The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-02-22


poor. or unidentified orundesirable cali
ing because so much hard work IL re-
quisite to make 1t pay.
Hard work is necessary to make 1t
nay, but hard work ought not to be q
terror to the descendants of the Green
Mountains, and the early settlers of the
New Hampshire Grants. Hard work
is an indispensable condition of success
in any calling, and ours has this COM
pensating advantage. that it gives
health, vigor and long life as almost no
other does. have right, if any one
has, to be somewhat enthusiastic ON
this point, as | firmly believe that to
this calling I owe nearly forty years Of
my life. To my mind, the prejudice,
heretofore or now existing against the
life of the farmer or the farmers wife,
ION this score, its hard work. Is most
Elusive, deceptive and foundatlonless,
The farmers wife, if either, has some
cause of complaint, but the machinery
already at work is fast relieving farm
and farm life of that objection, If ever
1t was valid one.
But l suppose the design of the meet
ings, held under the auspices Of this
board, is not so much to criticise, to Dis
parage the prejudices, the practices, or
methods of either the past or present,
as to incite the inquiry, how and what
better things are attainable, to diffuse
information, 70 bring together, for full,
free, hearty exchange and interchange,
the experiences of those eminent in
practical wisdom and sagacty, men of
mark in their respective fields oflabor,
and in all the diversified branches of
industry in which our people are en-
gagged.
The farmers of Vermont are not fast
to change they are not blown about
by every wind OF doctrine or new the
Dry, nor yet are they as Interchangeable
as the laws of the Modes and Persians,
but they want facts, figures, demon
stration incontrovertible, and when
thoroughly convinced it is for their In
terest SO to do, will take thew depar-
ture."
This, then, suppose, is to be very
greatly an experience meeting We
thank you, gentlemen of the board, for
calling it, for although we have had
m orc than n;nofx, vaoro of arr;oulfuroI
life and labor, still our agriculture In
its present phase is not entirely salts.
factory to us. In some departments,
as our flocks and herds, we have per-
haps done tolerably well. Our bulls
and rams have at times, we think,
well-nigh riyalled those of Bashan and
Nebaioth, but how best to renovate or
recruit our exhausted soils, how TO re-
clothe our hill-sides, how best to save,
make and apply the needed fertilizers
and manures what grasses are best for
this soil and what for that, and how to
make two blades of 1t grow, where was
only one before, we do not so well I'M
derstand. Hence you have come where
light and knowledge are most well
come.
And now allow me 10 express the
hope that your work and visit here
will be as pleasant to you us We expect
to find 1t pleasant and profitable to our
selves. And as you and your co-labor-
ers go on In this work, may the high
reward and satisfaction be yours that
you have done something to elevate
the agriculture of the state, something
to develop and advance her material
and industrial resources, something 10
start her on in that career Of enlight.
ened progress, Which, outstrlpping the
dream Of the enthusiast, the prayer of
the patriot, shall find Vermont, hum
dred years hence, in her farms and
families, her flocks and heids, her mills
and factories, her schools and colleges,
q state worthy of her historic renown.
Yea, to thousand generations may
the land of Allen and Warner, in the
perfection of its agriculture, the nopil-
ity of its people, ms we'll as the splen.
dor and beauty of its landscapes be in
deed 1.-The star that never sets -