The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-01-30
Boarding ArOund---NO. Z.

Away up on the hills, four miles
southeast of the state-hOuse, at Berlin
Corner, was the gathering-place of the
board January 81, % and %. This was
the first in many years, if not the very
first meeting this town ever had. 1t
was an experiment to start a meeting
Monday evening, but it succeeded well.
If the women had been cross in the
middle of the day, they had worked off
their wrath on their husbands and re-
ceived the board with smiling faces.
Hardly ever was the first session better
attended, largely by young people, who,
in spite of the first storm of the winter.
turned out in force to welcome the
veteran members, Davis and Chaplin,
who were detailed to break the road
and warm up the house and congrega-
ton. Mr.. Chaplin called the meeting
to order and E. f. Andrews was
chosen chairman. Rev. John j. Hall,
the pastor of the Congregational So
ciety, welcomed the board in well
chosen and cheerful words. He is but
two years over from Scotland and has
still some of the Scotch talk and all of
their dry wit and humor. Mr.. Chaplin
responded in a swap of Yankee humor,
interrupted by frequent bursts of either
applause or unseemly levity. Mr..
Davis followed on Vermont's Staple
Crop, which he claimed to be grass,
and gave fine and eloquent discourse
on how best to raise and feed it, de-
veloping strongly on clover, which he
thinks one of the best crops to raise or
feed. He would stock with a peck of
herdsgrass, a peck of red clover and
seven pounds of redlop to each acre,
making about three seeds to the square
inch. In leading the discussion, Mr..
Chaplin utterly refused to let his mind
$50 to grass" maintaining that the
" staple CROP of Vermont is boys and
girls, and that this had been the pride
and glory of the state from its early
history. Berlin had been in former
times celebrated for having raised
Frank Buckley, and now for having the
brightest and best-looking class of
young people in the country. He
urged the propriety of raising families
of six to twelve, instead of the present
style of none, one, two or two and one
half. Discussion followed on grasses,
lads and lassies until late hour. On
the whole, it was the liveliest session
ever attended, except the closing scene
at Dorset last year, where the whole
audience rose and cheered until the
rafters of the church rang. The young
people did not want to have school
keep the next day, so it was dismissed
that they might all attend the meetings.
Tuesday morning j n. Perrin read
very good paper on The Farmer at
Home. containing many sensible sug-
gestions. He advised a man to stick
to one line of business and not keep
changing. Mr.. Perrin keeps twenty
seven cows and gets 255 pounds of but
ter per year from each. He feeds grain
literally and makes it pay to do so.
He raises sixty-five bushels of oats to
the acre, sows four bushels to the acre
and stocks down with one-half bushel
of herdsgrass and clover. For wheat
he sOws one and one-fourth bushels to
the acre and gets twenty-eight. Since
September |, 1888, he has sold wheat,
oats and potatoes enough to pay for all
the feed bought for the cows. He
feeds about $40 worth to each COW,
which is all paid for by the butter of
the three winter months. He has had
$40 worth of feed make S7.20 worth
of butter. This paper was thoroughly
discussed by George Crandall, H. c.
Hayward, p. w. Currier, William
Brown and others. Mr. Chaplin then
read his paper on Cultivated Crops,
which, with questions and answers,
took up the time till noon.
AT noon we found an excellent table
set in the vestry of the church, free to
all. Bread and butter, pork and beans,
pies and cake, fruit and coffee, etc.
good enough, and quite acceptable, as
the day was somewhat stormy.
In the afternoon Mr.. Vail took up
The Dairy, a subject quite appropriate
to this section, and it was well received.
Mr.. Davis led the discussion in lively
speech, Some very good records of
butter-makiug were given by various
good farmers. There are very few
better sections of land in the hill coun-
try than that about Berlin Corner. A
crop of 100 bushels of oats to the acre
is not uncommon here and 200 to 400
bushels of potatoes are often raised.
| There are many fine sets of farm build-