Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-12-10

A. O. Blake, a correspondent of the Mir
ror aud Farmer, writing from Barton Vt,
under the heading above, (why will people
continue to use this hackneyed phrase
against the evidence of all the facts Agri-
culture has made wonderful progress with
in the last fifty years, but the demands up
ON the farmers income have out-run it ALL
says:
Having been absent from the old home
for nearly year, and my business during
that time having brought me in close rela-
ton with the farmers of one of the best
farming towns of this part of the state |
have thought much on this subject | am
as much at a loss as L to state why these
things are thus Certainly | have never
come in contact with a more discouraged
down hearted set Of men than those | have
met of late. Perhaps the times have been
particularly hard. Everybody claims to be
running behind, the outgoes even exceed
ing the incomes, and again the question
comes up: Why Verify, is civilization a
mistake. VIII it not account i'll part for
this decline z Compare the money paid
out in year by any farmer who is known
~ weli-Co-do' with that paid out in a year
bv his grandfather. What the grandfather
is now considered an indispensable neces-
sity. The grandfather attended church in
homespun the grandson in broadcloth. The
grandfather rode in wagon whose body
sat squarely on and was boted firmly to the
axle-tree the grandson rides in top bug
" Respondent with varnish and silver
plating. The grandmother may have heard
of an organ, but probably never saw one
in her youthful days. The granddaughter
makes things uncomfortable until one is set
up in the house. The grandmother still has
visions of the time when interminable rows
of potatoes stretched out before her and
she was expected as matter of course to
pick them up, The granddaughter scorns
to stoop to such dirty work. The grand
mother and grandfather thought themselves
fortunate to be allowed to attend the dis
trict school few months in the winter.
The rising generation are too good to even
attend the higher schools in their own town,
but attend school in some distant town,
travelling many miles daily by rail to do so.
| never travel by rail hut l see these same
farmers sons and aughters-always known
at sight-the sons loud -mouthed and imper-
tinent, the daughters pert and looking down
upon their less fortunate sisters with lofty
compassion When think of these things
| do not wonder that a large majority of
farms are burdened with mortgage that
will never be lifted, and the holder thereof
signs as he thinks how long it has been since
he has even received the interest, Your
correspondent says that running in debt for
a farm and paying for it off the farm has
heeome a tradition of the past This is only
too true, speaking of our native population,
\ but when Hans with his sturdy vrow as
sumes the same task, how then l am told
by friend, who has lived several years in
a state south of us, that the old farms that
have been handed down from father to son
for several generations are fast falling into
the hands of those same sturdy foreigners
and that they almost invariably pay for
them. Is not the question partly answered
then-more labor and more economy =