Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-02-06

find so many large farms, but more pro-
ductive farms for the reason that in gem
eral they are well managed and cared
for. In our smaller towns, as in locali-
ties remote from our larger villages,
there are morelarge farms, and the farms
show more thriftless management.
Some one becomes ambitious to own ''all
that joins him, and buys out his neigh
bors one by one as fast as each gets the
western fever" and in that way one
man will get in few years a terrific
~ which once sustained inhabitants
enough for very respectable school dis
trict. But how does he farm it? Go
and see. He keeps large number of
cows or sheep, that roam at will over
large tract of land, good part of it
grown up to bushes, has no time or in
clination to build fences buys his flour
and corn, in short, does little more than
milk his cows, make his cheese or shear
his sheep, and do his foddering. But he
makes money, says one. Very likely,
but the next generation who are so I'M
fortune as to inherit or purchase his
large tract of land will have to spend
the energies of the second generation in
resuscitating the worn out lands.
In this way we have been losing our
population during the last thirty years,
and at the same time our farming lands
have been deterioratins in their produc-
tive capacity, except in the vicinity of
some of our villages. Well now what is
the cause of all this? Those lands could
have been kept up with proper care and
attention; no one will dispute that; but
why have they not?
My explanation for that is this thirty
years ago wehad no home market moth
ing that was raised on farm except but
ter, cheese and wool would sell, and
those at not very remunerative prices.
There was then but little business, life
or energy in our villages. The world
was moving in other places. but Yer
mont was almost lifeless so far as her
business and enterprise went. The silly
notion prevailed that no one could farm
it successfully unless he had large farm,
sufficient to keep twenty cows or two
hundred sheep. 1t is no wonder then
that our young men would emigrate.
Not many had the means to purchase a
large farm, and all kinds of business was
so dull that the young men naturally
left for a locality more congenial to
their wants, wishes and aspirations. And
thus we went on year after year depopu-
lating as well as impoverishing our soil.
AS before intimated, this exhaustive
process has been arrested to some extent
by the growth of some of our villages,
to which | refer for proof of my theory
in this matter; and | ask every candid
and intelligent man in Rutland county to
look at the matter and say whether the
growth of Rutland, Brandon, Fairhaven
and Poultney has not, to large extent,
increased the agricultural products in the
county, and of course the value of the
farming interest.
You will not dispute this: that an
acre of land lying within a mile of Rut-
land is valued much higher than an acre
of land of the same quality in Chitten-
den or Mount Holly. But it may be
said that it is impossible to make Chit
tenden or Mount Holly what Rutland is
That / will cOncede to be true, but the
high price of real estate in Rutland
proves the soundness of my theory never
theless for the price or value of it comes
from its near locality to a business cen
ire 1t is also true that the more bust
ness you can create in Chittenden and
Mount Holly, the more real estate will
advance in those towns. If you cannot
make them what Rutland is, so far as
you can approach it, so far their agricul-
tural and all their material interests will
increase in value.
Now, then, are we not ready to con-
clude, that if we would keep our young
men at home, we must create a bust.
ness that will induce them to remain.
This seems to me the only sensible and
practicable solution of this much agita-
ted question. / believe if we could set
manufactures in motion in the most of
! our towns, or any paying business that
would call in and sustain population to
be fed and clothed, that this would &C
! complish the work. | believe that those
/ large farms that are becoming destitute
of fences, growing up to bushes, and
rapidly going back TO a state of nature,
would be soon divided, occupied by the
several owners and restored to a condi-
ton of cultivation worthy of civilization.
The spirit which now prevails in this
country is an active, gO-ahead spirit.
/ We must bring ourselves up to that Oh
we fall behind our neighbors, and away
will go our young men. Manufacturing
/ if we have enough of it, will do it, anC
! then it effects farming no less that othel
] interests.
All which is respectfully submitted.