Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-07-03
Correspondence.
For tho VERMONT FARMER.
DOES FARMING PAY2

il one that should be discussed until somo
remedy can be found to eradicate the evil Of
"toil without recompense" that assuredly at
tends the efforts of the majority Of hard
working farmers, l will say few words up
on the subject. In looking at this matter,
consider we must take, to do the matter
Justice, more liberal view Of the case than
to take individual instances Of prosperity in
farming. We must look at and speak of
them as class. Because some man has
taken a good farm, stock, and tools, from
the hands OF his ancestor, and is now able to
say he owns it, we must not be narrow mind
cd enough to overlook the. ten, yes, twenty
farmers who arc laboring under heavy
mortgage, to liquidate which is almost as
hopeless as to stay the fight of time.
Let any reader Of the FARMER, upon the
reading of this article, look over list Of his
farmer friends with an eye to their financial
condition, and he will be surprised to see
how few of them are really sound to the
core. Rottenness abounds among the farm
ers still all the farmer raises that is really
excellent goes to market, and the money is
distributed among the creditors at the viii
lage, and if little is left spasmodic effort
is made to pay up the arrearage Of interest
on the farm. The strong arguments against
farming as monoy-making pursuit are facts
that will develop themselves when we ex-
anime the records of town and see who
holds these mortgages. Is it, generally
speaking, farmers2 Most emphatically no
We find nearly all held by congressman,
lawyers, doctors, manufacturers Of all kinds,
even down to the common day laboring me-
chanic who demands and receives OF the
farmer for 10 hours labor three dollars per
day. Last in honor, but not least in num-
bers comes the sleuth.hound of speculator
who handles the products Of the farmers
hard summers toll, securing to himself
enough profit to enable him to advance the
farmer few hundred dollars at nine per
cent. secured by mortgage, the result oil
which operation, nine times out Of ten, will
be as destructive To the farmers family as
the dram shop OF olden times was to the
family of the drunkard. While the farmer
seeks another home with his disheartened
wife and family of small children, when
land is cheap and remote from civilization,
the speculator repaints his buildings, repairs
his grounds, comes out with new style bug.
gy, and his family visit the White Noun
tains, or watering places, to regain health
or popularity and the same will hold good
relative to the families of any class except
farmers. They and their families are
obliged to toll early and late through life.
This is a matter that should be looked d.
rect in the face. Farmers hold the reins
but drive when and where the occupants o.
cities and villages tell them to. Money il
in thickly settled places, and to secure i
nearly all young men Of enterprise leav'
the farm and engage in business growing ou
of large places. Here, then, we see Sc
rious drawback to advancement. Now farm
ing is good business if it could be brough
to become power, and l hope that through
the influence of able men it may become so
Every thinking farmer will see l have no
made one erroneous statement, and the Ger
tain tendency Of enterprising young men t
go into business other than farming shows
more plainly than words can express, which
way the wind blows.
AS farming should take its proper place
and can only do so through the combined
efforts of farmers, hope we may all pu
forth our best efforts to secure the desired
supremacy of power so much needed.
We have already powerful aid througl
the influence Of the grangers and the press
and when VIC can walk up to the ballot.bO,
and cast our votes without fearing we ma,
offend the pethoric speculator who holds tn
mortgage, or the village merchant who hold
claim for the last years store bill, an
elect an honest, sound-minded farmer to rep
resent us in national and state assemblies
VIC may then know whose bread and butte
We are eating, and stand up before the worl
men, as God intended We should be.
As class we read too little, and wor
hard. We farm too much as father did
paying no heed to what men of science ar
willing to tell us. Have an agriculture
paper in the house. Educate your boys t
speak honorabIy OF farming. To-day if
city or village swell asks farmers boy
he has "pantCd his hoop-pOles," or got tn
hay-seed out of his hair, he will color like
school girl, aud feel as though he had bee
engaged in some criminal act Now farmers
think Of this, and who says l am wrong
=. Il. II.
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