The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-08-26
Northern Vermont.
LITTLEi .oF swAsTE COUNTRY.
e Editor Of the Press:

land will strike the attention of the traveller,
especially if he be recently from New Hamp-
shire or Maine, with greater force than that so
little of it is DaSte. To the very tops of the
highest bills the land for the most part is cult
vable On the submits of minor mountains
even. farms may be seen as productive as in
our Kennebec valley. Such are not the ex-
ceptiop. They excite no remark. The body
of soil is, comparatively speaking, evenly
spread, and comparatively speaking may any
where and every where be titled to advantage.
Some of the highest mountain SUBMITS ill.,
deed, are now bare, fires having assisted in
their liquidation. These naked peaks or
knobs are striking from their comparative
rarity and their contrasts with the deep green
of the surrounding forests, not in general from
their magnitude or imposing forms. These
and all other barren tracts combined cover but
a small fraction of the territory.
RBut the essential point is that the gre at body
of the soil is strong. 1t yields abundant har-
vests to the cultivator. Franklin county,
within the limits of which the Portland aud
Ogdensburg road runs for So miles, is declared
in Berkeley's History of Vermont TO be "tbe
spects;' and again in the Vermont Historical
Gazetteer it is obsery ed that 'large portions OF
Franklin county on the Missisco and Lamoille
rivers have, geologicaliy speaking, recently
been under water, and so fgreatly enriched;
and the soil is decrbed as "a mixture of loan,
clay and mari, very fertile" Lamoille county
is in the judgment of the writer, naturally
fully equal to Franklin county, the same be-
ing traversed by the P. & o. road for &c miles.
There is conside rable show OF rock where the
highlands bluff upon the Lamoille river, some
times in steep precipices, as in WolcOtt, but
the lands lying back from these are magnif-
cent farming lands. The residents along the
line in this county say that the Portland dele
cation of railroad men who went through,
some two years ago, saw but little OF the true
wealth of this section because they did not &c
out into the territory away from the river.
have myself left the line at various points, as
at Hyde Park for example, and ascending the
high hills, spy-glass in hand, have seen the
twenty mile stretch of farms, white houses
great barns, and villages, which bespeak the
thrift and opulence of the region, and have
seen all along the back-couDtry roads the
stout harvests which attest the virtue of the
soil. OF Caledonia county the same might bt
said, but in subsequent letters it is hoped thu
statistics and figures may be given for this ant
the other. counties, precluding the necessity o
general statements. 1t need only lie observed
here, that this feature of the improvability anC
fertileness Of substantially the whole region
should be taken into special account when es
Inmates are made of its capacity for population
and for railways.
DAIRY TERRITORY.
have said but little OF the country is waste
There are indeed in the aggregate quite exten
sive areas of high rocky land, lying back from
the streams and scattered in tracts and patch
es across the breadth OF the State. These con
stitute the famous dairy pastures of Vermont
That the feed upon these high hard lands il
sweeter than on lowlands is everywhere wei
understood. But no where else than in thi
State have i seen so much stress laid upon tn,
profession of such tracts in greater or les
measure as an indispensable prerequisite Il
making the best butter. These pastures are
worth as much acre for acre for our purpose
as the intervales" said one OF the largest butte
makers in franklin county to the writer, "w'
must have them; we must have enough hay
growing land with them to give us fodder 70
winter, and that's just what we have in thi.
county" The herds of cows, from twenty to .
hundred in number, feeding upon the slope
Of the hills or all lying down together, chew
ing the cud, upon their submits, are so nu
merous in some of the counties, as Lamoil,
and Franklin, as to constitute characteristic,
feature OF the scenery. In other words, the
Vermont farmer studying to turn his land tt
the best account has established upon it thai
form OF production which is best adapted to it
to the climate and to the demands of the mark
ct. The cheap country tavern will have butte
upon its table delectable in flavor and tina
tsmpts the eater to stake it straight" Butte
is made not only nice but in great quantities
At Morrisville, LamOille county, on the line
of the Portland and Ogdensburg railroad,
saw one evening at sunset, three two-hors'
teams loaded with butter starting for nigh
long journey of eighteen miles to the neares
railroad station, and taking the quota of tina
weeks or days manufacture for that locality
Franklin county sends off ''whole railway
trains of the same product from St. Adams
much OF which will go to Portland on the way
to market on completion of the railroad. La
moile and Franklin counties, alone, make but
ter by the millions of pounds yearly and
cheese by the hundreds of thousands. Each
cow is made to earn her fifty dollars per year
The dairymen have become independently
rich.
Considering these facts and recollecting how
well adapted to this branch of labor consider.
able portions of Maine are, can see the rea
sou why Secretary GOodale has urged oul
farmers with SO great force to address them
selves more vigorously and inteligently tC
dairy work. AT present we in Maine seem to
carry on the business on too petty a scale
Here hundreds of acres are combined in one
farm, thick walled stone milk houses are
builded, horse power or water-power does the
churniDg, one pan or tank holds the milk Of
fve-score cows, an elaborate system of tubing
carries off rne skim and butter milk, brings in
not water and cold, and every appliance Is EN-
ployed to economic labor and perfect the
product.
MUCH UNDEvELoPED RESOURCE
In saying that comparatively little of North
ern Vermont is waste country it is Lot i'm
piled by any means that the territory as yet
and as a whole is made to do its best. At pres
ent much of it is aoosted though little is waste.
From st. JOhnsbury to the northwest corner
of the State, in right line, along the general
course OF the Portland and Ogdensburg rail-
road is distance of 20 miles. The average
breadth of the same district betwixt the Yer
mont Central and Passumpsic railways, on the
west and east respectively, is 40 miles, This
great district is now unfinished with railroad
facilities, except in the parts adjacent 10 the
aforesaid roads, 1t is accordingly superb uous
TO say that it is undeveOp country. Henry
V. Poor Declares in effect, have not his exact
language, that ''every railroad adds five times
its own cost to the value of the territory it
passes through" Unquestionably many roads
augment the value OF adjacent country in tar
higher proportion, as for example those pene-
trating mineral, ore, and timber lands. Some
doubtless fall short of the figure specified. The
more of natural resource country has, the
greater will be the benefit of a railway. Well
TODD accordingly as the territory under dis
cussiOn now is, and very respectable as the
show it already makes in census returns, its
prosperity and wealth will greatly increase
when opened up by the rail. When the far
mer or manufacturer has to carry his hay, oats,
potatoes, hops, butter, pork, wool, lumber,
bark, leather, woodwork and other products
half days. ride to the railroad station, the
profit of his labor is devOured by the cost of
transportation. Enlargement of operations is
discouraged. Broad acres are lett uncleared
and untitled. Lumber rOts down in the woods
and is lost. The water-pOwer runs to waste.
On the Lamville river 7O3 feet of fall closely
adjacent to the Portland and Ogdensburg rail-
road are mainly unimprOved. On the Missisco
river, which reaches Lake Champlain at Swan
ton, the Vermont terminus of the road, 225 feet
OF fall remain still mainly unused. Minerals
lie in their beds untouched or but scarcely
touched. Tie operator of the Hone mine, at
Walcott on the line OF the P. & o. road, now
has twenty miles of teamiDg with his 400 tons
OF annual manufactures to q railroad station.
Oats for his horses consume the profits of his
labor. Very different will it be when his goods
can be, it soon will be- lifted from the platform
OF his factory to the freight van. His manu-
facture can then run up to thousand of tons per
year, and the mountain from its inexhaustible