Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-12-03
Our Exodus.

Mr.. Jamesons article on the emigration
from Vermont will be read with interest.
He lays the blame on the Western railroad
advertisements, the published letters Of sue
cessful emigrants, and the cold comfort of
our newspapers. But we do not see how
we are to avoid these evils, Objectionable as
they may be. 1t is foolish 10 try to keep the
advantages of the West concealed from the
people. Private correspondence is much
more abundant, and more influential, than
that which is printed.
Those Vermonters in the West do not al
ways tell the whole story of their fight, and
its cause, in their letters. One of them
once said to us You have got in every
little village in Vermont one to half-a-dozen
blood-sucking usurers who do far more to
drive people out of the state than all that
the enticements of the West can do to draw
them away He spoke bitterly, for he had
suffered hard usage at the hands of such
men. But, in our opinion, the trouble lies
back of the usurers. One of these said to
us, few days ago, al do not ask anybody
to borrow my money. l have more calls for
it than can supply, and l just keep my
rate of interest up to what borrowers are
willing to pay This is the whole story,
and without sympathy for the usurer-in-
deed with strong sympathy for the other
party--we must allow that he tells the truth.
To "speak it plain" if farmers were not
so ill-informed regarding the principles of
finance, the usurers themselves would have
to emigrate, unless they were content to let
out their money at four per cent. However
good farmer he may be, none in Vermont
can afford to pay six per cent. for any con-
siderable loan. The common schools ought
to teach him that. If our people would be
content with what land they can pay for,
and go to work to learn how to make small
farm pay, we should see such gain in skill
and prosperity that, instead of finding half
our farms under mortgages that will never
be paid, we should, in ten years, find most
of our farmers with money to loan, popula-
ton increasing, and advertisements of West
ern lands emo Involvement to anybody
Less desire for larger farms than can be
farmed at profit, with more energy and
skill in our trade, are the true remedies for
both the emigration and the usury. And as
to the railroads, do not the people rule in
Vermont Can any corporation Cypress us
against our wills
We have recently been reading an ac
count of the peasant farmers of France,
written by an English farmer who has
been looking them over. He says seven
teen acres is about an average farm there;
that the families live we'll, and that nearly
all lay up money. One with whom he stop
ped awhile, who farmed fifteen acres, mostly
in sugar-beets for the sugar factory in the
neighboring village, was sending his son to
an agricultural college at cost of 5000
year, and laid up $500 year besides. His
cash income from the products of his farm
was $500, and his family expenses outside
of what they used from the farm were $780,
He kept five cows (mostly ON beet refuse),
had a nice garden, an orchard, and a small
vineyard. The stock Of the sugar factory,
whose capital was 100000 of francs (s6OO,.
OOO and which employed nearly four hun
dred hands, was mostly held by the farmers
in the vicinity. Less than one-third was
owned by the business men who managed
it. few days ago we were talking with
number of farmers (not one of whom owns
less than one hundred acres) as to the ad-
vantage of beet-sugar factory in our neigh
borhood in case the one in Maine proved sue
cessful. "Yes," said one of them, but
where are you going to get the capital ?"
"Well," said we, we have got some very
rich men in and about Newport" "Ho !"
said another, "their money is all let out to
the farmers at eight per cent. You couldn't
get one of them to take a dollar in a sugar
factory"
But probably the Maine beet sugar factory
will not prove success. From the man
ufacturing point of view it is great sue
cess The beets are rich in sugar, and from
twelve thousand tons the company will
make fifteen hundred tons of graduated
sugar But, according to the Maine Farmer
the farmers will probably not be willing to
grow the beets another year at 50 ton
(Which is 81 ton more than the French
farmer gets), and they will not buy the beet
cake at any price, while the French farmer
takes it gladly at $500 ton. A few farm
ers grew good crops, some as high as thirty
tons to the acre, but the average was Mint
and one-half tons. The French average il
twenty tons. Most of the Maine farmers
did not give the crop proper care, either il
wedding or thinning, and not few crop
were as low as three tons to the acre. Thes
men think the beet sugar business is hum
bug. The Maine Farmer mourns over il
and says: EVERY farmer knows that beet
will not succeed unless the weeds are KEEP
down in the early part of the season, an,
there were beet fields in this vicinity il
June where the weeds nearly covered tn
ground and were as high as the beets then
selves. No hoed crop can succeed unde