The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-11-14
agricultural department.
CONDUCTED BY ALBERT CHAPMAN
Farming in New England.

cnusetts, ueilVcreu an address before tn
Norfolk (Mass.) Farmers Club at thei
annual exhibition last month. Unlik
many others Of his addresses this is sup
posed to have been by invitation, rattle
than voluntary, and it is fair to infer tina
his utterances are the studied conviction
of the states man. quote:
81 am sorry for i'll cant help it
but am what may be considered a Dir,
OF ill-omen because | am plain spoken
blunt man, and | deal out statistics an,
facts as they are given me. The agricul
tural portion Of New England since tn,
war, has decreased both in population ant
in value. When | see the agriculture
lands of this State being sold for the pur
pose of emigration when l see maj
"a father with his family--leaving tn,
old homestead and taking the little i
will bring, going to the city to become AZ
operative, why, then l think it is a stcI
backward. l brought this to the atten
tion of some prominent gentlemen, one
of whom has had large experience il
the selling of farms in this Commonwealth
and that gentlemen wrote me letter, il
which occurs the following passage:
"'I can find one hundred and eighty
farms on the line of the Boston and AL
bany Railroad in this State each of which
can be bought for less than the building,
on it cost at the time of erection. Some
of these farms are sixty-fve acres in ex
tan I'd 1tla 4. 4 4
ty.
"Our fathers built themselves fine man.
sions, large barns, educated their children
well sent them to college--at least one oil
them, tho smartcst generally -and did it
too, off these farms. Now, what was the
secret Why cant that be done now
The farmers have better means of trans.
porting their produce, the railroads run
all over the state. What was the secret
of their success? Thrift and economy
economical thrift. Get rid of extrava-
gance. We in our time, are getting to
be exceedingly extravagant, and that one
thing permeates through all the States.
Farming will become profitable if you
and your children will live with the dis
comfort Of thrieft and the want of extra.
vagancc, as do the men of Iowa. But
the difficulty is, my friends, the girls must
have pianos and various other little things
they can't have out West-not but what
they do sometimes, though, out there
Therefore, you can't have the cake and
eat it, too; you must go to one side or the
other. But these are things you can get
rid of without injury or danger to your
self.
My friends and fellow citizens, it is
our duty-it is more than our duty-for
all of us to teach our children the lessons
of frugality, sobriety, thrift and economy,
and if we do so our sons and daughters
will have no occasion to leave the old
Homestead, or the farm, to 90 abroad in
search of fame and of fortune. For on
the farm were the early days of life spent
under the true and loving care of father
and mother. They will find the happiest
days of their existence, when going down
the declining hill of life, can bespent upon
Massachusetts, farm,
Now this might all be very well if by
any process of reasoning or otherwise the
great mass of farmers could be led to see
1t. But in absence of the institution of
chaste, it is idle for Gen. Butler or any
body else to lecture farmers on their ex-
travagance, while every other person, of
whatever trade or profession, is vying
with everybody else to outshipe him. |
am no apologist for the wasteful and un.
warranted extravaganza, which, accord
ing to Gen. Butler, "permcatcs through
all the States" and believe that if a
goodly proportion Of the people of the
land ,without reference to their occupation
would voluntarily return to the frugal
habits Of their fathers, which some of us
are compelled to practice, there would be
infinitely more substantial comfort and
real happiness among them than at pre-
sent. Frugality will never become fash
ionable however while only those who are
compelled to do SO practice it nor will
the SONS and daughters of farmers cease
to seek other means Of gratifying their
ambitious extravaganza, till farming al
fords the same measure Of means to that
end that other occupations DO. Grovel.
ers there are, of course, who lack the am.
bition to get out Of the rut and labor on
content with mere subsistence, but they
are no longer the representative farmers
who must have things in as good style as
their neighbors.
The reasons why farming is not profit
able are more remote than those assigned
by Gen. Butler, but | cannot believe them
so insuperable. In all new countries sys-
tens Of culture obtained, and the lands
become unproductivc. This depreciation
is so gradual that it is wholly unrecog-
nized, and the sons take up the system Of
the fathers and follow it up till utter bar
renness prevails before they discover the
fact. This is the condition to-day of
hundreds had almost said thousands
of farmers in the old States. The OPEN
ing up of the country by the railroads, so
far from checking or in any manner i'm.
proving this condition of affairs, has in
tensifed it by affording the facilities for
getting the products to market in the raw
state, whereas before it was necessary to
concentrate them as much as possible to
save the expense of transporting them in
the more bulky condition.
The demand for wood and timber, Gre
ated by the railroads, has unduly stimu-
lated speculation in farming lands, those
not having upon them those articles for
sale having, by Sort of sympathy, risen
in value quite as much as the others. The
effect has been to induce large numbers
of men Of small means to buy farms at
prices so much above their actual value
for legitimate farming purposes. as to al