Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-01-06
Introductory.

'"''"N'N''iss
After the many years that the editor Of
this department has been connected with the
newspaper press. particularly as an agricul-
tural writer, it is not unlikely that his name,
at least, is known to most Of the readers Of
the WATcuMAN AND Journal. Many of
them, indeed, he is happy to count among
his personal friends, and to that number he
has the pleasing hope of adding many more,
should his life be spared to continue the task
he has now assumed.
One Of the dearest wishes Of our heart
has been the advancement Of the agricul
tural class, to which we are proud to belong,
in all knowledge profitable to them as farm
crs and as citizens, to a greater general pros
perity, to more ease of life for every mem
Der Of their households, and if last not least,
to more sensible influence ia public affairs,
proportionate to their great stake in the
commonwealth,
To aid, if but in q slight degree, in the re
alization Of these aims, we have never hest
tated to give our time and our money as
fully and freely as our means would allow
Contentcd that our little farm would furnish
us and those dependent upon us with the hum
ble requisites of daily life, we have striven,
with delight, wheneverop opportunity offered, to
stimulate the spirit Of agricultural improve
ment and to promote a feeling of manly in
dependence and citizenship among our fel-
low laborers. Especially have We striyen to
/ a.
mont, and in this we have been greatly
encouraged by finding in every section of
the state other men, of greater ability and
equal zeal who have always shown them
selves ready to work in the same spirit for
the same noble cause. To the fact that
many farmers of this stamp have of late by
means Of various agencies, been brought
frequently together, and have been able thus
to encourage each other, and to act in har-
mony for the promotion of common aims,
must be attributed the acknowledged pro-
gress Of Vermont agriculture during the past
decade
With the view of affording a means of
consultation and cooperative action among
Allt AtAl miss VI Ail' sldAt We iNAA NtdlA h-'
began in connection with printer who
controlled the necessary facilities, the publ
cation of the Fremont Farmer and for more
than three years bent all our energies to the
work We had at heart. The result proved
that we had neither underestimate the
need nor the desire of our farmers for such
paper Probably no weekly journal in
this state ever so soon acquired so large a
circulation, or SO well recognized an inAu-
ence, and that, not through our own unaided
efforts, but in consequence of the generous
assistance volunteered, and in most cases
gratuitously given us, from all parts Of the
state. This support, far beyond our antic-
patton not only greatly encouraged US but
put us under bonds to maintain continuously
and honestly the principles at first set forth
10y us, and in aid Of which such liberal sup
port was contributed This we stroye to do,
but in doing it we We're compelled to go
counter to the views Of immediate pecuniary
profit entertained by our business associate,
and this occasioned, some nine months since,
an evident necessity that we should either
have the entire control of the paper or ie-
tire from it altogether, as we did.
SO far as this change was personal affair
we have no desire to bring it before the pub
lie. That we parted from our chosen work,
so happily begun, with heartfelt pang, is
true but for that, no matter. If we could
have seen it carried forward in the same
spirit and for the same ends by other hands,
the personal grief would have been easily
assuaged,
But it has not been so. As an organ Of
agricultural improvement our old paper has,
being without any real editor and solely
conducted by our late partner and the fore
man of his printng-office, (Nlr. Wheeler)
neither of whom own or ever owned a farm,
nor have any valuable knowledge OF either
scientific or practical agriculture-laps
into the ordinary newspaper with scissored
agricultural department" As a newspa-
per simply it is better than we ever made it,
or ever desired to make it. But as an agri'
cultural, paper aud particularly as repre-
sentative of the distinctive ideas upon which
it was established, it is now but weak and
mischeyous travesty. 1t could not be other
wise, since its managers care nothing foi
that for which we cared everything. We
were compelled to retire because We favored
the cooperative movement among farmers
and thus got for the paper the ill-will OF the
advertising mercantile class. Yet we die
this without any hostility to that section Of
our fellow-citizens, and solely by advocating
entirely legitimate action on the part of the
farmers. When urged by enthusiastic friend
clined, and maintained what we believed
and still believe, that when things shoulG
readjust themselves to the change, it woult
be seen that all classes were benefited; anC
at any rate we would not degrade our prin
ciples from the high level Of economic re
form to low quarrel with those who op
posed them from interested motives.
As was easily to be foreseen, the Farme
was too deeply committed to the " Farmers
Movement to be withdrawn from it with
out losing its subscription list fey
weeks of hesitating experiment satisfied it
managers of that fact. To hold the pape
to its old course without an editor frml
imbued with love for the farmers cause, wa
impossible. But any smart writer, thoug
at heart utterly contemptuous of that cause
could take it up as quarrel. spirit o
pugnacity was all that was needed, and o
that Mr.. Wheeler has enough and to spare
Pugnacity has, indeed, been the charat
teristic feature of the paper under his mar
agement. A bitter and abusive quar'
with the merchants and business men @
st. Johnsbury was begun within few week
after our retirement and it has been keT
up till now. The Messrs Fairbanks witt
drew their Advertising and they have ais
been assaulted and DETAINED, though the
have been the means of more benefit to tn
farmersJ of that vicinity than the Farme
under its present. management will ever b
They are, indeed, large farmers and devote
horticulturists themselves, and their sole o
fence is that they do not like the Farmer,