The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-03-26
DOMINION CORREsPONDENCE or
TIE VERMONT JOURNAL.

many years employed in the Office of
manufacturing business i'm Montreal
that thereafter he was for 4 long time 9
teacher in a public school in the sam,
lefty; and that nearly three years since
he came to this place to engage in a very
small way in the cultivation of the soil
These few facts are noticed, since the
farming business was entered upon part
ly as an experiment and partly that
might have more Independent leisure in
advancing age. Shortly after turning
farmer | gave n brief account of the
realization experienced between the long
years spent in the busy office and the
crowded school, wherein fixed hours. to
the minute, brought prescribed and exact
work; as compared with voluntary labors
in the breezy fields during summer time.
and the still less seXacting duties while
winter reigns.
But have been studying as well as
practising the farming questionable
most of all questions Of to-day, more
seriously during the past three years
than ever before, and propose to give
briefly in this letter the conclusions
arrived at.
To hasten into the midst of things
in medjdS reS-let us glance at the indebt-
edness under which the farming com
munity labors to-day. It hang like
pail over millions of acres and hundreds
of thousands of farmers are lifting away
at weight almost as hopeless of success
rs was the talk of Sisyphus. In fact
thousands of abandoned farms are grim
witnesses to the hopelessness of throw
ing off the burdens under which their
former owners were placed. To these
the question "HOw came they i'm this
condition? will be of no consequence.
nor will it be much use to thousands of
Others mOrtgaged past redemption: but
1t may interest Others not yet involved
beyond hope, as we'll rs still others CON
templating putting themselves under the
burden of indebtneSs. This sad state Of
affairs is brought about in several ways.
Among these may be noticed first the
practice of single member of family
trying to retain the old farm after the
parents are gone, by which he at once
puts himself under heavy responsible
tiles. His share was only onc-fourth or
one eighth of the homestead, and to
keep it all he must pay the othcrheirs TO
the estate. In this he is quite as likely
to fail as to succeed. But he should CON
slider that he had not much 10 begin with
that he could not reasonably expect TO
lind himself, after a few years of work in
the prosperous condition of his father
who had labored thirty or forty years for
his competence. 1t is unfortunate thata
good farm cannot be acquired in a few
years, but it cannot be, aud he acts best
who does not attempt It.
Another class belonging to the same
category and furnishing likely more fail
haaar4EF,
namely, those young men who 90 ont
from the ancestral home with a few hun
dred dollars and buy farms paying down
these few hundreds and then murtgaging
for the balance. At once the scales are
turned against them: they could never
recover the equilibrium and in a few
years they slip all of the canted beam
into the ditch. Had they waited few
years before buying, and doubled. only
their few hundreds, their chances OF sue
cess would have been quadrupled: when.
with hard work, prudence and economy,
a dozen would succeed where only one or
two would do SO to-day. 1t is evident
that had either of the above described
classes of young men gone into any other
business, with the like small amount Of
money they had, they would have fur
iAAoAiNt an NAlllil illllibtl VI 4dl4ult U.s. Nb
that their unsuCcess should not be attrib-
uted solely to the notable occupation OF
farming.
Let us now cause another set of
farmers to pass across the stage. These
men have quite ample means to begin
with; theS buy farm or farms come into
their possession, and they are nearly or
wholly free from debt at the start. But
soon they want a better house, more
elaborate furniture: pictures and musical
instruments; finer clothes and more
stylish carriages, and all of them cost
money; but money, acquired by farming,
comes slowly, and its clinl.ing. as it
drops into the cash-box, would not keep
the most wakeful from sleep. The
most accommodating pig-cven the
Harland pig-requirys six or eight
months in which to deposit fourteen or
sixteen dollars the best COW is a whole
year in providing twenty or twenty-five
dollars; while the most obsequious colt
even the Hartland colt-wun't cash
over more than one hundred to one hun
and twenty of these shining symbols in
four years. The farmer and his family
can't wait for the revolutions of this
slowly moving machinery; their wishes
and desires must be gratIiied at once, and
the farm is mortgagcd. In nine cases
out of ten this farm is abandoned within
4 dozen years, and the family goes to
Dakota, Kansas or {, dorado, there to
drag out "a miserable existence; always
wishing that they had been less ax,rGya-
giant in their old home. Had this man
gone into mercantile or manufacturing
affairs, he would therein also have
failed.
Now comes the man who succeeds in
farming. But he is not 10y any means
always of that class that begins with
farms clear from debt. His success is
frequently owing quite as much to
his industry, economy and perseverance,
rs to the amplitude Of his means, and
he has occasionally made his beginnings
amongst one or the other OF the ywo FIRST
above described classes. II he begins
with an indebtedness assumed in coming
in possession of his farm, he is careful
that it shall not increase thereafter;
hence if he has been iudiciJus in buying,
he can at any time dispose of his prop
erty and will be no worse OF for having
had it. lie is cOntentcd with small
gains. even fifty or a hundred dollars q
year, net profits, satisfying him. RidicU-
lous. says the great iinanaier; but is not
a net profit OF fifty dollars year better
than u steady deficit of two hundred
yearly? The farmer, conteuted with this
small increase, succeeds and becomes in
time an Independent man, while he who
chooses the alternative helps swell the
class of miserable failures. Just here
starts the root of the whole business.
The main processes Of farming are
brought about by the regular movements
of nature, and these proceed slowly,
Even the creeping earth-wurm is one Of
her forces, and the farmer must content
edly wait, industriOuSly working tue
while, for the cOusummatiun of these
forces. The proceeds to be realized from
the ahove-cited pig and COW and colt are
practical examples of this system. Never
will farming be placed upon its once
firm and sure foundations until the
farmer himself goes back % first princi-
pies. | recollect how my father and his
industrious ueighbOrS worked amongst
the New England hills sixty years ago,
and | was witness to their humble but
satisfactory success. Would the farmers
living amongst the same old hills to-day
return TO their modest aspirations, not
ten years would pass before scores of the
now deserted farmsteads would be rein
habited, and plentiful harvests would
wave in the now barren fields. This pro-
cess may be uninviting, but the pursu-
ance of the opposite course will cer-
tainly lead to failure, as thousands Of
instances on every hand bear witness
to-day. Here | drop this subject for
this letter, asking leave to return to it
shortly.
If we want the rights OF agriculture
respected, It's first our duty to ask for
it, When these rights have been over
looked it will generally be found that
those directly concerned have been