The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-03-04
INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS IN YER
MONTE

Inc Hon. NlClOr L. Op6dT VI Guo NoI-
mont Board of Agriculture, has issued a
report of the operations of the Board as
to the abandoned farm and other inter-
ests of the State during the past year.
We wish TO remind those who applaud
this report and in the same breath de-
nounce the late Commissioner of Immi-
grafton, that Mai Valentine wrote some
three thousand letters in reply to in
quiries as to Vermont's farms and manu-
featuring facilities, and that this collec-
ton of material by the Board of Agricul-
ture is but a continuation of that work.
The boom started with the immigration
bureau, and, but for these volunteer
the victory now apparent would not
have been won. Vermont is advertised
in three principal lines so that the Boston
Journal calls her one of 'three rivals"
Here is what the Journal says:
In Maine and New Hampshire, sum-
mer boal ding long since rose to the level
of a regularly recognized industry, and
the receipts from this source are an
nually reckoned at millions of dollars in
each fortunate State. Nor is Vermont
tagging far behind her enterprising
northeastern neighbors. She is already
"Cll buDpllCu MlOll GNU OOoAu
houses for the accommodation of her
summer guests, and the report of the
State Board of Agriculture shows that
there was more money invested in new
hotels last year than III any other of the
industries enumerated except one. In
new plants for the manufacture of wood
products there was invested in Vermont
in 1891 the sum of $2l4,0O0. But an
al,
invested in new hotels, as against $780,
600 in new shoe factories, $36, 900 in new
granite quarries and shops, aud $4,000
in W slate works. These new hotels,
located at Salisbury, Chester, Wood
stock and Castleton, are intended largely
for summer visitors, The summer board
ing business, therefore, is to be reckon
ed well up among the important indus
tries of the Green Mountain State.
Vermont has not the magnificent sea-
coast of Maine, nor quite the Lofty noun
tain peaks of New Hampshire, but she
has potent charms of her own, as evil
denced by the annually inCr, asing null
Iitude of sojouners within her borders.
There are portions of Vermont which
are far less rugged than many regions in
the two eastward States. The hills are
not so high, the forests not so dense, the
surface smoother, the soil mellOwer 1t
is to such places that people wi o prefer
nature in her softer and more genial as
poets love to resort. But there are
towering hills in Vermont for those who
like them, too, and wild, dark woods
and quiet and secluded valleys. Lake
Champlain is deservedly regarded as one
of the most beautiful sheets of inland
water in America, and the whole region
round about ii is historic ground. 1t is
no wonder, therefore, that the tide of
summer travel to Vermont is increasing
year by year, and that its commercial
value is considered worthy of place in
the official statistics of industrial pro-
gress. As compared with her two sisters,
Vermont has started a little late in the
race, but now that she is fairly in, Maine
and New Hampshire must look to their
laurels.
Unhappy the lot of the man who is
called upon to decide which of these
three fair States is the most beautiful. 1t
is task with which that of Paris of old
is almost boys play by comparison.
Each State has her thousands of devoted
admirers, and each State vows that she
is the fairest, as she views her charms
mirrored in the waters, Maine of the
great blue ocean, New Hampshire OF
Winnipesaukee and Vermont of Cham
plain. Massachusetts,, perhaps, might
be the arbiter of this gay dispute-but
Massachusetts, is not unconscious of her
own modest merits, herself, in point of
natural attractions.