Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-07-14
"If You Don't Like II, Get Out I"

Thus, practically, saith the London Times,
the representative of the aristocratic land.
owners of England, to the tenant farmers
It's words are as follows: &" IL is becoming a
serious problem what agricuturists are to
do. They will not get rents much lowered
in hurry, for land still commands high
value in the Market and is difficult to be got
at all except under special circumstances.
Large proprietors would rather cultivate
their own land at loss than submit to
reduction of rent telling on its value. Nor
have the farming class any right to expect
to occupy land except on such terms as the
owner may choose to insist on. They have
now the world before them. Why do not
they start for the regions where land can be
cheaply rented and cheaply bought, within
easy reach Of the best market in the world
viz, our own? An Englshman is as
much at home anywhere in North America
as in any county of Great Britain or Ireland.
Why should anybody spend his life and for
tune in the attempt to grow here the food
that he could grow quite as good and much
more cheaply fortnight's voyage off If
people have money and wish to lose it, let
them stay at home. If they have not money
and wish to make it, we apprehend that they
will have to go abroad"
We shall all be glad to greet these expa-
triated farmers, for they are skillful agricul-
turists, and much may be learned by observ-
ing their methods. 1t has been said that
any farming town in New England could
well afford to give good farm to firstclass
Scotch or English farmer, in order to have
practical illustration of thorough farming as
an example and model. They are being
driven from their homes under the workings
of system Of land-monopoly which has put
the ownership of millions of acres into the
hands of an aristocracy that now bids them
begone. They will come to country where
land is free to all. And yet if they have
eyes to see it, they may perceive the begin
nings in America that will lead, in time, to
exactly the same-condition of things here as
that from which they will have escaped
All that is now wanting to the Inauguration
Of landed aristocracy amongst us is the
discovery that farm-lands let on lease can be
made as profitable an investment as houses
in a city. So far as we can see, the only OBJ
stacle to this is the lack of skilled tenan-
try. Rented farms will not be profitable I'M
less good farmers can be found to take them,
--men who can succeed as tenant farmers.
So long as the majority of our farmers are
not good enough at their trade to do that,
farms will be sold on credit, instead of being
rented. This puts the loss of bad farming
on the purchaser; and so long as bad farm.
ing predominates, it is the only way in which
capitalists can make the investment of
money in farming lands pay. They will
loan moderate sums on mortgage, collect
high interest as long as they can get it, and
when they cannot do that they will foreclose,
take possession, sell again, collect interest,
foreclose again. and so on, until the land is
exhausted and the buildings and fences worn
out. In that time they will expect TO have
realized enough in cash payments and inter-
est to let the land ego for what it will
fetch" like worn-out horse.
We are free to say that we prefer the En-
glish tenant system to this, which is the
prevailing one in America, wherever capital
is embarked in agriculture by moneyed men,
The result is usually the ruin of both the
farm and the farmer. But give us class
of skilled farmers like the English tenantry,
aud we do not see why the men who are be-
coming the owners, by foreclosure, of 80 many
farms in New England, may not find con-
slant and satisfactory income from them in
the form Of land rents. Just so soon as a
few successful experiments show that this
farming land as permanent investment,
Those who engage in it will become class,
with class interests as land owners. They
will not differ much from the landed arts.
tocracy of England.
We say we prefer this to the present
method, but we abominate both. What we
would like TO see would be San Independent
yeomanry,"- class of farmers who owe no
man anything and till their own land. The
present state of things is the mere phantom
of which that would be the realization
The change can only come through better
education, which shall not only make ouI
farmers skilled agriculturists, but also make
them sufficiently acquainted with the laws
of political economy and finance to know
that they cannot afford to buy land on credit
or to farm without capital.