Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-02-25

though home made, costing 25 cents pei
pound. With few pots and kettles and
the frying pan, the cooking was done a,
The open fire place, the brick oven bein.
heated once week to do the baking.
The food was wholesome but very plain
OF crockery, there was ordinarily little OF
none beyond n few teacups and saucers
platters, plates and basins Of pewter were
common, and home made utensils-bowl Is
plates and trays, the latter serving rs
milk pans-of wood completed the list in
this line. Except in the houses of the
minister and squire, there were no books
except the Bible and almanac, and ordina-
rly no newspaper. And thousand things.
now considered necessities on the farm and
in the home, from wagons to hairpins.
were quite unknown. Working without
machinery, with poor tools, compelled to
supply nearly all his wants directly with
his own hands, and with prices extremely
low for the little he had to sell and ex-
tremely high for what he had to buy, the
farmer of this time was at an immense
disadvantage. and his farming, in sober
truth. resembed that of Robinson Crusoe
more nearly than that we have here to. day.
1t is true that our grandfathcrs lived and
throve, but they lived in what would now
he considered extreme poverty. and they
throve by the hardest toll.
There have been somo temporary inter-
ruptions, but the general story of Pomfret
farming from the good old times to the
present is simply one Of constantly
increasing exchanges with the outside
world, of diminishing number of home
products. of improved tools and machinery
and of constantly improving condition of
the farmer. From being the direct source
of supply of nearly all family wants the
farm has become more and more mere
machine for making money; from the
cl"mSy home made scythe the farmer has
passed to the moving machine. from the
wooden trencher to the silver fork and
the transition has been without any inter-
mediate golden age. The Pemfret farmer
is to-day better housed, better fed, better
dressed, better educated and richer than
were either his father or grandfather
before him, and is making more money
and with less work than either. 1t may
not be wise for him to give much attention
to certain crops which are the specialties
of his western cousin, but the fact remains
that even the articles of corn and wheat
pay better to-day than ever before since
Pomfret was heard of. There has never
been time when a bushel of either could
be so easily raise as now, or when ii
could be ext hanged for 50 much Of what
farmer has 10 buy. If the farmer who
raises it to-day grows poor while he who
did it so years ago grew rich, the fact is
abundantly explained by the present more
expensive manner of living; it isn't Il
case of good old tines
This western competition business is
too large u subject to be undertaken here,
but good deal of it is pure talk, and
there is some farming in this town which
casts II little light upon it in some points.
We are continually being told that the
south and west can raise wool at Il merely
nominal cost so that the Vermont farmer
cannot possibly raise sheep, but in point of
fact wool commands fair price year after
year and the Vermont farmer continues to
do n good business growing it. Further
more, the Texas or California ranchman
who gives his flock only the care consis-
tent with the economical production of
wool on n large scale finds it impossible to
raise as fine sheep as the Vermont farmer
who drives his animals under cover at
every storm and is able to recognize and
give the pedigree of every individual in
his flock at sight; and so the western
wool grower continually comes here for
fresh stock, ana "weStern competition"
creates II good business Of stock breeding
at the east. Pomfret has several success
full breeders of fine wooled sheep who
with this demand for rams at from 50
to Sl5, are doing steady paying busi-
ness. Again. there is the western but
ter supply which has come into special
prominence within a few years and which
| have heard many say must be practically
fatal to the dairying business in Vermont;
and still Vermont dairymen go on making
and selling butterand peringand in this
linePomfret has semes special farming which
is beyond the reach of the westerner Twen-
ty years ago jersey cattle were introduced
here and now we have Il dozen farmers
with small Jersey dairies of from 10 to 20
cows who aim to supply the demand that
comes from first class hotels and the like
for supply of the best butter which shall
be of uniform quality throughout the year.
A small dairy with every detail under the
masters eye can naturally produce butter
of II quality II shade above the best Of
that from the large creameries, ard by
extra care and feeding of the cows our
farmers make an article without per-
ccptible difference in flavor, and with
but slight change of color even, through
all seasons of the year; and in some cases
it is also sought to keep the amount made
per week the same. 1t would have made
the farmer Of the good old times stare.
though TO see the way these cows are
treated. They are carefully housed, put
in the stable and fe,l with grain every day
in the year, and through even the best of
summer pastnrage are given freshly cut
grass, green oats, or some similar feed !;
the water they drink and the air they
breathe are matters of solicitude, and they
are parti ul;,rly guarded against any
undue agitation of mind. The butter is
generally sold at prices higher than any
times rs high us go cents. | think it all
goes below 40 cents now, but still the
cows yield an income of about 800 each
per year. making handsome paying
business. These dairymen and some of
the sheep breeders buy largely OF western
wheat and corn and oats and thank the
Lord that grain Is cheap.
But as to those farms which are not
yielding II profit under high cultivation,
but are abandoned, with the old house
spots used for pasturage: No doubt the
condition of some is accounted for purely
by western fever" while others may be
charged to something in the nature of a
reaction from pretty rapid settlement.
but large proportion of the trouble is
plainly due to unwise farming. The land
became poor and the ambitious farmer, Of
course, went away and got some that was
better. AS is always the case in a country
like this, the first settlements were largely
on the hill-tops, and the clearing of high
land was continually the most rapid, SC
that there were thousands of acres brOugh,
under cultivation that ought TO have re-
manned covered with timber. For the
cultivation could be carried on for but a
few years before the soil, yielding bounti-
full crops at first. became exhausted, could
be used only for pasturage and was some
times rendered worthless even for that
When some sort of Greeley millennium
gets along perhaps our hills can be cult