The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-03-13
A Minority RenOrt.

M. Editor The state agricultural ex-
pertinent station, one of the annexes Of
the University OF Vermont whose dismem-
bered parts are strewn promscuously over
Chittenden county, will issue its annual re-
port for 1888. 1t will bear on its outer cover
a fac simite of the autograph OF its grand
mogul, commonly called director. None
will be genuine without this signature. 1t
will contain some facts, and many, many
figures but, alas, they will be of variety
that will sadly shatter that old adage, Fig
ures won't lie." There are few facts,
however, which we venture to say it will
not contain in spite of its apparent COM
pleteness. Some of these we wish to give
the public, for various reasons.
In the first place the report will not men,
ton, as preface to its list of officers, the
fact that Vermont has no men equal to these
places, or, if possibly one, he is located in
the extreme rear and in the humblest posi-
ton, as glance at the list will show. 1t
will not say that favoritism and self-aggran-
dizement are the watchwords of its dicta-
tor, or that none but slave-drivers need APP
ply as foremen. Neither will it say that
pettiCoats are its supreme rulers. 1t will
not say that men and matter are of no con-
sequence, and that figures and results are
the only things to be preserved. 1t will not
mention in this connection the fact that sew
eral hundred bushels of superior products
in the way of potatoes, onions, Sanford seed
corn and minor products, have been allowed
to freeze, mould and decay. 1t will not
! say that reports and figures have been cop
led and recopied and then copied again, for
the sole purpose of furnishing light and
! agreeable employment to well-paid force
while half the number has been toiling six
| teen hours per day for wholly insufficient
pay, to keep the field work in even toler-
able condition. 1t will contain reports of
experiments with potatoes but it will not
say that they were dug and weighed at such
a time and under such conditions that an
analysis of a given quantity would show
more of mother earth than of potatoes. 1t
will contain reports of experiments with
fertilizers on onions, but it will not say that
| two hundred bushels were allowed to freeze
and thaw till ruined through mere neglect
on the part of one through whose mouth
every movement and order must CO. 1t
| will not say that the only reason the board
of health has not instituted legal proceed
ings against the station for having stored in
| buildings occupied day and night by its
employees large quantities of decaying
vegetable matter is that they were not cog
infant of the facts. 1t will not mention
the fact that men have been ordered out at
nine o'clock at night to harvest grain in
December, under the inducement of extra
pay, which, by the way; never materialized.
1t will not say that so much of that appro-
priation as is not figuring in the bank ac-
counts of few professors, those fellows
down town have got
They are helping us to build Chinese
wall around our little plant here on the
hill to keep out white men. Life is as dear
to us farmers who are toiling year in and
year out to feed our families and the rest
of humanity as it is to the more favored
few We don't go out on strike. We
work on and turn over our products for
shrewder men to speculate upon aud en-
rich themselves. For this reason when our
government takes measures to better our
condition we want to know that its instru-
ments are of kind that will serve its ends
If fifteen thousand dollars annually are APP
, propriated for the benefit of the farmer
of Vermont, they want a detailed state
ment of what it has been expended for
Our wives drag through a never-ending
round of farmhouse labor. Their babes
die because human nature is unequal to the
task OF from ninety to one hundred hours
of exhaustive labor per week aud the fur
! nishing of sufficient nourishment to Infants
We want some avenue of escape for them -
something to tighten their tasks and make
hospital and asylum doors open less Otter
? to close on them forever.
1t is no. our purpose at this time to alludt
| to that other hoax known as the state agri
cultural college, but we can hardly refrain
from saying a word in regard to side show
known az the farmers course. Over Its mar
row portal legend seems TO say, Come ye
weary and detected hayseeds, and partake o
the crumbs that fall from our tables" To be
sure, they are poor crumbs and not very di
] gestible, but they are IS free as thistle
: down and about as useful. And besides the
, large heads that perform in the main ten
and live on the fat of the land will throw
you an occasional chunk of tatfy. Note
dear friends of the University of Vermont
, this is no anonymous " attack.
j. A. CHAPLIN.