The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1904-10-20
PROGRESS OF FARMERS.

The Rutland Herald IN recent
issue repeated the question asked by
Governor Mccullough in his message,
rs Vermont to continue to stand
still ?'-and quoted Rutland county
farmers answer. The farmer said:
From the standpoint of farmer,
think it will continue to stand still,
for the merchants set the prices of
farm products both in buying and
selling, so that the margin of profit is
reduced so small that it is quite i'm
possible to get ahead. Secondly,
the farmer cannot raise cattle because
the trust will undersell the Vermont
farmer until he is driven out of bust
ness. And again our cattle are grass
fed, while the western beef is fatted
in cornfields, after which the hogs are
turned into the same field, and they
are all profit. Here we have to feed
out for nearly seven months in the
year. Forty years ago in Rutland
county town there was not a farm
mortgage, Today / venture to say
there are not ten farms in the town
not mortgaged."
The Herald went on to say that;
THE farmer added that he would
not advise any young man to remain
on Vermont farm, for he could do
so much better in the West This is
a rather glowing picture, but we have
feeling that it is somewhat over
colored. If the farmers are not salts
fed with the prices paid by merchants
for their produce, they can easily reg
ulate that in most cases by concreted
action. If the retail price to the
consumer mounts too high, he can
buy direct of the farmer.
But it is true that old farmers
who remember how they used to save
81, 900 year do not clear half that
sum these days. We are not enough
informed OH the subject to speak with
any degree of certainty; but we sus-
pect that our farmers do not change
their methods with the change of
business methods generally If the
farmers of Rutland county were to
take measures to inform them selves
through an agent employed for the
purpose as to the state of the market
in farm produce and what crops and
what animals are likely to bring top
prices, we would see marked change
in the management of many of our
farms where Improbable crops have
been raised for generation at a
stretch We know farmer who
keeps over thirty COWS and carts milk
to the railroad station to be sent TO
the Boston market, who buys butter
and canned goods for his table If
he would send the cream to market
and feed the rest to the hogs, he
would bring about one economy
We are not one of those who
think that the trusts are knocking the
bottom out of the yeomanry of Yer
mont by making farming Improbable.
We believe that the trouble lies
partly in the fact that our farmers
are not keeping up with the process
sion."
The Herald and its informant are
pessimistic, or else conditions in Rut-
land county are not like those in
other parts of the State with which
the journal is better acquainted. Any
fair minded observer of conditions in
various towns in this section knows
that the farmers are doing better
financially than they did ten years
RI -
moreover, has been brought about by
the efforts of the farmers themselves.
They have departed from the methods
of former days. have left the Iuts in
which they had been dragging along,
aud have put their business on basis
which COMFORTS more with the re-
quirements of these hustling times.
Creameries have sprung up, dairying
has taken the place OF wool-raising.
Silos have permitted a greatly in
creased stock Gu many farms. The
more live stock. the more fertilizer,
and in turn larger crops. The journal
can point the Herald to a town not
many mites from Montpelier where
the advent Of cooperative creamery
has made prosperous farmers of men
who were struggling against hope
with mortgages not so very long ago
The Herald is right when it sug-
gests that improved methods of farm
ing are needed 1t is improved
methods and adaptation of the farm
to the laws of supply and demand
that will do the most for the farmer
Organization is needed.
Some months ago the Journal called