Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-07-24
THE EXoDus prom YERMoNr.

there were found in the United |
States 42S,6SS white natives of |
Vermont, but only psi, ll2 of them
had remained in the State of their
birth, nearly AZ per cent. residing
elsewhere. The census of 1860 |
showed almost identically the same
ratio, trifle above AZ per cent. of |
native Vermonters in that year be-
ing found in other States. The
neighboring commonwealth of New
Hampshire ranks next to Vermont |
as colonizer, having sent away
nearly 50 per cent. of her people.
Connecticut comes third among the
Eastern States in this list, with al
most 26 per cent. of her natives
elsewhere in the country; then
Maine, Rhode Island and New
York, with about IS per cent, and
Massachusetts, with 20 per cent.
1t is not necessary to search far
for reasons that explain the annual
exodus from Vermont. The Cham
plain valley and the Connecticut
valley include about all of Vermont
that is fine, fertile country. The
mountain towns of Orleans, Essex,
Lamoille, Addison, Rutland, Wind
ham and Bennington counties do
not offer much inducement to keep
young, needy and enterprising men
from seeking their fortunes else
where. The intervale farms along
the Winooski, Otter creek, White
river, Mad river and the Connecti-
cut, and many of the lake farms in
Addison, Chittenden and Rutland
counties, are not surpassed, if they
are equalled, in beauty and fertility
by any section of our Northern
country; and a man owning one of
these farms free from debt would
be foolish to leave Vermont if he
meant to follow the business of ag-
riculture. But, unfortunately there
are not enough of these beautiful
and fertile spots to ego around"
and it is not remarkable, therefore,
that so many of the sturdy, ambi-
tious children of Vermont's rugged
hill towns seek the cities of the
plain or the growing towns of the
far West.
New Hampshire has a little sea
coast, while Vermont has none, and
New Hampshire has important
manufacturing towns, like Nashua,
Manchester and Concord, so she
does not lose so many of her sons as
Vermont. Massachusetts loses the
fewest of the New England States,
for she not only has a fine line of
sea coast, but has many manufacture
ing cities and lows. Vermont, out
side of her marble and slate inter
ests in Rutland county; the lumber
trade and contingent manufacturing
at Burlington; the scale works at
Rutland and st. Johnsbury; the
factories at Bennington, and the
Esteys' great establishment at Brat
tleboro, has few important manu-
features in high state of present
development. Montpelier and Bel
lows Falls should be added to COM
plete the list of thriving manufac-
turing towns. But after all is said
the fact remains that Vermont is a
small agricultural State, with her
fertile and attractive farms confined
to the streams which drain the
Champlain valley, and those which
feed the Connecticut from about
St. Johnsbury to the Massachusetts
line; there is little doubt that the
general tendency of the purely
agricultural part of New England is
downward; that it is a good place
to raise fine families for emigration
and 1t is creditable to the good
sense of the aspiring young men Of
Vermont that where they are moi
already "well fixed" at home they
take up their tools and eve eastward
Ho." This was always the Vermont
habit. Sixty years ago there was ;
large emigration from southern
Vermont to central and western
New York. The fine fertile county
of Jefferson in the Empire State
had the benefit of some of the exc
dus and today a Vermonter wht
travels through that county will be
sure of hearty welcome, as soon al
he makes himself known as a chile
4 Of the Green Mountains. 1t is
singular fact that when the Stat,
was first settled the hill farms wer,
preferred by those who could afforC
to make choice and the interval
farms went begging or were takel
, generally by those who from tEei
circumstances had no other choice