The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-12-26

treatment" The reporter concludes
by saying: "The discussion occupied
nearly two hours, but afforded little en-
couragement to owners of worn-out
pasture land" Probably that was the
fact in a meeting where DR.. Loring
was the chief speaker.
What is the actual truth in this mat
ter? Simply this, that any land that
ever was good and has not been de-
nuded by washing, can be easily and
cheaply restored to more than its original
fertility by any skilful farmer. Were it
otherwise, the population of the old
world would have starved to death long
ago. China, the longest civilized and
most densely populated of countries, is
to-day the most fertile and productive;
while the fields of Greece and Italy, to
say nothing of France and Britain,
show no signs whatever of running
out although they will run down
very quickly under the " farming " of
men like the president of the New En-
gland Agricultural Society.
This subject is most important one.
We hear great deal about the worn
out farms of New England" and
right here in Vermont we are about to
try to induce immigration to take up
our exhausted" hill farms. If we
believe they are truly exhausted, then
our state is officially about to undertake
what could hardly be regarded as any
thing but swindlng operation. Are
| these farms exhausted? No! A thou
sand times, MOI These abandoned
farms are worth great deal more
money to-day than they ever were at
any former period in the history of our
state. True, they are not, at least in
the hands of unskiled men, so pro-
ductive as when they were first cleared,
but any survivors of our original set
tiers, or their immediate descendants,
who remember what farming was in
New England fifty years ago, know
that these farms will to-day afford
much better living to any industrious
man than they would then. In the
times which we call old, but are really
only a single lifetime behind us, the
farmers of New England had no mar
products. To-day they have cash
market for all of them, almost at their
doors. In those days they farmed for
q living; now they may farm as bust
ness. The man who farms for living
needs only to know how to produce his
food and clothing from the land. He
who farms as business needs to know
more, but it is knowledge not difficult
to obtain by any man who is alive the
every one of our towns are men who
not only have made good living on
these hill farms, but have laid up
money at interest and are fOrehanded.
What one man can do all can do.
Farming is a good business in New
England. 1t is as good business as
any, except some of those monopolized
ones which the farmers, when they get
their eyes opened, are going to break
up by the needed legal enactments.
But to be a successful farmer it is now
necessary Gas it is in every other bust
ness) that the man who attempts il
should know his trade, or learn it with.
out delay, and work at it with brains as
well as backbone.
Is this mere talk? Well, we bought
one little run-out farm twenty-five years
ago, and have got something more thar
living out of it, as our neighbors car
testify. And not content with so much
foolishness, we have recently bough
another one, ten times as large, and, a
the age of sixty years, have undertaken
to make it pay for itself in four years
We expect to report progress in thes'
columns from time to time. The day
of decline in New England farming ar,
: nearing their limit. There is going t,
be a revival in Yankee agriculture, ant
the time for good farms to sell for les
than the value of their buildings i
| short. The young men who stay RICH
! here, take hold of these cheap farm
and devote themselves to farming then
with hand and heads, are goin
. to be the most Independent men il
America within the next quarter of
century.
Notes BY the Way---NO. 1.