Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-05-02

Taking up Il number of the WatcbnGn
oBd State Journal the other day, my eye
fell upon what | deem extraordinary lam
Q age. The writer assumed the fact that
Z" the loss to the farming interest of Yer
mont by general bad management, such
as wrong application of manure, improper
iillage, the use Of poor seed, late cutting
of hay, improper care of stock, bad man
agement oil the dairy, &C., amounts in the
aggregate to eight or ten millions OF dol
lars annually" l suppose all this is mere
conjecture, but do not object to holding
up this doleful picture to the view OF the
farmers of Vermont, as no one will deny
the fact that there is u great call for i'm
provement. But the man in the Wdtch111d1'
goes on TO state the cause of all this poor
farming. "A part is due to lazness and
shGtessness for which there is no cure but
DEATH" forgetting that the class OF edu-
Gators to which he belongs are for ever
harping about the farmers being an over
worked class, their sons and daughters lit
tie less than beasts of burden, and his du-
tious wife tolls on, until wan and weary,
she sinks into premature grave. Gail
them lazy, if you please. But the writer
states further THAT three-fourths of tn,
men and women engaged in rural labor
in Vermont are unaware and are so Ill ed
ucated that they cannot be made aware OF
the Simple facts and conditions upon which
successful farming depends; that we dc
not give in our common schools that in
struction in reading, writing and spelling,
so that only few of the brightest can
read understandingly any thing in COM
mon newspaper except the local news, OF
write IN ineligible hand" Now, it NIGH
do to be called lazy or shiftless, but to ado
to that folly and ignorance is little toe
much for poor human nature. Believing
that am right, take the broad ground
that nearly all of the intelligence, patriot
ism and virtue us well us muscle that has
and does to-day give character to Vernon
has its seat in our rural districts. Look
over Montpelier to-day and | will venture
the assertion that seven-eights of he bust
ness, the solid men, come from off the farm
and out of the school houses Of the sur
rounding towns, with nothing but COM
mon school education TO help themselves
with, and the like is true of every bushes,
place of Vermont, besides the countless
numbers thai shine in other lands.
Were the learned writer in the Watch
man to visit among the farmers of Yer
mont and measure their capacity, he NIGH
find that they and their families too hac
read something beyond the local news of +
penny newspaper. Were he to go into
the school houses in the ruraI districts, hi
might find more than select few who
could read SO us to be understood, or write
intelligibly; he might find those thai
would solve Il problem that would puzzle
the brain of some professors; he nigh
learn something about farming. 1t ha'
been said that when the Board of Agricul
lure was first organized, that at some o
their first meetings, their limited know
ledge of farming made them appear tc
disadvantage, but by circulating aroun'
among the farme they improved rapidly
Who were the educatorsp No, it is no
our common schools, it is not laziness, i
is not the want of knowledge that impov
erishcs our farms and paraIyzes the arm
of the husbandman. More in the future