The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-06-19

an estate as Governor Goodell says it has
been in New Hampshire. The governor
announces with perfect confidence that
recuperation has begun in New Hamp-
shire. We hope it is true, and wish
there were tangible proofs that the tide
had turned in Vermont. If it should
appear that the tide of emigration from
the farms of New Hampshire has in
fact been checked, and that the value
of live stock, notwithstanding sharp
western competition, has increased in
two years more than 81 ,00O, 900, while
in Vermont no favorable change in
these respects has taken place, an ex-
PLANTATION should be sought, and Com
missioner Valentine may we'll seek out
the reasons why the Granite State is
more prosperous, agriculturally, than
her Green Mountain neighbor. The
former is not distinctively an agricul-
tural state. Vermont is. AS regards
the character and the comparative
fertility of soil, the difference between
the two states is we'll known and is de-
cidedly in favor of Vermont, but no
well-informed citizen of Vermont, GER
tainly no farmer who has butter or
cattle to sell, can be made to believe
that the value of live stock in this state
has increased more than $1,000 900
during the past two years, and he will
have an abiding doubt of the correct
ness of Governor Goodell's statement
as to New Hampshire.
In 1879 the census figures show that
Vermont's live stock, in numbers and
value, was nearly double that of New
Hampshire. 1t is so great an item of
wealth that its interests should be
guarded in every possible way, and if
influences are at work in New Hamp-
shire that are increasing, by some ten
per cent in two years, the value of its
live stock, Vermont ought to know how
the thing is done. An immense and
growing tide of summer travel, leaving
annually millions of dollars in the state,
many large manufacturing cities and
towns, affording profitable local mark
cts, give New Hampshire farmers who
are wide awake and thrifty an ad-
vantage not generally possessed by
Vermont farmers, and present an in
ducement to her young men to abide on
the farms. Such persuasive influences
should be fostered in Vermont. Her
sterile tracts of land should be devoted
to the growth of timber, a mat
ter to which the WATCHMAN has for
several years been directing the atten-
ton of farmers. Her existing wood
lands, her verdure-covered hills, the
pride and glory of the state, should be
sacredly guarded and their beauty pre-
served. Aside from the value of their
forest products, the charm they impart
to the state will bring, in growing num-
bers, the jewellers in the heated cities
within her boundaries, to spend the
summer and leave their cash here.
Governor Goodell says the Grange
and the Board of Agriculture have
been largely instrumental in bringing
about the excellent results of which he
speaks. Is this fact? And what is
the matter with the Vermont grangers
and her Board of Agriculture? What
evidences of their activity and useful
ness have they to show? Governor
GoOdell further recommends that the
legislature do precisely what Vermont
did last fall-appoint commission to
procure statistics and all the facts about
the real condition of New Hampshire
farmers and farm lands, advertise her
advantages and invite desirable i'm
migration. Vermont should not al
low herself to be outdone by her push
ing neighbor. The Grange, the Board
of Agriculture and the industrial COM
mission should pool their counsels and
their efforts. There seems to be no
concert of action or understanding be-
tween forces which should be working
in close and hearty union for a COM
mon end. Get together, gentlemen,
and organize a substantial " boom :"
for Vermont.
The Literature OF Commandments.
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