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


Ing Of the Board Of Agriculture ut Orwell, by 8
Il. Bascom, Esq, after his address of welcome.
MR., PRESIDENT And now I shall
talk for brief space TO the farmers
here gathered; not to tell "what
know about farming" but to expires;
some thoughts In reference thereto.
And FIRST 1 think we ought to rejoice
that we are farmers. though we may
have grumbled some In the past ovel
our, at times. not very remunerativG
calling or have been tempted to forsakt
Il altogether for some other more in
Wiling field of labor.
In these days of collapse and flnan
cial embarrassment, when almost every
mail brings us tidings of failure. sus
most all other trades, occupations oil
enterprises, it seems to me that the
farmers of Vermont have one abiding
sense of comfort.
ing wales rems in capital that neither
tho spectators greet. nor fire. MOI
flsod, nor panics can utterly sweep
away. Our mother Earth, how gencr-
Gus, how abiding, and how forgiving is
she! These are good times, when ali
other foundations seem to fail, to renew
our faith in, and our devotion to, our
common mother. She never goes back
on her children, If they are true to her
and true to the great organic law that
man shall have his "bread by the sweat
of his brow nor does He who first
brought her and them into companions
ship, ever go back upon His word that
"seed.time and harvest shall come"
If these times are or have been hard
and farms and farming at discount,
who or what has made them so? Can
it be said, in any just sense to be the
providence of God? The sun has
shone, the rains fallen, and the earth
has most bountifully yielded of her
stores. For the last ten years, pesti-
lence nor famine, nor foreign war, nor
internal strife have wasted our SUBJ
stance, nor paralyzed our strength or
our industries-yet these ten years
have been years of discomfort. Instead
Of finding us at their close, content,
prosperous and happy, rs they ought,
we have never been less so. The farms
OF Vermont were never so many of
them in the market, seeking buyers
and finding none the farmers, as a
class, never more hopeless or uneasy,
and nearly all other trades, callings
and pursuits are in the same, or worse
condition. Stoppage, curtailment, in
solvency-mills, factories, work shops
closed or closing, confront us whichev-
er way we turn. Now set over against
this picture the bounties OF nature
since the close of the rebellion and say
II you can, that this almost universal
stagnatien has sufficient explanation
In high taxes, or the high price of la
Dor, or in any right sense can be called
the providence of God-other than as q
retributive providence, following upon
our mad haste to be rich which render
ing us impatient of the slow gains and
hard toll of honest industry, through
which our fathers subdued the wilder
Ress and planted and builded and
reared q "natlon wide and strong" has
hurried us into schemes and ventures
outside of and foreign to our legiti-
mate business and beyond the verge of
common prudence or even. it may be,
of common honesty. In all these years
some of our farmers have had fair
measure of success.
Those who have had practical faith
In mother Earth and the original law
of labor, and haye not undertaken to
climb by some easier, swifter meth
DDS than those of slow, painstaking
toll, Industry and frugality to compe-
tence and af1uence have prospered,
and are not among the grumblers nor
the defaultors of the day.
But whatever the cause of the pres
ent stagnation and prostration In the
financial world, is it not good time
for the farmers of Vermont TO look
over the past, to note its errors, to take
their bearings for the future and to en-
ter upon simpler style and mode of
living. and then, as DR.. Franklin said
In the beginning of the revolution,
"Light the torch of industry and econ
omy?" II they will do this, farms and
farming will soon be rescued from
their present low ebb and confidently
predict resurrection for them both.
To my mind, farming among us /.
oaly just out of its primitive, pioneer
condition. Ofcourse there are honora-
Bile and signal exceptions. The early
settlers cleared the forests, built their
log-cabins and paid for their lands by
raising wheat and wheeling 1t to Troy
for sale, at least In this section of the
state. A virgin soil rewarded their in
domitable industry, wants were few
and style unknown. Those succeed
ing them had an easier lot and the hab-
its OF the fathers remaining; they
fenced and builded and grew and won
derfully prospered.
And now with increased means cam,
increased neutrality-suspicious. ease
The soil, no longer virgin one. bur
subjected to nearly the same processes.
Of course could not, did no. return thu
slme bountiful hnrvests ~ nj first
hence came the necessity Of change
and of new methods. And this is our
own era of thought, investigation, sx-
pertinent. Something has already been
achieved but still greater things remain
to be done In the future of our farming
~ seen in our crops. our diaries, our
homes and their surroundings In all
that intelligence, skill, toll and Just