Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1873-07-18
THE TWO GREAT AGRICULTU-
RAJ REGIONS OF NEW
ENGLAND.

The following, from the New York
Stakeholder, briefly but correctly re.
fers to two very similar sections of New
England, neither of which is inferior, as ag.
ricultural territory, (having reference to pro.
ductiveness and profit in connection with so.
cial advantages and nearness to the great
centers or business,l to any portion of the
American continent.
The Portland 4 Ogdensburg railroad, on
its completion TO become one of the great
avenues of travel between the Mississippi
valley and the Atlantic seaboard, runs
through st. Johnsbury. This road crosses
Vermont in its widest and most fertile part.
1t viii demonstrate, when the entire distance
is opened between Portland and Lake Cham
plain, how valuable and rich q traffic arises
from the industry of Vermont, not only from
its manufactures. but rs well also from its
agriculture, which has already made that
State, in the portion traversed by the route
of that railway one of the richest parts OF
the world There is not anywhere to be
found, aside from the great cities, a commu-
nifty of equal average and well-distributed
wealth rs dwell in this northern belt of Ver-
| mont
The country we speak of lies west of the
Alleghanies, using this name to express the
great chain otherwise known us the Appala-
chian Mountains, which extends from Maine
to Alabama, nearly parallel with the Allan
tic coast. Its geology, breaking from the
more sterile granite of the Atlantic slope, is
marked by the soft states and limestones
which, friable and warm, afford u kindly
soil that holds we'll the gift of the spring
rains and almost absolutely prevents drouths,
the greatest scourge of the husbandman.
| Hence profitable stock raising and dairy
farming have made Vermont Agriculture
| famous. The mountains, where not improv-
ed rs FARMS are crowned with noble forests
to their very tops. When improved, the
mountain farms rival in fertility those lying
in the rich valleys. In fact, it is q proverb
in Vermont that the best farms lie on the
very tops of the hills-in the beautiful range
known rs the Green Mountains. For all the
purposes of enjoyable life and profitable ag-
| riculture, such lands are infinitely preferable
to the treeless pralries of the far inland Mis-
sIssippi valley. There is but one similar re-
| gion in New England, being that which lies
north of the Alleghanies, or Appalachian
range, in the State of Maine. In that State
an area as large rs that of the whole State of
Connecticut, now untraversed except by the
explorer and the lumberman, awaits the ag-
riculturist of coming years. 1t will in due
time be shown, upon the. completion of rail-
road enterprises now in their inception, that
this region in the very northernmost portion
Of Now England is capable of the most prof
table culture, especially in wheat and cattle
raising, sufficient for tho entire supply OF
bread and beef for the people of the New
England States. These States now raise
perhaps one-tenth of the meats and bread
consumed in them. The remainder is
brought from the West under conditions OF
transportation which keep the Western
farmer poor and make life in New England,
even with its advanced manufactures prob
I lem not entirely easy.