Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-02-06
AGRICULTURAL.



Vermont has been brought prominently
into notice throughout the country, and
even beyond the borders Of the United
States. 10y the nrt Of the legislature Of 1883
providing for "a commission 10 devise means
Co develop the agricultural and manufac-
turing resources Of the state The office
which was created hv this act was substan-
tially what might be called commissioner
ot Immigration but the act was evidently
intended only as an initial measure and,
besides the per diem pay Of the commissions
err, AN appropriation OF only $1,000 for the
two years iu which 10 was in force was
made 10 carry it into effect II was new
departure for an Eastern state. Maine had,
some years before, successfully colonized
S~edes upon the public lands of Aroostook
county but our state had no public lands
To- be settled, aud it was the first of the
Eastern states 90 offer inducements to i'm
migrants To buy and settle upon farms held
as private property, the first of these to
take legislative action towards making the
merits Of the state known to the public aud
thereby check emigration, invite immi-
grafton and induce the investment of CAPT
tai at home The act Of the Vermont legis-
lature establishing a commission for this
purpose was commented upon approvingly,
almost without exception, by the press aud
leading men Of the state 1t attracted the
attention and elected the favorable notice
of hundred, of newspapers and periodicals,
including many in nearly every state of the
Union and some in foreign countries. The
discussion which followed caused the great
merits Of Vermont as an agricultural state
to be better understood and appreciated.
Hundreds Of letters came to the state in
quiring for Vermont farms. large num-
Der of sales have been made as a direct or
indirect consequence Of publishing the facts
in regard to pro1uctiveness Of the farms
and the low price at which they were held.
Maine and New Hampshire, though hav-
ing less cause for state action in this direc-
ton than Vermont have each followed us
with similar measures backed by more lib
eral appropriations and Massachusetts,,
though gaining rapidly in her urban popu-
lation, will Mt this session of her legislature,
consider a similar measure for keeping up
the population Of her rural districts
But while other states are about to
adopt or are successfully carrying out.
measures for securing the occupancy of
their farming lands suggested by the plan
first adopted in this state, Vermont,
through the act Of the legislature of 1890,
has gone back on herself The work of
the commission has been made nugatory as
far as the legislature had the power to
make it SO. \ penny has been saved to the
state and a thousand lost. A very great
mistake has been made; for in a country
like Vermont, the value of farming lands
and in "A great measure the value of all
real estate, aud general thrift and prosper
ity depend upon the population of the
farming towns.
After the commendatory notices that
were everywhere given Vermont for the
act establishing the commission of immi-
grafton; after Gov. Pages recommendation
of an appropriation for its continuance, and
the earnest appeal of the retiring Gov
ernor, who, after much thought, was "Un-
able to avoid the conclusion that the only
plan of relief for the overburdened farmer
in the sparsely-populated towns, that offers
any hope of success, lies in the direction OF
this experiment, and who said, address
iuI the legislature, Upon you alone rests
the responsibility of deciding whether, in
this critical period Of the state history you
will abandon an experiment that offer.
any hcp4 of increasing our population and
thus take la k ward step, or whether, like
our entcrprisug sister states both east anC
west, You will reach out after desirable i'm
migration from whatever source it may
come, the sentiment Of which was endors-
ed by almost the entire press of the state
after all this and much more, it might have
been reasonably believed that any chang,
made in the act of 1883 would have been Il
make IFS provisions more effective, but with
simple stolldity it was repealed and no sub
sttute enacted to take its place.