Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1872-01-26
Farm and Fzreszde.
THE Future OF. vEJy. E.vGL.s.vD.

At late meeting Of the Kccne, n. H.,
Farmers club, Mr.. S. W. Woodland read
an essay on the future of New England.
He assumed that the farming interest of
New England reached its maximum dur
ing the ten years ending 1920 and that ii
has been steadily declining since that
period. In speaking Of the county of
Cheshire he says:-
Clowns where the manufacturing inter-
est is considerable have increased in wealth
and population, while those more eX-
clusively agricultural have suffered con-
slant though silent depreciation and the
farm produce of the county at the present
time would not sup ort one half the pCpu-
lation that it did support forty or fifty years
ago. If the soil does not produce one-half
the amount of grass and cereals now that ii
did fifty years ago, what may we expect
with the same course of husbandry will
be the amount Of produce fifty years
hence? 1t may lie argued that we are fast
becoming a manufacturing community,
and that it is far better to purchase our
food with the articles we manufacture than
to attempt to produce it from our hard soil.
But /: is the part of wisdom to examine our
true situation and note all its bearings.
Our farming population, which in every
community is the better part, are yearly
abandoning their farms and removing to
moro promising sections of the country,
there to swell the population that is rapidly
exhausting the fertility Of the praires and
alluvials of the great central valley of our
wide extended territory. And the emil
grants who throng our cities and villages
can never supply the loss of our intelligent
farmers. If our agricultural interests con-
tinuc to decline in the future as they have
in the past. can we reasonably expect the
continued prosperity of our manufacturing
interests? The natural result will be that
the manufacturer will follow the farmer
and leave the home of the pilgrims to be
reoccupied by wild beasts"
As remedy he proposes that at least one
half of our entire territory should be dedi-
Gated for all coming time to the exclusive
growth of timber to be removed only by
rotation of crops.
1--WE would select tracts for the more de-
srable varieties of timber, best adapted to
their growth, and for term of years pro-
tect them from the overgrowth of less val
liable varieties. 1t would not be necessary
to'devote any land to the growth of timber
that is feasible for tllage. And we would
reserve none for that purpose except such
as may be turned by the pillow and in part
cultivated by labor saving implements.
The cultivated tracts should be separated
from the wooded districts by substantial,
time enduring stone walls. Division fenc-
es between different individuals owning
contiguous woodlands would be unnecessa-
ry, as no cattle should ever be allowed to
enter those sacred enclosures except when
harnessed to the service of their masters.
"Such plan for dividing up land may
appear chmerical as well as impracticabe,
as the larger portion of some towns would
be assigned to timber, for but small part
Of their territory is feasible for successful
cultivation. There are thousands of acres
In our interior towns the present value of
which is less than three dollars per acre,
and in its present condition docs not pay
the interest on that small sum. Remote
ana Isolated farms must of necessity be in
cluded with the things that are passed.
But in every town arabic land enough can
be found, if improved to its highest state OF
productiveness, to furnish sustenance fol-
far greater number than the present pop
ulation. If three -tourths or even one-hal
Of the territory Of any of our hill town,
were covered with a fair growth of timber
the value of the whole territory would b'
increased four-fold. ] would rocomment
for timber the planting of the chestnut anC
the different varieties of oak and walnut"