Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-03-10
Small, But Paid For.


rude word, but word which has the advan-
tage of saying just what we mean. Our
farming would unquestionably be bettered
by a general diffusion of the right kind of
knowledge among our farmers. But not
nearly SO much as might be thought, so
long as our farmers are heavily in debt.
Hundreds and thousands of them now know
better than they do, for the plain reason that
poor folks have poor ways. Deficiency of
capital is as much the cause of poor farm
ing as defect of knowledge. There is not a
man in the world who is good enough
farmer to get its maximum product out OF
farm when he is in debt for it and has no
cash capital to work it with. Nine-tenths
of our farmers are Gland poor" and yet
they have so little confidence in their skill
as tillers of the SOIL TO extract larger crops
from less land by better farming, that they
do not think they can "get living D." on less
than one hundred acres. 1t is said that an
Indian requires one hundred thousand acres
of forest, prairie cattle grazier ten thou
sand acres of grass, aud western corn
farmer six hundred and forty acres of till
age, in order to support his family. Com
pared with them, we may say that a New
England farmer who can do the same thing
on one hundred acres is smart man and a
good farmer. But as the Indian distrusts
his ability to raise tame meat, and the gra
zier his ability grow corn for his stock, and
the corn farmer his skill in mixed agricul-
ture, so our hundred-acre farmer who "turns
off " his $500 or 5000 worth Of products au.
nually does not see how he could get that
much off of seveuty-fve, fifty, twenty-five,
or ten acres. Tell him it would be better to
sell his mortgaged farm, take the money his
right in it would bring, and invest it in a
smaller place which he could pay for and
have some cash over, and he will say
couldn't make living off of such place."
Here he stands cooped up between his pow
erty and his ignorance-his lack of capital
and his lack of knowledge. Show him a
farmer like Mr.. Cheever of Sheldonville,
Massachusetts, who keeps twenty-five cows
on twenty-five acres, or Mr.. Skinner of Tun-
bridge, whose five cows give him more than
ton of butter every year, and he will say it
would be no use for him to try to do that,
for he never kept COW on less than five
acres, nor got one hundred and fifty pounds
of butter out of one COW in a year, "and
/ don't believe those fellows do what they
say they do, neither" He must go on,
skimming his one hundred acres, until his
mortgage sells him out.
Now, there are too many shiftless men
who, if you gave them one hundred acres
apiece, free and clear, and $500 in cash with
it, would never make living, and would
soon be out of money aud in debt. Aud
there are many Others, industrious and
economical, who neither know nor seem
able to learn enough to be able to pay off a
mortgage of $40 to the acre in life time.
There are other hundreds, struggling per-
haps under HEAVIER weights of debt than
this, who do their best to learn, and do
learn yet, Tor lack of means to do with,
they are kept under the harrow all their
days. 1t is with this last class, if any,
that the change can be made from large
farm owed for TO small one paid for, with
advantage. Such men can take their ex-
perience from the large farm to the small
one, and find the latter the most profit
able, while at the same time they find relief
from daily fear of dying and leaving their
families unprovided for.
We have written considerably in these
columns about the evils of Indebtedness for
farmers, the injustice OF usury, and the ten
dency OF the times towards the aggregation
of large masses of land in the hands of few
men, with the consequent gradual establish
ment of the tenant system of land tenure
among us. We have suggested following
Horace Greeley, but not knowing until after
wards that he had held the same views) tn,
abolition of the credit system, at least in re
gard to land, as a remedy. But if mar
with the talent and influence of Mr.. Creole,
could not make this idea take root in tn
minds of the people, it is not likely tina
another could do so. The people will no
look very far ahead in providing remedie
for public evils. As rule, they will not or
out until they are hurt, and badly hurt. A
the declaration of Independence has it, " Al
more disposed TO suffer, while evils are sui
ferable, than to right them by abolishin
the forms to which they have been accul
toned This fact is the stronghold c
tyranny and abuses as much 80 in a n
public as in monarchy. AS, therefore, S
radical reform as the abolition Of the cred
system is hardly thought of now, and is nc
at all likely TO be effected in our day, tn
best thing that can be done to promote tn
interests and secure the permanence of a
independent yeomanry, owners of the Ian
they till is 10 show the impolicy of buyin
land on credit, and the possibility of livin
independently on small farms. If the leg
credit system were abolished, the disinclin
ton Of men to sell their land on credit woul
compel men of small means to begin,
least, with small farms. This would be
general, prompt and effective remedy, kee
ing weak men out of foolish trades, and pr
tecting the simple from the wiles of II
shrewd. In this way it would be mo
benefcent law. The opportunity which o.
present credit system affords for men
small means and limited capacity to get
debt for property is the cause of immen
suffering, loss, servitude and discourae
ment to the working people of the COUNT
1t is one Of the most potent causes of I
great fluctuations in the price of farms.
flush times every young man who has work
on farm aud saved few hundred dolls
goes in debt for land. The possibility
doing this puts up the price of farms
beyond their real value. Then, in (,
years, come the periodical "hard time
The mortgaged farms are in the market
the hundred, but nobody has the money
buy. Every farm, no matter how go
suffers depreciation in these times, and