Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-10-03
IMPROVED FARMING.
An Address delivered at thc State
Agricultural Fair of Vermont, st.
JOhnsbmry, Sept. ~, '12,
BY HORACE GREELEY.

lllSt crossed the COnneclcnt on the Ice
in the winter of 1921, seeking
opportunity to earn my bread by help
ing to till the soil of Vermont, thi.
State contained some 225,OJ0 inhabit
ants, or 100000 less than her present
number, But the intervening hall
century has witnessed signal multi
plication and growth of her cities anC
villages, her qurrying and her manu-
tactures, so that it is probable thai
those who live by agriculture in thi,
State are hardl y more numerous, and
may even be fewer, in 1872 than they
were in 1921. The area of her cult
walton is doubtless larger and her an
nuaI harvests more boumteous, while
these command far better prices, in
1872 than in 1921; but very much
work formerly done in the field has
been practically transferred to the
workshop and the factory: the NOV
ing machine and The horse-rake short.
ening as well as tightening the hus-
bandman's toll in his meadows, but
trebling the cost of the implements
by means Of which his barns are filed
transferring labor from summer to
winter-trom the field to the shop
from the quiet, slow moving, rural
township to the bustling village. And
yet the fact remains that agriculture
is not advancing in this State-that,
when compared with other industries,
it seems to be retrograding Also
lutely, its rewards are greater than in
my early boyhood; relatively, they are
accounted far less. OF the more in
tellectual, capable, aspiring youth of
your State, | apprehend that but a
small proportion choose and follow the
farmers vocation; and | Judge that
this proportion is still diminishing. I
cannot be mistaken in my assumption
that no more than a moderate per-
centage Of the Vermont boys today
foremost in school or seminary are
expecting and aspiring to be farmers,
even when agriculture is, or was, their
fathers vocation; and of this minority
the larger number purpose to pursue
that calling elsewhere than upon the
hills or in the valleys of their native
State.
Far be it from me to deprecate,
since | did not resist, the constant,
silent, irrepressible impulse which has
led and is leading so many Of the sons
and daughters of Vermont to seek en-
ployment and homes elsewhere than
upon her soil. 1t was best neither for
them for our country, nor for mankind,
that all to whom this State has given
birth should have chung obstinately,
like barnacles, to the spot where they
first began to be. | have been widely
mlSrepresented as urging every one to
ego west, when | give such counsel
only to those who cannot find satisfac-
tory work and adequate bread in the
east. If you have or can secure all
you need where you are, | advise you
not to $50 west" nor go anywhere,
but to remain where you are; for pio-
neer life is rugged and toilsome at
best, involving years Of prevalent
hardship and privation. 1t is hard for
men, it often proves too hard for wo-
men, to find themselves suddenly
transferred from snug, warm cot,
costly nestled among these hills, with
the school house, church, store, mills,
&c, within easy reach, to a rude cab
in Of logs or rough boards, located on
bleak western prairie, where every
thing seems to the unfamiliar eye coarse
ungenial, repulsive Time softens the
harsh outline, revealing the beauties
and advantages which replace, in a
greater or less degree, those which
were relinquished by removal; but,
when every mitigation, every offset,
has been fairly considered, the wrench
given to lhe affections of even the
affections of the humblest New Eng
lander by migration to the west is a
great and perilous ordeal; so that
home-sickness has killed many a loving
wife and mother who bravely con
sented, for her children's sake, to be
torn up by the roots and transplanted
to Illinois or Iowa, whose attractions,
great as they are, could never wean
her from her fervcnt, absorbing love
Of the green hills amid which her
childhood was cradled. | do believe
in going west; but l cannot recon-
mend it to any who have passed the
meridian of their days; and | deem its
undeniable privations more lightly
regarded, more easily borne, by young
couples just setting out to traverse
arm-in-arm alike the fowery and the
thorny byways of life, than by almost
any others.
| have not meant to deny that the
last half-century has witnessed pro-
gress in the agriculture of this State;
and / do not cite the fact that, whereas
she formerly grew her own bread
grain and somewhat more, she now
buys the greater part Of it, as discredit
able. If she can make her bread
cheaper by grazing than by plowing-
by selling wool and butter than by
growing wheat and rye be it
But when | recall to mind the inter.
minable procession of wagons laden
with wheat from your northwestern
counties that used to pass on they way
to market at Troy or Albany, down
the turnpike in Westhaven beside
which / was cutting brush and burn