The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-03-26
agricultural department.
CONDUCTED BIZ ALBERT CHAPMAN.
Vermont as an Agricultural state.

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aware that some will not allow it) and il
is no. difficult to see that Vermont as an
agricultural State has bright future in
store for her. All this business, when il
comes, and it must come sooner or latter
unless some paralysing blight is to fall
upon the energies Of our country will
make market for our farmers that can.
not fail to make them thrive. But we
ought, ioreseeing the future, to be pre-.
pairing to meet it, and to meet its demand
upon Ds. The brightest mind, the strong.
est hearts among US are to some extent
awakening to sense of our position. Tc
that fact | gratefully trace those signs OIL
movement and activity that have given
our State Agricultural Society the high
position it occupies; has invigorated oui
County Societies; established Farmers
Clubs in so many places; given birth to
the Board of Agriculture established
the Dairymen's Association, the Vermont
Horse Stock Company, and the Cham.
plain Valley Horticultural Society; and
extends its support to a State Agricultur-
al paper. There is no better work for
the farmer who feels in his heart the pa
triotic impulses that experience proves
have never been lacking in the hearts Of
Vermonters, than to give his energies to
the promotion OF every means of progress
and Improvement among US. What has
already been done is well done, but it
should only be a stimulous to us to 20 on.
1t is too late to say, that Agricultural
service, as contained in books, and deve-
oped in the oval teachings of men like
Professor johnson and the Secretary of
our Board Of Agriculture, is unworthy
tie attention Impractical men. The farm
lag of all the foremost and most success
full agricultural countries of Europe is
already placing itself upon that very sci.
ence as the only sure foundation for sue
cess. Its value is so widely acknowledg.
ed, l say, that it is too late to refuse to
accept it as of practical value. 1t would
be as sensible now to refuse to accept sci.
ence applied to agriculture, as it wouldIbe
still to re-echo the cries ofthose who once
ridiculed the steam boat. the steam ship,
and the railroad. The value of the one
is as fully established as that of the 9th.
ers, and the farmer who refuses to listen
to it, is simply refusing gifts of inestima.
BILE value, gifts, .fhe continues to neglect
them, will pass into the hands Of others,
enabling them to outstrip him 10 every
department Of farmw ork, and to acquire
wealth while he is struggling along to
win poor substance.
Farming is rapidly becoming bust.
ness requiring better education, wider
range Of study, than yet prevails among
u.s. Many of its most important princi.
pies cannot be mastered without more and
different mental training, than is given in
most Of our schools. Most of the older
men in the business must be expected to
reject new ideas, and to die as the old
Eogish Farmer in Tennyson's poem said
he should die
but some un'll como arter me, msyhap with his
Rippin' and tearin' the blessed fields wi the de-
wills own team;
If I must die, must die, and life they say is
sweet,
But if must die must die. for couldn't abear
to see it,"
1t is the younger gentlemen who will
receive the new gospel of the farm. To
them the kttle of steam will not seem to
be the devils own team, even when ap-
piled to ripping and tearing the blessed
fields, and they will be glad to see their
calling elevated to an equality with other
occupations that give scope to the highest
mental faculties, and by so much separa-
ted from the drudgery of more back.
breaking manure labor.
1t is plain that before farming in Yer.
mont reaches this position, the schools of
the State must be remodelod, improved,
and adapted to teaching the new lessons
required by tho new times. This it seems
to me, is the first work to be done in ev.
cry neighborhood-the starting point Of
the new departure; and in no way can
any man or woman, who desires to see q
better husbandry work more effectively
to that end, than in promoting those i'm.
provements in our schools and our school
system, for which our Board Of Educa.
tion is laboring.
With the coming Of that time when
any large proportion of our farmers un.
derstand and believe in scientific farming
will come the time when The soils of Yer.
mont, strong in natural fertility, will be
restored to that high condition in which
they were found by our pioneer ancestors
and kept there. Then crops of fifty bush.
els of wheat to the acre will become com.
mon again-then the power of land tc
carry one head of horned stock to the
acre, with sheep or two thrown in, viii
be seen often enough to be believed in
then the possession Of the best breed will
not he limited to half dozen men in ,
country. Then ten loads of manure will
be made where one is made now, and ev
cry load be worth double,-then pilgrim
not few, but many will come from the
west and south to buy of US, not only i'm
proved Vermont Merinoes, but Vernon
Improvements of every animal and ever.
plant that lives and grows upon the farm
Then We may look even to have the youn
men Of other States, who mean to b
farmers, coming to US and paying liberia
fees to Vermont farmers for instructio
in Vermont methods of breeding and til
lage; coming to inspect Vermont farr
buildings, too see in Vermont pastures
Vermont stock up to their knees IN tn
richest Of Vermont grasses.
You may smile over my visions Of tn
future, but | am not afraid to put thel
on record for comparisons with the real
ties to come. At any rate you will a
admit that we need to make improvement
that We can make great improvement
over things as they are; and VIXEN in
provement once begins, who shall So
where it will stop? Nothing that ha'
figured before you is impossible, for the
rs not an item of it all, that does not