Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-06-10
2Hsricnlflral Department
I. D. R. COLLINS, Editor.
CAN FARMING PAY SUCH A Taxa

we cannot avoid These are compare
lively moderate, and somehow or other
they do get paid, and the world still,
moves on. cE SIR Ec II
There is, however, another tax, though
it is not called by that name, from which
few of US hope to escape, and which is
entitled to the gravest consideration. 1t
is cutting into our substance like two
edged sword-on one side idleness, on
the other extravaganza. Worst of all,
the sword is welded by our own flesh
and blood, by those who love us, and
whom we lovely our own daughters.
The reader will please notice that we
make no assertions in the heading of
this article; we only ask question. We
are not, ourselves, prepared to give
definite answer, but we think there is at
least grave cause for anxiety in the
habits and tastes of farmers daughters.
On our drive to town, this afternoon, we
met three young women, daughters of
three ordinary farmers-men who have
the usual struggle to make both ends
meet, and who practice the usual econ
omies in their households and on their
farms. These damsels were SO dressed
that at little distance they looked like
the daughters of the rich city people
who board in our neighborhood in the
summer. AS they came nearer, it was
plain to see that they had economical in
material as much as they had squander-
ed in form and color, and this marked a
wide difference between their brighter
exemplars Yes, save as they might,
there was not one of them who had not
on her counting everything from
"button- CATERS" to what Mr.. Punch
calls "Chig- nonsense" and hat-feathers
the value of frst-class moving ma
chine, with reaper attachment. If this
were the end, it would not be SO bad !:
but it is only the bad beginning. 1t is
not only the capital invested in fnery
that tells on our fortunes, but the awful
interest in the shape of renewals. A
frst-class two dollar 'back- we
: might stand, and done with it, but fash
ions change and back-hair wears out,
and the next style is worse yet, and
costs three dollars. And so itgoes from
the crown of the head to the soles of the
feet there is the same eternal grind
that wears away clothing and fnery
alike. The more it costs the more we
must spend in repairs and your mod.
ern country miss, with her Harper's Ba
{ Ear and Peterson's Magazine for the law
7 and gospel of her attire, is very apt to
be a sort of well-dressed mortgage deed
upon her fathers farm; and to become
7 a sort of ornamental milestone abou
t the neck of the man who marries her.
5 Aside from all this we could call at
l tention to the occupation of these girls
Too often we shall look in vain for the
| steady, cheerful industry of their moth
, ers' times If they work, they are hal
0 ashamed to be seen at it, and they rare
t ly accomplish, from one end of the yea
r to the other, tenth part of what the,
r are easily capable of
0 In the "good old time" when farm
: ers were none too prosperous, when TIN
!, land was richer than it nowis and whel
: the cost of living was far less, GU
Il grandmothers and their sisters wer
S cheaply clad, they wore their own hail
: the renewal of their gear cost wonder
it fully little money, and they worked lik
e little beavers If we can trust GU
r grandfathers' account of them, they wer
= as sweet and attractive and promisin
e sweethearts as the more costly and les
useful jewels of our own modern fire
sides.
g We are not grumbling, and we are nc
/ blind to the great advantages that moo
e. ern civilization offers to the young {
" both sexes, as compared with those VIII
k have gone before; we only express OF
d. anxiety, lest the extravaganza that
in perversion of our civilization has caused
Id end in the ruin of the hard-ridden f;
es theirs.
Id If farming was but moderately goo
es business forty years ago, with the indu
en- try and economy of that time to help
r, we fail to see how with the high price
e. labor. the low price of produce (compa
as atively,) and the necessity for buyir
en- manure (that is becoming so universal
I'd the farming of the present day is goir
gs to support household Of girls who co
SIX so very much more than they come t
g. american Agricult,uist.
o..
PRUNING IN JUNE.-In your issue
OF Feb. IA, 1 noticed two correspondent
IL asking for information as to the be
Is time for pruning fruit trees, and d.
TO n of Cedar Hill NJ j. asserting tn