Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-03-02


villages; and the fullest, liveliest and most
instructive are the ones held in the rural
districts" We do not hesitate to say that
as rule what the governor called "the
small farmers" not only turn out the best
at meetings, but are the most intelligent,
the closest questioners Of agricultural ora
tors, the shrewdest critics, and generally the
best posted, not only in practical matters
but in agricultural reading, Of any. The
farmers living around the villages, or in
them, are rather apt TO feel above their busi-
ness, and to turn up their noses at agricul-
tural meetings. If they are rich, they usu-
ally keep away altogether.
We feel like making protest (as one Of
them) against calling the men OF few acres
small farmers 1t makes us think of the
remark of legal gentleman with a stiff
knee, who overheard one woman say to
another, "there goes that lame lawyer" He
turned to them and replied, No, ladies,
am lame man, but | am not a lame law
yer" We twelve to fifty acre fellows farm
small farms, but we are not all Of us smalP'
farmers. 1t is a powerful stimulant to the
intellect to have to get living, raise fam
lily, and lay up something for old age off Of
a small farm. And let us look at the facts
who are the men that have made themselves
the most noted for success, and that are the
most independent men to-day among us, the
FIVE hundred acre men, or the fifty acre men2
We could "name names in illustration
until we filled the page, but that might be
invidious. Look around you for the evil
dence in the case.
But we should all thank the governor for
the forcible way in which he brought out the
fact that the boy on the farm always knows
more that is of practical use than the boy
in the village. As he said, farm life is for
both boys and girls the best kind of object
teaching" They see things done that 9TH
ers only read about, and they learn to do a
thousand things themselves, with their own
hands and by the use of their own wits, that
constitute in themselves the basis of what
may truly be called liberal education. If
our educators could only be made wise on
this matter, and would introduce the meth
DDS of the farm into the school-room, showing
instead of telling how things should be done,
and how knowledge may be applied, the
country would jump on the road of progress
when now it only creeps. Yet we constantly
hear men that are called "leading educat-
ors }" declare that an agricultural college
does not need farm that instructors in
Latin and Greek and high mathematics are
far more needed in such an institution than
instructors in agriculture, horticulture,
chemistry, botany or zoology; and when
they do teach these sciences that it is quite
as well to teach them from books and pic
lures as in the field, the garden or the lab
oratory.
The wise words of the governor in regard
to the educative effect of our school district
meetings and town meetings upon the youth
of the country, were worth more than pass
ing thought. Thirteen years residence in a
southern state satisfied us that until the
town replaces the county as the political unit
in that section of the country, the north will
have a positive advantage that will always
give it the lead, even aside from the greater
wealth it already possesses. The intellectual
torpidity Of the south is mainly owing to
V,iooo vo,y Vwo Uuingo VI a.
ham spoke, the contempt of manual labor
work with the hands which disciplines and
educates-and the lack Of any practical po-
litical work in which the mass of the people
can share and participate, not only as voters
but as Office holders.
The governors remarks in favor Of domes
tic manufactures, the setting up again in
our farm houses of the big wheel, the little
wheel and the loom, were rather unexpected
They antagonized modern ideas of the di-
vision of labor, and we think it will be
agreed that in most of our households there
is more profitable work to be found for the
girls and women than spinning and weaving
The governor gave as reason for return
to the old ways the fact that shoddy is every
where prevalent, which is certainly a mis-
take. We have bought cloth from Vermont
mills, Middlebury and Hinesburgh, which
was pure wool of the best quality, and i,
wore quite as long as we wanted it to. In
fact, we have on, as we write, waistcoat oi
Middlebury cloth that has been worn fair
share of the time for eight years. If We
were to make suggestion in this connec
tion, it would be that any women on the
farm who have time to spare had better put
it to use in gardening. Our wives ant
daughters do not live out of doors as much
generally not half as much---as their health
requires. Garden work is very suitable fo
women, and if they would do more Of it
helping to provide an abundance of fresl
vegetables and small fruits for use all tn,
year round, they and their families woulc
be every way better off in the matter o
health than most of them are now.