, 1889-08-15
A BOLD sTROK E.
An Attempt to Repeople the Vacant
Lands of New England.
TI,so,,, ,ba nnvtn, IIorolt


The method adopted by Commissioner
Valentine for colonizing- Swedes on the
vacant farming lands in Vermont is one
whose success may be reasonably
doubted at the outset. He estimates
that 200, 900 acres of farming land are
now growing UP to wilderness in that
state, where they were once under sue
cessiul and profitable cultivation. The
attempt to repeople Vermont, where the
drain OF western emigration Is severest,
by the introduction Of o colony of fifty
Swedish families, is bad experiment.
Mr.. Thomas of Portland dozen years
ago made successful effort to colonize
Aroostook county in Maine with Swed-
ish families, but he had a special tract
of unoccupied. country to place within
their reach. IL hardly seems possible
that anywhere in Vermont there can be
deserted farming lands sufficient In ex-
tent for fifty families TO settle as imme-
diate neighbors and II they cannot be
located near together, as similar colo
nies are in the West, IL may be doubted
whether Vermont can compete with
Wisconsin or Montana for their accept
ance of its lands at SO TO IS an acre. II
would seem as if the remedy for re-
peopling vacant farms In the more re-
mote New England townships, where
the more eager farmers have abandoned
their lands for western farms lies nearer
at hand from the importation of colo
nists from Sweden. The French. Cana
dians are thrifty farmers in their way,
and the success of the Irish on farms
which native New Englanders have
abandoned is one of the signs OF the
times. But this is not the only remedy.
1t Is maintained by some that If the ma.
tive farmers would use the same efforts
TO cultivate their lands to-day, with the
skilful adoption of means TO ends which
the state of the home market demands,
that their forefathers employed in the
earlier days, there would be no lack of
prosperity in our great farming districts.
From somewhat careful study of the
conditions on which farming is made
successful in Northern New Hampshire,
IT Is believed that the present difficulty
in farming with us Is not so much in the
soil as in the men who till it. The
economic changes account for great
deal of unsuccessful farming. In the
choice OF crops, In the expenditure of
changed character of home living, is
20 be found the explanation of
the fact that large number of the New
England farmers are in debt. They
plan for more than they can do, and
then blame the soil for their own incom-
petence. Wherever the farmers have
mixed their crops with brains, sand have
maintained the old economy of living,
they have been comparatively successful.
1t Is the emigration to the cities of the
shrewd and active men who put intelli-
gence and foresight into farming that
has robbed our villages of their life and
the neighboring farms of their pros
perity. If the French and the Irish are
willing to restore our farms TO some de.
gree Of their former fertility ii is by all
means best to encourage them in this
service, and they have just as mnch
good stuff in them as any emigrants
can have who may be asked to come to
us from across the Atlantic. Spasmodic
or colonizing efforts 10 man anew the
the discarded farms by large colonies of
foreigners, unless the conditions are
simnlar to those of Aroostock county in
Main, will fail Of producing the results
which may be aimed at.