The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-01-14
Why Go West {!

Mr.. Editor:-What earthly reason can any,
one give for leaving Vermont and going
West? | am one among many who have
tried the western country, and am back in
Vermont satisfied to live and die here, be-
lieving that it offers inducements as great,
if not greater, than does the great West. L
know that if the western farmers INDUCED
themselves in as many luXuries, sported as
much style and wasted as much money and
time in knicknacks as do the farmers in
Vermont, they could not get living. Com
pare the buildings upon the farms of Ver-
mont with those in the West: 1t is no un-
common thing for an ordinary Vermont
farmer to build a two or three-thousand-
dollar barn, and many of their houses and
outbuildings are palaces fit for a king to live
in. Many Vermont farmers dress as well,
and so do their wives and children, as the
presidents of the United States and their
families, and many farmers drive as good a
team as princes and mobiles of foreign lands
ever sat behind. If you doubt it, attend
church some Sunday in country village
in Vermont and mark the contrast between
the nice, sleek horses, silver-plated harnesses
and the covered buggies with the coal teams
that the same class of farmers go to church
with in country village in the West. L
would not be understood that every farmer
in Vermont lives in palace or shat every
one sports fancy turnout, but would be
understood that in no state in the Union,
and no place under heaven where the farm
ing people deny themselves less of the COM
forts and luXuries of life than in Vermont,
of the houses and barns built upon the farms
within the last ten years, those clapboarded
and painted are the rule and not the excep-
ton. But the man with limited means will
say, THAT may be all true, but | must go
where the land is cheap" That is just what
every young man ought to do who wishes to
start in life for himself with little money,
and there is no place in the world where a
man can get so good a start with so little
money as in Vermont. There have been
farms recently sold here in Northtield, with
one hundred acres of good land, for 81 300,
with good, comfortable buildings, which did
not cost when new less than 81 ,200-and
while they are run down somewhat, they
are comfortable and handy, with water run
ming at house and barn; plenty of timber
land for the wants of the farm as pretty
location as any one could ask railroad Cen
tral Vermont running within fifty rods of
the house; two and one-haf miles to depot,
the same distance from churches, high
school, stores by the score, n good market
for everything raised on the farm; saw
mills, grist-mills, repair shops of every de-
scripton; good district school not more than
one hundred rods from house, and every
thing that could aid man in being COM
Portable and happy There are just such
chances to buy home in most of the towns
in Vermont-comfortably fenced and every
thing in shape, so that any man with health
and enterprise can start in life with the best
of prospects. How is it in the West, with
the same money? By going back, out of all
civilization, you might buy the same amount
of land, without fences. without buildings
often no water, no timber, railroad, churches,
schools, villages or markets. II you go to q
place in the West where you have all these
advantages, you cannot buy land cheap.
Then again, we should remember that Yer
mont produces TO the acre as much corn,
potatoes, oats, barley buckwheat, all kinds
of garden vegetables, small fruits and APP
pies, as any other state in the Union, and
with good farming il will do much better
than at present. There is no state more
famous for its horses than Vermont. Where
else do you find such sheep, especially the
Merinos, which are uneXcelled in the
wide world. The butter record of some of
the famous dairies of the state has not been
excelled, and Vermont butter takes the
front rank in all the markets 1t should not
be understood that Vermont is ahead of all
her sister states in all these respects, but
that she stands in the front rank, and ii we
could only keep the brains at home that
have helped so much to build up other sec
tons OF the country, | think we might pass
them all. One of the reasons why Vermont
ls 10 be preferred for - home IL, that there
is no place where clinitls anu .,,u natural
resources do more TO build up hardy race
of people; the education temperance and
morality OF her people are of the highest
order 1t has often been said that Vermont
was good place to be born in L know
that it is IA good place to live in, and ex-
pect to die here. Boys, stick to the farm
divide up the farms, give them better cul-
ture make the hillsides and valleys of Yer
mont produce like the hills and valleys of
France and Germany, Our exports could
be made TO exceed our imports here in Yer
mont by hundreds of thousands of dollars
each year There is no land ON earth that
will produce better, If We give it proper
treatment. w. w. HOLDEN
South Northheld, vt.