Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-08-29
Farm and Household.
Agricultural New EngIRnd-Its Past
and Present.

Now I know it is expected Of me by large
number Of gentleman present, whose faces
nre bronzed by toll on the farms Of the hill
towns, that should say a word or two with
regard to the land question which the Pill
grims brought with them. They left land
of great estates of landed aristocracy, of a
power based upon the holding of large lands,
and they came here to Plymouth, and when
they had once established themselves they di-
vided up their colony, not into 500-acre or
1OOO-acre, but into so acre farms. And if
you could see some of them, you would think
they were big enough. But that is what they
did and so the great conveyancer of Boston,
the most learned acute and accurate authori-
ty in conveyancing declared in his book upon
conveyancing that the Pilgrims Mt Plymouth
were more than two centuries i'll advance of
their time in the simple division and setting
the titles to real estate. That fixed and es-
tablished division and subdivision of lands
has made New England the home of the small
farmer and has driven the planter into remo-
ter regions. Our fathers were all fond of
this land business. You never knew a lawyer
in olden times, who carried case through
the courts here in New England and had a
landed client. who did not become the owner
of good wood-lot-if his client had wood
lot when he got hold of him. He wanted the
wood-lot, and he would fight for it. And he
knew that all the Norwich and Worcester rail
road stocks bonds, notes, and so forth didn't
amount to anything beside q wood-lot Why.
/ recall an old physician in my town, where l
was born and where l studied Il practiced
medicine seven years., and / always noticed
that my old teacher had good many pastures
and pieces of woodland and many time
have l. when we went practicing our medical
vocation over the fair hills of that town, stop
10,
of oxen which attracted his eye. And l learn
ed from him how to 'set' an OK. and I can
tell to-day within ten inches of how much he
will measure, and within ten pounds of how
much he will weigh and that was about all
that did learn from him / always noticed
also that, if this old gentleman had a patient
whom he was carrying through long fit of
Sickness somehow or other a good portion
of that patients farm would land in his hands
before the patient was buried. And the min
listers, what were they but theological farm
ors ? They worked six days in the week on
their FARMS and preached on Sundays turn
ing the hour-g glass twice before they got
through. l have known them we'll | was
personally intimate with their families in my
boyhOod and more heightened, well-dis-
posed highly -principled, honest, thoroughly
reliable body of men, out from whose fam-
lies went the great power of this land, never
lived on the face of Gods earth And yet
do you think, you modern clergymen who
come and go, who are here to-day and there
to-morrow-do you think that they wasted
their time trimming the midnight lamp: Do
you think that they wore themselves out over
the concordance and texts Not ut all They
had what old Gov. Strong up here i'll Massa-
chusetts in his Thanksgiving proclamation
always called the "plan of salvation" And
so they worked on their land during the week
l have seen them often in the bayfield,, pur-
suing their tedious and wearing occupation
which all avoid now by horserakes and NOW
ing-machiues. l have seen them swinging
the scythes and raking after the cart, with
their old calico gowns on tied up behind in
the old theological knot which has never yet
been united, so far as l know. They were
agricultural theologians. I know one of them
who had a salary of $400 year, was settled
for life and staid there for life. Even when
he got n little unpopular what did he care ?
There was no divorce there. He was mar
ried "for better for worse, for richer for
poorer" and there he staid. He got his 800
a year, and he sent three boys to Harvard
college, made good clergymen of them died
an old man 80 years of age, left his farm free
from incumbrance, and had $40, 600 laid by.
So, it was this love of the land, this founda-
ton upon the land, this division of the land
into small farms that in those days constituted
the chief power of the New England states.
And this has been carried everywhere-into
Ohio, into Iowa, into Wisconsin and at last,
on the points of bayonets, your boys in battle
carried it down South, and split up the plan
tations there, to be divided among all men
who call themselves Americans
This, my friends, is what New England has
done in the past. And now you will ask
What is New England going to do next
What will she amount to? Well you may
talk about leaving the hill-towns and going
down into the valleys and deserving the
pastures and the FARMS and not raising tur-
nips enough nor corn enough but I want
you to understand that the agricultural popu-
lation-and l ought to know them; l don't
pretend to be very tough; but have shared
their hardships with them for twenty years
eaten the beefsteak and their cornbread, know
all about it-and they are more prosperous
more intelligent, more quick-witted, more
ready to investigate, keener to observe, more
anxious to find out what is for their agricul
tural benefit to-day than they were 30 years
ago. l am president of the New England ag
ricultural society. l founded it in 1864. We
have been down here into Connecticut twice
and held fairs and everybody said they were
the best fairs they ever saw. We had discus
sions here on various subjects connected witt
farming; we had inquiries into the laws gov
management of soils; We have had the bes
scientists meet with us on those occasions
and l want you to understand, you farm
ers of this county, that the prosperity o
agriculture in New England to-day, is as grea
AS that of any other industry known among
us. 1t may not pay so much as a cotton mil
down in Fall River, with the treasurer lock
ed up in state prison it may not pay a
well as some railroad from which the presi
dent has fled; it may not pay as well as som
banks that are in danger of being struck GU
of existence but, in season and out of sea
SON, boys go off the farms to West Point, g
to college, get into the Senate and exercis
and enjoy all the rights and privileges of citi
zens. But it may be said large foreign pop
ulatiOn is coming in. Let me tell you her
that it doesn't take long to Americanize
man after he gets farm here and begin
work on it. And so it is that, while TO a Ger
lain extent, perhaps, the native born popula
lion is withdrawing from our hills while
may be true that general agriculture is les
practiced here than in Olden times while
may be true that special agriculture meet
with a greater reward than it ever did before
the American farmer keeps his lands and
All American farmer wherever he was Dor
and wherever he lived Now there is, pei
haps little fear that this spirit of New Eng
land may die out. But, my friends it won
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