Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1905-03-03
MORE BROAD GAUGE MEN.
Prof. Hills Thinks They Are Most
Needed in New England.


In special contribution to The
New England Farmer Prof. Joseph
l.. Hills of the Vermont Experiment
station, Burlington, writes as follows
concerning the chief needs of New
England agriculture:
If / write in pessimistic vein, as
crbe 1t to my temporary environ
ment, for | am writing In a stalled
train at Essex Junction, that delect-
able spot "embalmed In the liquid
amber of the verse" of the late Il. j.
Phelps and look out on graveyard,
populated 1t is said by those who have
died waiting here for trains. Let this
be text for my discourse.
Too long has New England agricul-
ture been bound to the dead past too
long have many Of its farmers been
looking backward instead Of forward
too long have they been waiting at
the junction of the old and new 1t
is time they moved on. What are the
remedies for this condition? Men!
Light! Thought! Action
New England agriculture needs first
of all more men of the right
sort, men imbued with faith
| in their calling, men who are
open minded of broad gauge,
wide sympathies. believers not doubt
ers. There are many such on her hills
and valleys to-day, men whom 1t Is
pleasure to meet and liberal educa-
ton to know, but they are too few In
number quickly to redeem the situa-
ton. May their tribe increase! And II
may increase, not merely by the slow
processes of procreation, but by edu-
cation, self teaching, by the accept
ance of light and the development Of
the habit of thought II will increase.
moreover. greatly in the rising gen.
Grafton because of the stress that is
being and Is to be laid on the agricul-
tural viewpoint in the formulation
of the common school curricula. "As
the twig is bent the tree inclines;"
and the bend in the schools Is to be
more and more towards, rather than
away from, country life, thus tending
to raise up a larger proportion OF
farmers Of thought and action.
New England agriculture needs
more light and a better appreciation
of that which has already been shed
upon its problems. The present gen.
GRAFTON of farmers meets worldwide
competition, but has at its command,
If it will, as an aid in meeting 1t
worldwide fund of information. THE
simple life" may still be lived, but 1t
is not the same simplicity that our
forbears knew To succeed to-day
one needs to apprehend the funda-
mentals of ones vocation and to that
end use brain as we'll as Drawn The
press, the college, the station, the In
stitute, the oranges are the agricul-
tural searchlights which both make
and shed this Illuminating doctrine
of the cultivation of the brain as a
precedent to and corollary of the cul-
tivation of the soil.
New England agriculture needs
more thought on the part OF its vo-
taries. 1t is not enough that light be
shed; it must also Hume. 1t is the
discussion at the farmers meetings,
around the stove at the store, the
thinking the farmer does as he reads
the station bulletin or the article In
his farm paper, his musings afield,
that really count. Opposition to ex-
pressed views, moreover, is often the
best of thought so be it that dissent is
not querulous nor grounded in preju-
dice. 1T is difference of opinion
that makes horse racing interesting"
and other things. Thought should
cover the sales proposition as well as
that of production, should be applied |
to the larger problems of the market
as well as to the restricted matters
of the individual farm. In the better
sense of the term the New England |
farmer may well be politician, a
student of political economy, man |
of affairs.
And finally, New England agricul-
little gain in the past or hope of the
future? Ought not New England
farmers to take to heart the Biblical in
junction BE We not hearers only but
doors" Would they not do we'll more
than they do, to read and digest the
wealth of information now at hand
relative to their vocation, to winnow
1t carefully and to put in practise such
as pertains to their individual condi-
tons?
Men; light; thought; action-and
the greatest of these is Man. New
England agriculture has other needs.
pressing needs; but they may all be
included within this quadrilateral.
There lie infinite possibilities in the
farmer of the old New England stock
and in New England farms when
thought is linked with action and the
we'll trained head directs the willing
hand.