Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-06-11


Farmers who are out Of the latitude Of
tobacco culture or whose sOil is not adapted
to the weed, sometimes feel as If IL was a
slow way to get living and a slow way to
live, raising farm stock and common crops,
butter and wool. But tobacco growing has
its evils, and the communities that are sup.
posed to be prOspering under the stimulus Of
good crops and high prices, are more subject
to reverses than those that are little more
slow, as will be seen from the following ex-
tract from the Springfield Republican.
The little village of North Hadley has fall.
en- upon the evil days that have been pre-.
dicted, Of late years,as ultimately in store for
such Of our Connecticut valley farmers as
have given themselves blindly up to the
growing Of tobacco. The feeling of prosper.
Gus security which the quick, profitable sales
Of the best tobacco crops induced, led these
farmers, As it did their fellows in the other
valley towns, to discount the future. Count
| ing on q ready income as sure with each re.
turning season, the expenditures OF farm and
family were gauged accordingly. Calculat-
ing that q given crop Of the weed would
bring, say, twenty-five cents through, when
it was actually sold for much less, the residue
was put into paper-and this was easily enough
done when endorscrs were to be had for the
asking. Indeed, so neighborly" and ac-
commodating community in this regard it
would be difficult to find in all New England,
and now the moro's the pity
The end Of all this is painfully plain. 1t
needed but the fall Of the first brick to topple
the whole community into financial ruin.
Thaddeus Smith, who had been carrying
paper for two or three prominent farmers,
was at last obliged, by personal embarrass-
ments, to refuse to further secure the notes
Of his neighbors-and then the panic began,
until the total liabilities Of the bankrupts are
reckoned at 1925 900, real estate has fallen
one.third in the town, and business is almost
hopelessly stagnant.
Here follows list of failures including
many farmers
OF course the community is utterly pros
trated under such a series Of misiortunes in
the business sense, though individuals bear
it courageously. One prominent farmer and
broom manufacturer, Hubbard Lawrence,
has left the town for Palmer, carrying his
help with him, but as the rule, people will
stick by the old place. 1t is the belief Of
the best people that essentially new town
will be built up in time, whose inhabitants
shall have been taught the great lesson of
living within their incomes. The bankrupts
include practically all the leading men of the
town indeed, as one Of the people said,
yesterday, "a mans got to fail here in North
Hadley, to keep his social position" All
were principally tobacco cutivators, while
S. s. Hibbard had, additionally, a large
dairy, and Thaddeus Smith was a consider
able broom manufacturer. AT present there
will be no great business changes, though
Francis Pelky has added to his accommoda-
tions and takes much Of the broom business
of Thaddeus Smith, employing about twenty
hands. There was danger at first that the
town would lose their minister, Rev. james
NJ. Bell; but by weekly pledges of money,
which is paid in every Sabbath, enough has
been raised to keep along for the present.
And the interesting fact about this is, that
the parties guaranteeing the parsons pay
are, in the majority, the folks who usual
have given little or nothing toward support.
ing the church.