The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-12-13
vERMoNT's ROAD TO WEALTH

of agricultural resources
it can be taken as assured that there
will be steady progress during COM
ing years but the market is develop
ing so much faster than the produc-
ton of food stuffs that it is not like
ly that there will be any lowering of
prices except for brief, temporary per-
iods when the market may be glutted
by exceptional crops of some one
kind In fact it is much more prob
able that prices will go higher rather
than lower for the foreign market is
gradually extending.
For this reason it is practically
sure that farming will become con-
stantly more desirable as a business
for the average man. Farm educa-
ton will therefore become more and
more important and in practically
every state in the union there is re-
newed interest in agricultural
schools. 1t will however be several
years at the best before it will be
possible to get agricultural schools on
a practical basis into working order,
but in the meantime farmers and
others who wish to make themselves
independent and moderately prosper
Gus through cultivation of the soil
can make an early start on the road
to success with little cost to them
selves by starting evening classes in
various branches of agriculture.
In cities and large towns ambitious
workmen who wish to better their
conditions or fit themselves for more
highly paid positions form classes
and hire experts and instructors to
teach them the things which they de-
sire to learn. Why shouldn't Yer
mont farmers in every town and vii
lage in the state form classes in the
same way and hire competent men to
teach them how to produce the goods
that bring the best prices?
Some years ago butter buyer from
Springfield, Mass. came up to one of
Vermont's most prosperous towns, To-
Gated in the Connecticut river valley
and visited the grocery stores there
to buy what butter they could spare
from the demands of local trade. At
that time the best dairy butter sold
for "a cents per pound and varying
grades from that down to II cents. AT
one store which the buyer visited he
bought seventeen lots of butter and
of the seventeen lots only two
brought the top price. Eight of the
seventeen lots brought only the low
est price
The makers of this poorer butter
undoubtedly worked just about as
hard as those who got the highest
price yet received only half as much
for their labor Simply they did not
know how TO make good butter, or at
least how to make the kind of butter
that the market demands. Some of
these people were possibly too shift
| less or stupid to learn but it is rea-
sonable to believe that three-fourths
of them could have learned in few
| lessons from a competent dairy but
| ter maker how to make butter that
would have practically doubled the in
come from their COWS.
Similar conditions prevail in other
branches of farming Three-fourths
of the farmers in Bennington county
| have fiocks of hens but get no eggs at
this season of the year, yet Morris
| Finn who lives in Salisbury Valley
and who has no special facilities and
| only limited training in poultry rails
| ing is bringing into Bennington mar
ket thirty dozen fresh laid eggs every
Friday from his flock of 100 hens
| Since the first of December he has
been taking home SIS in cash every
Friday night from the sale of his
eggs. Mr. Finn is not even a farmer
by training, being printer by trade,
who was driven out of the city into
the country few years ago in order
that an invalid in his family might be
properly cared for
Apple culture is some talked about
in Vermont and a start is being made
but with painful slowness There are
apple orchards in Oregon that have
been sold at $1,000 an acre. Just as
good apple land in Vermont can be
bought at from So to $15 per acre.
Oregon apples have to be brought
thousands of miles to market Yer
mont is less than 200 miles from New
York and Boston.
Pork is worth from II to IA cents
per pound in Vermont markets. The
average Vermont farmer turns off
from two to six fat hogs a year He