another on the same field till it will scarcely
return the seed, or who pasture their mead.
ows from September till June; but these
have pretty nearly RON themselves out as
well as their lands, and have generally
drifted away to the rich, deep prairies of the
West, which are strong enough to bear such
abuse for at least one generation. If there
be any still remaining so far east as Yer
mont, the Sheriff has their lands for sale, OF
soon will have 1t is well for this class, well
for the old States, that they cannot make a
living among you after the pine ,rees are
gone, In spite of the too general sluggish
ness and inhospitality to new ideas of the
class of poor farmers, certain cardinal truths
have fore d their way into the general mind
and will not be dislodged. Among these
reckon as important the following:
|. No man can afford to keep Indifferent
stock, nor to keep good stock poorly. In as
sertlng this, ! do not at all touch the merit:
OF rival breeds of cattle, norassume that the
more recently imported are better than some
that are termed native. / presume every
approved breed best adapted to certain 10.
callty, to certain circumstances. so that the
conceded fact that thelgross feeding Durhams
VIII present heavier carcass at two or three
Il