Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-06-12
The Slate Interest.
NUMBER vi.

pcdIcu III 1OiLHCl uuLHUclS, anu SuCu
thoughts as have occurred to the writer
in regard to the slate interest, particular
ly in the connection of that interest with
the welfare of the State as one of its in
dustries.
The writer has intended from the first
to be cautious in his estimates of the
business. No one can tell to cent what
the products of that interest amounted
to in the year 1872, but the sales, at the
lowest estimate, would amount to ST.
000, 900, and the goods manufactured to
full that sum. The sales from the quar-
ries at Hampton, Granville and Salem,
N. Y, in 1872, at q safe estimate would
amount to $500,000 Two thousand
men are engaged in the business; and
this too is a low estimate 1t may also
be estimated that if the business con-
tinues through the year 1878 as it has
commenced and continued thus far, prob
ably, that the manufacture and sales
both sides of the State line included,
will foot up $4,000, 1000, at the end of
this year.
We have no where in our articles so
much as intimated that any one was
getting suddenly rich in the slate bust
ness. We have found no such case.
We think, however, that most of the
proprietors are now getting fair returns,
and such as they can live by. No one
has as yet made the money that some
parties who might be named have in the
marble business, neither has there
been as much lost in the slate as
in the marble business While we
would encourage no one to engage in the
slate business with a hope that he is TO
get rich in little time, still we believe
there is now no manufacturingor mining
interest in Vermont, in which one can
more safely invest. True, the profits of
the slate manufactured thus far have not
been large, but there. are encouraging
features which have already been given,
and will here be substantially repeated.
The demand for slate products is rap
idly increasing, and must continue to in
crease.
There is no end to the slate rock. 1t is
not confined to half dozen qnarries,
but there may be thousand places be-
tween Benson and Rupert, at which it
may be found and successfully worked.
If the demand increases, as evidently it
must, it will become, if. not now, a pay
ing business.
In our sojournings We have have Wis
tied nearly all the slate works, except
those at Salem. n. Y, where-we are in
formed there are at present about.
fifty men employed on some five or six
quarries. Nearly all the works We have
visited, especially the larger ones, bear
evidence of prosperity, and not only
that, but the new and improved ma
chinery, the tunneling, and the expendi-
lures in various ways, look both to
continuance and enlargement of the bust
ness. Such are the gratifying features
at present.
The slate interest is not claimed to en-
brace all the mining interest In Yer
mont, by any means it is only one of
several, and, in its magnitude, is not yet
equal to the marble. interest, though, at
present, more rapidly increasing. The
slate manufacture in Western Vermont
is at present confined to four towns only;
not including the works on the New
n.l IF of II viii 10
seen that it is very considerable inter
est, and goes to make up respectable
item in the industries of Vermont.
The writer of the articles which have
appeared in THE HERALD under the
head of 'sFAe Western. Vermont Slate
Interest, has had two objects IN view
one to encourage and, if possible, aid an
enterprise in our midst which promises
so well as an acquisition to the material
wealth of our county and State another
to do our part to inform Vermonters
what there is of value in Vermont. The
great problem which the enterprising
men of the State have been trying to
solve for the last twenty years, is how
to stop this tide Of emigration which has
drawn so heavily upon our population.
Our wise men have told the people over
and over again what is true; viz. That
farming can be made a paying business
in Vermont; that the young men will
be more likely to succeed at home than
abroad. We.know our soil is good, and
we know, too, that the young men of
our acquaintance who, in the last TWEEN
ty-five years, have emigrated to Illinois,
Iowa and elsewhere in the great West
have not, on the average, done as well
as those who have remained in their ma
tive towns among the hills of Vermont.
But it Is of little use to remind young
man of these facts, he must beintluenced
to remain at home in some other way be-
sides preaching to him
The great want of Vermont is di-
versified industry. 1t was said in the
Vermont House of Representatives. by
an influential member, in the fall of
1872, that s'Vermont is essentially an.
agricultural State, that ''it is folly to
think of making it anything else. Why
then seek to foster an interest that can
never thrive or prosper here"
Agriculture is the leading interest in
Vermont, and we sincerely hope it will
continue to be. But its lead will be
very slow unless other interests can
thrive here. Time was when the farmer
in Vermont could and did do everything
within himself raised all his own bread
stuff, raised his own material and manu-
featured his own clothing, in short sup
piled almost, his entire wants from his
own farm, But that he cannot or viii
not do now. A large portion of his
wants must now be bought with money
To get this money he must sell products
from his farm. He cannot sell them. to
farmers, for they also produce them; he /
must sell them to laborers in manufac