Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-03-31
chickens before they arehatChed; accidents
will happen in the best regulated families"
For tho VERMONT FARMER.
We Should Prosper Better if we had
our Trade Well Learned.

would not intimate that we are ignorant
Of all that pertains to our business yet there
is too much ignorance aud too few teachers
of the best way. When the country was
new the settlers had secrets in wood-craft
that aided them, such as coal-burning, shin.
gle and basket making, coopering, making
salts or potash, and they had skill in clear
ing land that in great degree lightened
their labor. do not plead for renewal
Of the lost arts they have passed by. We
now have lands cleared, and soil to work
upon, and it is titled 10 sections according to
the influence of a few leading minds. A
midde.aged farmer can remember the grad
ual change that has come over his neighbor-
hood since his boyhood days.
l was not conscious of my ignorance Of the
methods of gaining living from the soil un-
til was far past my days of apprenticeship.
l find about towns and cities the best places
where men get $50 or 500 a month, are
filled by foreigners, mostly English or Scotch.
1 am not qualified to take their places, and
among all my Vermont aequaintances can
not number six that l could recommend.
The place of Mr.. Hunnswell of Wellesley,
near Boston, has seventy.hvs acres of
grounds with trees, lawns, views, hedges,
flowers, fruit, vegetables, lighthouses, terra
ces and ponds. 1t was like enchanted ground.
In the beautiful city by the sea, Newport,
the places are many where the soil produces
the rarsst beauty and profit under skillful
hands. Is it for your boy or mine to be
able to have charge at Maitland'S, Belmont's,
Warnings, or hun dred other places2 Walk
away among the herny-handed farmers, aud
see acres of strawberries or vegetables; can
our sons take charge here? ? This is not fancy
farming, where money is paid out to satisfy
whim it is the way they pay expenses and
make money. Some of these same plain
farmers can show you their lighthouses where
all winter lettuce, cucumbers and some com.
mon things are grown out OF their season,
because they sell well, and in spring the
beds are full of developing plants ready for
the open ground at the earliest moment, and
in early summer dollars are coined for men
who earn them by intelligent labor.
Hon. L. d. Mason of Richmond left his
home, and spent days and dollars among the
cheese makers of New York state, and the
cheese sellers OF New York city, and almost
doubled his income by what he learned.
An item reports farmer in New Hamp-
shire, who visited the schools of agriculture
in France, Germany and other places, came
home, and excelsd all his nelghbors in the
amount of his productions and his income.
l am told that young man and woman,
both graduates Of the Iowa agricultural col
lege, married and hired farm. The papers
ridiculOd the idea. See your graduates on
hired farm They bore the notice, and in
the fall published the balance sheet, and
showed that knowledge had enabled them to
make good income. They continue pros.
perously in practical agriculture or, if you
please, practical farming" and excel
their neighbors.
As boiling salts, shingle and basket max
ing have passed by as auxiliaries to farm
ing, and teaming and numbering are passing
by, and systems are changing, there is inn
perative need that great effort bc made to
teach young farmers the farmers trade with
its advanced forms and methods.
The grange can aid in this by invsstigat-
ing and discussing. Take your boys and
girls to the grange 0r to the board of agri-
culture meetings, to fairs. to the homes Of
nurserymen, fruit men, florists, gardeners
poultry men, bee men, fish men, fancy stock
men and fancy butter men; give them a
chance to learn this great and comprehensive
trade. u. Il. jameson.