Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-04-08
Money Making Farmers.
SKETCHES FROM NEW ENGLAND LIFE

their funds at the banks2 They are
not wholly mythsi there are such.
Find me man, who, by aptitude at
bargaining (let US not call it jockey
ism,) can reduce the labor estimates
in the foregoing accounts by third J
and who, by kindred quality, can
add to the amount of sales by a
third; who can, by dint of early RI
sing and perpetual presence, stretch
the ten hour system into twelve or
fourteen; who, by conquest OF all
finer appetites, can reduce the home
consumption to third of the figure
named in my estimates, and you
have a type of one class. A union
of tremendous energy and shrewd-
ness; keenIy alive to the phrases OF
the market; an ally of all the buck
sters; sharp to pounce upon some
poor devil of an emigrant, before nc
has learned the currate rate OF wa
ges; gifted with a quick scent for all
otfal, which may be had for the cart
age, and which goes to the pig food,
or the fermentation of compost.
/ think / have limited at charac-
ter which those will recognize, who
know the ncighborhood of large
New England Towns prompt talk
er-not bashful, full of lile-select-
man, prehaps; great in corner gro
ceries, forehanded,' indefatigable,
trenchant, with an eye always to
windward.
If | were to sketch another type
of q New England farmer, who is, in
a small way, successful, 1t would
be a sharp nosed man, thin, wiry,
with o blueness about the complex
ion, that has come from unlimited
buffetings of northwesters one who
has been moderator at town meet
ings, in his day, and upon school
committees over and over; one who
has sharpened his tongue by occa-
sienal talk at society meeting-toI
say nothing of domestic practice,
| think of him as living in two
story, white house, with green blinds,
(abutting closely upon the road, and
whose front rooms he knows only
by half yearly summations to min
ister's tea drinking, or the sevcrer
ordeal of the sewing circle. His
hands are stiff and honey all the
callosities of AK and scythe and hoe,
have blended into one horny texture
the whole of the epidemis yet his
eye has keen, shrewd flash in it
from the depths Of sixty years and
under the hair of his temple, you
may see a remaining bit Of bleached
skin, which shows that he was-ffty
odd years ago--a fair complexioned
boy.
He hasgrown grey upon his strag
Cling farm of one or two hundred
acres; yet it is doubtful if the farm
will produce more now than on the
day he en- tere d into possession.
Some walls have been renewed, and
the old ones are lettering. Broken
bar ways have been replaced by new
ones; the wood pile has its stock
year after year; and every tentl
wear, when oil is down, the house
has its coat of paint-himself being
mixer and painter--save under tho
caves, for which ladder work, he EN-
ploys a country journeyman, who
takes half pay in pork and grain
When help is low, he clears som'
outstandingrye field, and commence
a new bit of wall-a disunited link
which possibly his heirs may con
plete. Every year, six, ten or lively
hogs grow into plethoric proportions
every year they are butchercd, ur
der a great excitement of hot watcl
lard tryings, unctious fatty smells
sausage stufhng, and sales to tn
packer of the town. Every yea
he tells their weight to his neighbor
between services, at meeting-wit
his thumb and forefnger in the pocl
ct of his black waistcoat, and I'll
same sly twinkle in his eye.
Every year he has his 'veals'-
four, six, ten,-as the case may be
and every spring he higgles in muC
the same way with the town butche
in regard to age, to price and to ia
ness. Every summer l see him
black hat and black dress coat, G
his wagon box,with butter frkins b
hind (the covers closed on line
towels by the mistress at home
driving to the market. And if
trot behind lin on his return, S,
that his exchange has produced hi
a two gallon jug of molasses, a s
worry bundle of dried codfi $ h,
moisty paper parcel of brown suga
tight little bag of timothy see
and a new hoe, or dung fork. b
he never allows his spendings
take up the gross sum of his receipt
always there goes home a modicul
which grows by slow and gradual a
cretions into notes (secured by MOI