The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1907-12-14

| the west good time. Well, we had
| II every minute we were there. Our
only trouble was with our capacity 10
eat all that was set before us, But
| with plenty of maple syrup as tonic
we did fairly well. After doing the
city for several days we planned trip
into Massachusetts. Taking an cleo.
trio road we passed through Adams,
! Pittsheld, Lenox, Lee and on to Great
harrington. This Is the country where
Supervisor Ayres, Supervisor William
Il. Smith, the Bridgmans, BENEFITS and
the Cobbs OF this county were reared
There is some fine country along
this valley and beautiful scenery and
some asNrough country as ! have ever
seen At Great harrington we fell in
TO the hands OF woman and woman
like she would have her own way.
She sized up the party. There were
six OF us. She ordered carryall and
after dinner she mounted the box with
the driver and started up the noun
tain. Some Of our party protested a
little. saying we must get back early,
but IL fell on deaf ears. We assembled
eighteen miles through the widest
country ever travelled. Much of this
land had been farmed fifty or hun
dred years ago. Some fences were to \
be seen everywhere in this forest that
would now cut thousands of feet OF
lumber to the acre. This country has
been abandoned and allowed to go back
to nature. We got back 10 the trolley
line in time to take the last car for
home, well satisfied with the trip.
THE next day through the cour-
tesy of a friend and the superintend'
ent, we were shown through the large
knitting mills Of the Cooper Manufac-
turing company. We saw the knitting
from the raw material to the finished
product, everything done by machinery
and | never saw as fine garments as
they made, both In texture and work
manship. Wish some OF the mer'
chants would look for this brand of
mems underwear. About seven miles
north of Bennington In the town OF
SALISBURY is situated the old home OF
the Mattesons. In 1875 great great
grandfather of the writer settled on
this farm and saw the old sugar maple
tree In front OF the house, left when
the forest was cleared away, picked ap-
pies from the old orchard and got a
chew of spruce gum from tree on
the hill. Father and mother moved
away from here in lS49 settling in
Wisconsin, then wilderness.
Having spent all the time we could /
spare in Bennington, we took the train
for Sunderland where a number of
the cousins are located on farms. This
Is a narrow valley between the noun
tains. II is traversed by the Batten-
kill river, beautiful stream well filled
with trout. Here we were on the go
every day and every evening went out
looking for deer. AT last We were re-
warded by seeing seven in one even
ing. Here is where pure Vermont ma
pie sugar is made, not from corn cobs
but from the sugar maple and In the ,
most approved and up to date evapor
ators. And say, they sugared off for
us a number OF times. Yum! Yum!
There is nothing that touches the spot
like this.
This is a natural fruit country.
Trees live to great age. Ii is not I'm
common to see trees in full bearing
that are over 100 years old. Seeding
apples grow everywhere, along high
ways, in the forests and in the fields,
all loaded with fruit Only short
distance from here is Manchester in
the Mount, beautiful place filled with
fine summer homes. Robert T. Lin
coins large summer estate is located
close to here. There is country club
with golf link near by and many fine
homes. This makes a good market for
any produce the farmers have TO sell.
How would like to farm here? Well
| will tell you. If a Nebraskan should
start to pillow here he would not go ten
rods until he would be singing, Rock
of Ages. and would take the first train
for Nebraska.
up to the morning we started for
| home the ladies had not had a good
sight of wild deer. SO the deer came
to see the ladies'. Mrs Ward saw
them from her window and gave the
|