Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1868-10-09
For the Bellows Falls Times.
Clippings by the Way.---No. 10.

Every days ADDED experience and re
search brings to notice many things no
heretofore discovered. Since our last
we have taken the first trip few mile
into the countryto get at a few fact
relative to what tie farmers do, and how
they do it. The country bears more
marks of age than we would expect tC
find. 1t has been settled only a little
more than forty years, but in this time
improvements hare been made and de
cayed. There arr no such large plain
prairies without trees and shrubs, as
had expected to ind. The country orig.
inally bore vey heavy growth of tim
Der, and now in many sections, there are
vast tracts of havy and very valuable
timber land. Tie farms are not very
large; but the improved land is very
productive and 1ery valuable, as is the
timber also. Ordinary farms are worth,
at present, one hundred dollars per acre.
The farms usually contain from fifty to
eighty, and sometimes one hundred and
fifty acres. This land was bought with
in the memory of men now living here,
and in some eases by the men now living
here, for Slipper acre, and it has risen
in value every year steadily, so that in
many instances farmers have become
very rich from the rise of land. They
have cultivated enough to support their
families, and hare lived as easy as a
king and grown fich at a rapid rate. As
in the East, farms here have increased
in value, in some cases three and four
fold, since the commencement of the
war. Land that would rarely sell for
twenty-five dollars per acre in 1860, will
now more readily sell for one hundred
dollars per acre.
The roads in the county are poor un-
less it is in the case of tolled turnpike.
The main thoroughfares are what the
people here call pixies, and the travelling
public have to pay about II cents per
mile for a single carriage to pass. Two
horse teams, about two cents per mile
1t is very high toll, bnt the roads are
very fine.
The soil is very rich and productive.
The evidence of the truthfulness of this
statement is abundant. | was particu-
larly struck with the appearance of APP
pie and peach orchards, as evincing the
original depth and richness of the soil.
The older apple orchards are now be-
coming valueless, but the size of the
trees shows how they have been fed
We seldom find an apple tree in Yer
mont so large that man with long arms
could not clasp the trunk, but here the
sight is byno means rare. A gentleman
of truth was telling me this morning of
an orchard in which single tree had
borne sixty bushels Of apples at yield.
This prosaiiy y 4'-.'oonrrnvss yivia !,
and the apples on these old trees are nat
ural fruit and not of the first quality.
The climate is different from our old
Green Mountain home. am more and
more convinced of what the people here
are very ready to acknowledge, that
there is no country like New England
to produce men. The people here seem
to think that the rugged and hilly eoun-
try and cool climate of Vermont is Just
the place to grow stalwart and noble
men and women. They say that New
England men do not have that sallow
and pale countenance which is so notice
able here. They will tell an Eastern
man at once, by hearty look and elastic
step. This is all true. Say what you
will of the great west, the people them
selves, especially those who have lived
east, will acknowledge, when you get
down into the bottom of their hearts that
there is no country like New England
People get rich faster and easier here
than east; but the social and Intellectual
privileges of the west bear no comparison
to the east. If you wish to cGn money
out of dirt, here is the place 10 do it,
If you wish to enjoy life, socially and in
every other respect,-if you wish to train
family of children and MAKE of them
men and women of strong and robust
bodies, vigorous and activ, minds, be
sure to remain east. This il the way it
looks to your correspondentupon very
short acquaintance, and this is the way
people talk here. This / believe to be
the true view of the west as compared to
the east.
The seasons, are quite different from
the seasons in the east. The summer is
longer, and the winter is shorter and
much more changeable. They very rare
ly have sleighing at all. The snow falls
to-day and to morrow i is melted, and
the mud is intolerable.
The productions are nessly the same
as east; much more attention being Civ
en- to cereals and fruI of all kinds