The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-07-03
DON'T GO SOUTH.

A copy of the Roanoke Times from Vir-
ginia, just received, contains long de-
scription of the farm-lands of South
side Virginia" and in an editorial says:
SIT seems reasonably certain that if
farmers in the extreme Northern States,
upper New England, northern New
York, upper Michigan, or the bleak and
chill Dakotas, the farmers even of
drought-ridden Kansas, could once in
vestigate the many and varied attrac-
tions of this favored section they would
abandon their cold and sterile climates
and come to this State, within quick
communication of large cities, with a
home market almost at their doors, with
reasonable certainty that neither winter
drought nor frost would kill their crops,
nor blizzards nor cyclones imperil the
lives of themselves or of their stock"
This reads we'll. 1t sounds quite in
viting. And some poor, worn-out farmer,
whose capacity for carrying on his own
business in Vermont has been proven in
the negative, or someone who never
learned to let well enough alone, may be-
lieye this rose-colored statement. But
we predict that such an one in few
years will wish himself back in the
Green Mountains. Our potatoes may be
few in the hill, but they sustain life bet
ter than the promise of superintendent
yield enthusiastically.
Whether Virginia is like the adjacent
and more southern states, let those most
interested say. There are many sorrow
full cases on record of people who had
followed the lead of some oily-tongued
speculator into these lands of perpetual
summer and fabulous productiveness,
leaving all they held dear in northern
homes to search for a land where we
planted seed and nature, like the Kodak,
''did the rest" In almost every case
they have either returned, or, being
stranded, have mournfully shaken their
empty purses and wished they could.
Among the reasons why they have met
with disappointment are: First, climatic
condition. The Southern climate is a
wonderful tonic for a short time. 1t is
most delightful. But it is also most pc
culiar. When the drenching rain pours
down from single cloud with no warn
ing. and the furnace-heat of the sun
shines at once after it, burning and
shriveling up the carefully tended crop
of a season, the retrospect is painful and
the prospect very dark. OF course, there
is vet time to grow another crop in this
year, but most people would prefer one
reasonably certain crop TO half-a-dozen
possibilities. Then again, the garden
crops seem TO grow amazingly up to the
bearing point, when they call a halt, and
the only result is set OF vigorous plants
with luxuriant foliage, but no product
to speak of. And even if by the most
assiduous labor and care, such as no
Northern gardener ever thinks of, he
manages TO develop any product, he
must either sell for what local market
win bring, or come face to face with the
second objection, which is
transportation. By bitter experience
Southern truck-farmers have learned
that nowhere else under heavens blue
canopy, does the "soulless corporation"
flourish as in the route from Florida 10
New York and Boston. After grower
has sent his seasons product to a
Northern market his returns frequently
come in the form of an exorbitant
freight bill which easily swallows up
whatever pittance the commission man
may have graciously left over. If the
South ever wakes fully up, these abuses
will be effectually done away.
The third objection is that Of politice
and people. Whatever the talk may be
ABOUT tut pbdCSdDic anu HdiluOniOub
feeling between the North and South, so
that the Yankee is perfectly safe and
welcome with the late Secesh, the fact
remains that the Northern lamb does not
lie down with the Southern lion unless
the mutton is inside. II the aforesaid
lamb protests against reforming his part
of the programme, there Is a growing
that bodies III for the weaker party. The
lion party is boupd to rule the roost
politically OF make trouble.
Then as to the people. Without mean
ing any discourtesy, we can say that to
a Northerner, and more particularly to a
New Highlander, upon whatever hill-farm
raised, the language of the South is so
different, its customs so unnatural, its
tastes and ambitions so dissimilar, and
its mental and moral standard so much
lower, that, strive as he may to conquer
prejudice, he remains dissatisfied and
discontinued unless, purchance, he has
companion in misery from whom he can
extract sympathy.
Taking It altogether, although The
climate Is delightful, the land cheap,
the native crops fairly profitable, yet,
knowing the further South pretty thor