The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-04-15
"The Farmers Changed Condition"

Ine FHTmeT>b Cnanyeu OOnuitlOns|
Some weeks since we received note
from +. l.. H., of Franklin, Vt, asking
our attention to an article in The Forum,
for February, bearing the above title.
Mr.. II. says: CT would like to hear
something from you about it,-not only
that, but have an idea you will en-
large upon it with good effect. l enjoy
your page. May you live long to call
things by their right Names" eve
have sometimes thought that if Shake
speare's Hotspur could have "caled
spirits from the vastly Deep" by their
right names, they might have come" y
1t has taken some time to get hold of
the issue of the Forum in which the ar
ticle referred to was printed, which
will account for our delay. When OBJ
tanned, we were pleased to notice that
its author, Professor Rodney Welch of
Chicago Cfor many years editor of the
Prairie Fdrmer), was born in the
same state and county, and in the same
year, as ourself, so that his early men,
cries of farmers life in Maine would
naturally be much like our own. But
there was this difference, that his
native place (Monmouth, Kennebec
county, Maine,) was an old academy
town, while our knowledge of farm
matters at that time was gained in
Windsor, one of the least favored towns,
from an educational point of view, in
the county, though as farming town
it was perhaps not inferior. Professor
Welch's memories reproduce before us
what might almost be called the cream
of the farming class, such as are to-day
still to be found, with modern improve
ments, in the academy towns of Ver-
mont, as compared with other towns
whose educational advantages are lin
tied to crossroads district school
house of the most primitive type.
The gist of Professor Welch's de-
scription of the Maine farmers un-
changed condition, before the time of
Californian gold discoveries, is seen in
his statement that they then " farmed
to live and were able to live well,
though they produced but little which
was exchangeable for money. They
were self-supporting, and therefore
they were ga class more nearly indie
pendent than any other in the commu-
nifty" This is quite true. The land
was comparatively fresh and fairly
good, producing "good crops of corn,
wheat, rye, barley and buckwheat, as
well as potatoes and all kinds of garden
vegetables" They raised fax also,
and kept flocks of sheep of no particu-
lar breed, with cattle and swine of like
character. Oxen were used exclusively
for blowing, and the plows were very
rude and ineffective. The farming of
New England, up to 1880, was but lit
tie advanced from the farming of GEN.
turtles before in Europe. There was
scarcely an agricultural newspaper in
the country, although shortly afterwards
DR.. Ezekiel Holmes started the Maine
Farmer with little eight-by-ten page,
which has now grown to blanket
sheet of nine long columns to the page,
containing about as much matter in
two or three issues as DR.. Holmes gave
his half thousand of readers in year.
The first improved cattle and sheep
ever seen in Maine were imported
from England in that decade; and we
we'll remember the first " short-horned
Durham" bull, and "Dishley" ram,
sent TO our grandfather's farm by the
Massachusetts Society for the Improve
ment of Agriculture. This must have
been about the year 1884, when we were
six years old. In these days a man
had to ride the beam " in order to
keep the breaking-up pillow in the
ground, while another man went be-
hAhu w thlOW OfCI lllc luITOW-SIlCe.
A half acre was big days blowing
for four oxen and three men.
SIN those times" says Professor
WEIGH, "most of the trade of farmers
was carried on by barter. Eggs, butter,
cheese and smoked hams were taken by
country storekeepers in exchange for
groceries, dry goods and notions. Nearly
every farmer went to the seashore once a
year and exchanged apples, cider, pota-
toes and garden vegetables for fish. -
The provisioning of sea-going vessels
gave the farmers near the sea their
best market. Mere inland farmers
found wool, hides, bark, slaves and
hoop-poles Qhe last two mostly shipped
to the West Indies), the means of get
ting little cash; but money was in
conceivably scarce, and even well-to-do
farmers sometimes had difficulty in col
Letting sufficient cash to pay their taxes.