The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-02-20
remarked that D." no fruit but baked
apple will ripen in England"
English Agriculture and Dairying.


Chronicle and of the Ne'DS of the same
city. The County of Norfolk was the
native land of many of the earlier set
tiers in New England. The names of
towns and villages, such as Yarmouth,
Hardwick, bingham, Attleborough,
Lynn, ETC., so well known in New En-
gland, are from Norfolk; while English
Boston stands in the County of Lincoln
on a bay called the Wash, directly oppo-
site and but ten miles distant from the
Norfolk shore. 1t is fact, too, that
the people of Norfolk still speak En-
glish quite in the Yankee manner, so
that an Englishman from thence would
pass, by his speech, as Yankee any
where in America.
The state of agriculture in Norfolk
may be judged by the following edito-
rial observations in the Norfolk NetcS
of January 5:
Norfolk, we can never forget is great
agricultural county the largest producing
is in trying condition. No class in the
community needs more sympathy than
our farmers, except it be the landlords.
They both bear their trials with exemplary
patience. We wish we could assure them
that the causes of their anxiety are only
temporary. Protection has become impos-
sble. The sturdiest of its advocates have
confessed the fact. Free-trade exposes the
Homegrown to competition with all the
world. If the West fails, the East comes to
the rescue, and low prices become perma-
nent. If the farmer can not increase his
income he must lessen his outgoings.
Sooner or later the questions of tithes and
of taxation will come up with irresistible
urgency. Whatever can be done must be
done to relieve the land, or agriculture may
become a calling which men will shrink
from save where the soil is exceptionally
fertile. Out of the depression in rural dis
tricts trouble is coming upon our large
towns, to which shoals of discharged la
borers are driven in search of employ
ment, adding most inconveniently to the
pressure of an already redundant popula-
ton. The land question has bearings on
the great social problem which must en-
gage thoughtful attention before long
In regard to dairying, the competi-
ton of Danish butter is evidently press
ing the English dairymen very hard 3,
and an effort is being made to establish
butter factories on the whole milk or
separator plan. 1t goes hard, though,
as the farmers do not take to the idea
very generally yet; and indeed it
would seem that the supporters of the
project are wonderfully eXtravagant in
their plans, judging from a note from
the proprietor, Mr.. George M. Cham
berlin, which is printed in the Gazette,
and from which we clip the following;
Mr.. C. S. Read is reported as having said,
The milk and butter factory at Norwich
did not receive the support it ought to do, so
| that it was not a great success" To this |
would reply that although the outlay Incl
! dental to the starting of a factory is greater
! than the uninitiated would imagine, and
really very heavy, so that without large
turn over can be made, and far different
price obtained for the separated milk to
| what we read of as being market value in
! Denmark, the result must be disastrous, vet
| / am sure Mr.. Read and the public generally
will be glad to know that under the ener-
! getic and able management of Mr.. Miles,
our managing director, and in consequence
of the undeniably first-class character and
| uniform quality of our produce, our demand
at the present moment exceeds our supply.
! Therefore we have no cause for complaint
as to the Support received from our
| purchasing friends, and if Norfolk farmers
! living near to railways would support our
enterprise by consigning to us their milk,
| instead of making butter at home, they
would soon find out from personal expert
! ence the truth of Mr.. Reeds remarks that
butter-making spells loss Tor, as Mr.. How
man says, would break the bank of En-
gland y and milk-selling spells profit. The
| directors of the Colchester butter factory
are now asking the public to subscribe
10000 to further develop their operations,
and, in their prospectus state, although
keeping quite the price per gallon, that
since last May, up to the end of the year,
they paid to fifty farmers in the Colchester
district over $4,000 for milk, and the said
senders have unanimously expressed their
appreciation of the benefits conferred by
the company, and are already Offering to
double the supply of milk another year.
| am very confident that the price we are
ready to pay for milk is quite equal to what
our Colchester friends return to their
senders.
If it is necessary to spend go 600
($100000) to further develop" a
single butter factory, now handling the
milk of fifty farmers, it is no wonder
that the prospect of profits is thought
to be small. In this country 81 600
(S5,000 would put up and equip fac
tory, on the separator system, that
would easily handle the same quantity
of milk. The price of factory butter
in Norwich does not seem to vary much
from the price of similar grades in oul
New England cities. 1t may be added
that the county of Norfolk Gncluding
the city of Norwich, with 100000, con
tains 100000 inhabitants; or, exclud
ing the city, $50, OOO-which is almos
exactly the population of Vermont
But the area of Norfolk is only 2,l2(
square miles, or little more than one
fifth that of Vermont. The soil o
Norfolk is chiefly light sands and loans
much inferior, naturally, to either tn,
valley or hill land of Vermont; but i
is under high state of cultivation; a