The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-11-20
Those "Deserted Farms" Again.

To the Editor Of the Wdtchmdn:- Like A.
G. W." l have been interested in the news
paper talk over Vermont's " deserted
farms" "a. c. W." thinks the Mirror
and Farmer has hit the nail on the head
when it says, " Yankee farmers are not rails
ing up children enough to take their places. "
Well, it may hit one nail on the head, but it
takes more than one nail to hold box or a
theory together. AS far az my observation
extends, the Yankee farmer raises more
children than the Yankee denizen Of village
or city. 1t is a fact that can not be disputed
that the genus Yankee is not as prolific as
in the days Of his fathers and grandfathers,
but this degeneracy is still more apparent in
towns than among the rural inhabitants of
New England. How many back hill farm
in Vermont has raised doctor, lawyer, a
college professor, All editor, merchant, one
or all, for some distant community. And is
it an unmitigated evil that these master
minds did not stay on the farm to dig bitches,
shovel manure, drive the mower or pillow?
Not that there. is anything degrading in
the vocation it is simply problem in
arithmetic II AS FRAMEWORK produces
enough in given time to hire b, G and ID
to work with their hands an equal length of
time, then A can hardly afford not to do the
FRAMEWORK.
The fact that farming is at present a less
profitable business than almost any other
has something to do with the desertion of
the farms. 1t is not, perhaps, really less
profitable, but the returns come in slowly,
and the educated, go-ahead sons of Yankee
farmers can find business that appears to
them more profitable, and certainly brings
quicker returns. Another thing that has
more influence than appears on its face is
the scarcity of good reliable farm help at
living prices. While almost every product
of the farm is down to, or below, ante bel
lum prices, the help the farmer has to hire,
both out and in doors, demands wages
nearly as high as in the easy money times
| that followed the war, when butter was
| forty cents pound and other products ac-
cordingly high. There has been steady
depreciation in values of everything except
wages ever since the resumption of specie
payment. And there has been a deprecia-
ton in the value of the services of farm
! help in two ways-the products Of the
farm that labor helps to produce are of much
less value than formerly, and the average
| hired laborer does much less work in day
than he used to do; so that on many farms
that require hired help, when the crops are
secured and the surplus sold, the hired help
has the lions share Of the profits, the poor
farmer being thankful if he can make both
ends meet, which is not always the case, |
am afraid.
Now is it any wonder that, as the farmer
| grows old and is dependent on hired help,
he is glad to sell his farm on almost
any terms rather than carry it on at a loss?
There is profit in farming If rightly carried
on, but there can be no profit in making
! butter at fourteen to fifteen cents pound
and Vermont farmers have depended largely
on their diaries in the past. TO what they
are to turn their attention in the future re-
mains to be found out, and it is not one of
the least of the problems the farmer must
solve. We all hope the colonization scheme
will be a success, and that our deserted
| farms " will blossom as the rose. If "A.
! c. W." or the Mirror and Farmer can sug-
gest any way to persuade the Yankee farmer
to increase the olive branches that surround
| his table to the old-time numbers, there is
ample room for their missionary efforts in
New England. L. b. b.
Fairvale, November s, 1882