Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-03-25

An article in Harper's for April entitled
"Go West, Young Man." presents the usual
tempting array Of facts and figures TO induce
young farmers to seek their fortunes on the
Western plains. We have no disposition TO
question the accuracy Of the financial results
there sampled. Everybody knows what for
tunes have been made from the wheat fields
and grazing lands Of the West, and how
tempting to ambitious minds are the broad
farms, the immense seas of waving grain,
the great herds of cattle and hocks of sheep
that have made the prairies one of the worlds
wonders.
The periodical swarms of grasshoppers
which devastAte vast re gions, the exceptional
winters like the past, which destroy the cat
tie by the thousand and other serious draw
backs are of comparatively little account in
the calculation, for in the long run and to
the great majority, the agricultural industries
of the West are peouniariy profitable, and to
the few immensely so.
But there is another side to the picture,
upon which we of the East have good reason
to insist We need the young men here and
it is proper that they should see what they
will sacrifice as well as what they will gain,
by joining the great caravan to the Western
plains. The writer in Harper's has figured
out what the profits Of various farming oper-
ations at the West will be in a series of years.
The results are shown in dollars and cents
but il the comforts and privileges abandoned
could also be debited in dollars and cents, it
is a question whether there would be SO
great balance of profit, after all.
Let us suppose that q young man buys a
farm in one of our Massachusetts, towns, al.
ready stocked and good enough to furnish
him a comfortable living and something more,
at an outlay equal to what his great Western
farm and the expense of getting TO it would
cost. We may grant that he cannot roll up
the profits so rapidly as at the West. But
he has a ready-built house, far better than he
can expect to have at the West for several
years, To this he may at once invite the
woman of his choice, and set up a comforta-
BILE, cheerful home. Before he could think
of such thing on the plains, he will be sur.
rounded by growing family. How much in
dollars and cents is such a home worth in
comparison with the rough isolation Of the
cattle grazer of Colorado or the sheep farmer
of Idaho?
Add to this the proximity of relatives,
friends and neighbors, the blessings of churol
and school and public library and lyceum
the occasional visit to a neighboring city, the
amenities Of society and art that readily fine
their way to his home, the old settled Gus
toms, the thorough administration of Law
and the law-abiding sentiment in the com
munity, and what a sum might not the Mass
achusetts farmer credit to his profit account
could the result be expressed in figures.
Gold is not the only thing that gitters
neither are the best results of life those which
can be entered in ledger. This may seem
a sentimental balancing of accounts, but the
blessings of society are very real and tangi
BILE possessions. Many lonesome farmer Of
the far West would at times give all he has
to be living the life his father lived, in the
good old Eastern home. -Sprinqfed Union