The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-08-30
The Mad River Valley.

Ine Mau k1Ner NalIey.
With the Odd Fellows picnic at Waits
field as an objective point, and with view
to feeling the pulse Of prominent residents
OF Mad River Valley on electric road mat
ters u WATCHMAN reporter left Montpelier
early Tuesday morning for flying trip
through that fertile regon-a trip that hap
PLY proved com bination of business with
pleasure, with the accent on the pleasure.
full report Of the Odd Fellows field day
is printed in another column. To that
it is unnecessary to add anything except
to say that the rank decision OF Umpire
Thayer of Warren in declaring Waterbury
man out at first in the seventh inning OF the
base ball game and for which the Water
bury team left the field and refused to fin
ish the game, was not sustained, even by
members OF the Warren team. They and
their Waitsfield friends declare that the de-
cision was the rank sst they ever knew, and
that Umpire Thayer should have had sand
enough to reverse such a palpable error.
The Warren team will probably be paid the
$25, but they will not be particularly proud
OF 1T under the circumstances, especially
when they were practically sure of winning
the game on its merits and the money by out
playing their opponents.
THE DRoUTH AND THE CROPS.
With the rest of Vermont, Mad River
valley is suffering from the drouth. Mad
River is mad" only in name, in fact it
now has not the proportions of respect
able trout brook. Springs that have not
been known to fail for the past forty-five
years are perfectly dry, ant with the excep-
tion of one mill at Moretown owned by
Hon. III. o. Ward, hardly wheel is turn
ing from Middlesex to Warren. Mill own
ers have discharged or laid off their men,
and are waiting for rain, and in many pas
tnres there is no water for stock.
Notwithstanding this, the valley from
Moretown to Warren has an appearance of
June freshness. Corn is looking finely heavy
crops OF rowen are being cut, and the
meadows wear dark green hue suggestive
OF the month of roses, This is particularly
noticeable from Moretown to Waitstield.
dozen or more inquiries by the reporter
as to the cause of this brought no satisfac-
tory answer. To be sure the soil is deep
and fertile, neither sandy nor largely of
clay, but that hardly accounts for the fresh
appearance of those rich meadow lands
while the rest OF creation in this part OF
New England is parched, brown and with
cred by drouth of unprecedented dura-
ton.
On the river road, from Moretown to
Warren is 800 acres of ripening corn, with
about an equal acreage OF oats. Not an
acre OF oats has proved failure and not
field of corn but what gives promise OF
abundant harvest. The hay crop was
nearly If not quite up to the average as to
quality and quantity, and potatoes are
y
that the prosperous and well to do farmers
in this section have no desire to change
their location or their occupation.
VOICE FROM FAYsToN.
Since the prospects for an electric rail-
road through this valley this summer have,
of late, been growing less, reports have
crept into some OF the State papers that the
inhabitants of Mad River valley have
thrown the whole thing overheard, that the
sentiment that was formerly so strongly in
favor of building such a road is now adj
verse to it, and tina they were ready to
hound any man out of the valley who
should dare to talk electric road to them.
To verify or disprove such general and
sweeping statements was the self imposed
task Of the WATCHMAN reporter.
From his long and faithful service of
seventeen years AZ town clerk Of Fayston
and because OF the fact that he is large
manufacturer of shingles and capboards
S. j. Dana is, perhaps, as well qualified to
speak the sentiments OF that town as any
reporter Mr.. Dana said: I've are all inter-
ested in the road up this way and we want
to see it built. This is the third time that
we have been fooled about getting road
up through here and we are getting dis
couraged. But we need 1t. 1t costs sixty
five cents a thousand to get clapboards from
my mill on car at Middlesex; If we had an
electric road we could for So per car, hire
cars to load at Warren or Waitstield that
would carry from sixty to eighty thousand
feet. Fayston voted TO bond for 80 600 or
five times its grand list and we have not
changed our minds. Still am inclined to
think that when the road is built as 1t sure
ly will be, it will be done by private enter
prise"
WARREN HEARD FROM
Hon. Horace W. Lyford was on his way
| to his home in Warren after an absence OF
six weeks in Caledonia county as special
agent for the Vermont Mutual Fire Insur-
ance company of Montpelier, when the
| WATCHMAN man side-tracked him to get his
views on the desirability Of trolley line
that should terminate somewhere near the
front door OF his hospitable and homelike
| hotel. Judge Lyford's interest in the pro-
ject has not Jagged and he is willing to give
of his time and money to the present pro-
| JectOrs OF the road, or TO any syndicate OF
capitalists who will put it through. He re-
ferred to the easy grade of the surveyed
line From Middlesex station TO the high
| est point in Warren of the proposed road
there is rise OF only $40 feet, and this ex-
tends over nineteen miles The road bed
could be- built the entire distance, in
Judge Lyford's opinion, for SO 600. The
United States Clothes Pin company of
! Montpelier has recently closed contract
with the Bradley Mills atWarren for enough
hard wood to make several hundred thou
sand gross OF clothes pins This is only
one OF many instances where the manufac-
turing plants at Warren need an electric
road. Judge Lyford is confident that the
project will not be allowed TO long slumber,
but that money TO build and equip the road
will soon be forthcoming
SENTIMENT IN wAITsFIELD.
Judge c. e. Jones is not given to long
| stories or fiighty schemes, but his sound