The Lamoille news. (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1877-1881, 1878-03-13

the lsllu YOU hANts AulN t'ti ~
sure is practica Die at far less cost than
the expenses and sacrifice of emigra-
ton to a new country. And this, l
apprehend, is the very important les
son that Vermont must learn, in order
to check the depicting process which
for forty years past has been robbing
the state Ofthe best of the population.
Even Vermont, old rs she is, is in the
\. b, { of soil improvement. lfyOur
hills could be given into the hands OF
Scottish IIighlandcrs, the yeomanry of
Ireland, England or Germany, and
subiecte, to the modes of cultivation
there practiced, more than two blades
of grass would soon be made TO grow
where now you get but one. This Is
done msinly by work-and the work
necessary to the opening and improv-
ing of new farm, in new country,
would double the producing capacity
of your land here.
"Your agricultural councils are
movements in the right direction. BY
making the wisdom of one the wisdom
of all, and the wisdom of all the wis
dom of each, you will soon learn the
secret of making your lands so pro-
ductive that no farmer will need to in
crease his acres in order to the increase
of his income.
81 emigrated from Vermont more
than thirty years ago. | lived in Hi
nois when unbroken, unoccupied pra-
ries lay for hundreds of miles around
me offering the most flattering induce
ments to eastern emigrants. They
came and occupied those lands. Some
were successful many were unsuccess-
full. The proportion of unsuccessful
farmers was quite as great in Illinois
as in Vermont. Want of success
drove them further west, to rewer
frontier settlements, from which again
to recede as civilization overtakes
them.
"Men who are successful farmers in
Vermont will succeed anywhere. Men
unsuccessful here, by reason Of short
coming in judgment, in business Ca
pacity and good management, will,
for the same reason, fail in the West.
/ know men on the Pacific coast who
have been emigrating all their lives
living first in New England or New
York, then in Michigan, then in Wis
consin or Illinois, then in Iowa or
Kansas, then in California or Oregon,
then in Washington Territory. Tn
successful men always, and always
living a hard, uphill life. Successful
men are doing well where they are,
and it is a safe rule to let well enough
alone Unsuccessful men are not apt
to attain success by emigration. They
kept themselves impoverished by con-
tinual moving, and make good the
proverb that the rolling stone gathers
no moss 1t is better to be content
and if they cannot grow rich, they
can at least give to their families the
benefits Of civilization, of which they
deprive them by emigration.
81 have lived long in the West. l
have seen enacted the history of a
multitude Of families, broken up, I'M
settled, unsuccessful, unhappy. Glad
would be many discouraged wife and
heart-broken mother, in o land of
strangers, without a home and without
sympathizing friends, if she could be
returned to the land Of her nativity,
and enjoy the sympathies and kind Off
ces of the friends Of her childhood
even though her lot was in poverty,
and she obliged to toll for daily food.
Emigration won't cure the misfortunes
of the unfortunate. Economy, thrift,
enterprise, are as essential to success
in the West as in the East. Extrav-
agance, Incidence and inattention, are
followed by the same results there as
here"
"Western emigration societies, rail-
road corporations and individual citi-
zens, who are eXerting all possible in
tluence to induce emigration, would,
of course, pronounce me recreant to
my duty as a citizen of Washington
Territory, in saying a word to dissuade
the people of New England from de-
serting their native country and going
West in pursuit of a better home.
81 tell you seriousl y that Vermont
farmer, with good living; u good,
weIl-appointed home with stock, tools,
buildings, timber, good water and good
social surroundings, runs great risk
when he undertakes to better his con-
dition by pulling up stakes and begin
ming again in new country. And /
have made it the rule Of my life, es-
pecially since l went to the Pacific
coast, to respond to all appeals from
Eastern people who have asked my adj
vice, in the same spirit. Ny uniform
answer has been Let well enough
alone. If you have an even chance
where you are, you run a risk by eX-
changing a certainty for an uncertain
ty.
Vermont, as state, has a great
interest in the matter Of emigration.
This depicting process has been going
on in this state for the last forty years,
and while she has shown a most won
derful tenacity of life-maintaining
nobly her social institutions, and vim
dicating the prestige Of her civilization
yet who can say what Vermont
would have been in population, wealth
and power, if all her people had stay
ed at home, and had put the money
and energies which they have expend-
ed in other states into the business
and institutions of their native state?