The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-09-22

York State folks he replies. The
next farm, once similarly the home of
a numerous and prosperous family, but
long since abandoned or near aban-
donment also shows the presence of
a new life. Again the same question
and the answer is again, York State
folks. And so 1t goes until in this
brief hill drive some half-dozen York
State families are located. They have
come in very recently.
The same story is told of all. They
had found themselves possessed of
means which measured up small as
against the more expensive lands of
Western New York State, but which
appeared large in comparison with the
prices at which an extensive farm with
tolerable buildings could be had in
these abandoned Vermont hills. They
have come not in old age but on the
hopeful side of maturity, and not to
rest but to work They have been
able with their small means TO buy
farms and woodlands of several hun
dred acres each, pay for the whole and
have a little something left for liquid
capital Their coming is giving a new
appearance to a region which not long
ago would strike into the soul of the
| transiently returning native feeling
of lonelisess and despair like unto that
inspired by the sigh of the lilac bush
in the breeze. over the tumbling cellar
walls of the old homestead.
n similar movement is to be noted
in other Vermont hill towns. Real es-
tate dealers in Ludlow, Chester, Bel
! lows Falls and so on say that York
State folks make up only part of it.
! These folks are said to be harder to
deal with than the others-they are
more careful in their purchases; but
there is the native who has acquired
competence in the cities and wants
to get back to the old life and scenes.
What the real estate men fail to make
in commissions on theYork State folks
they make up on this class. And there
is the city mechanic who has got a
little ahead and is tired of facing the
uncertain future which the city holds
out to him. He also figures in the
movement which spreads up through
the hills from the West River as well
as the Black River valley and no
doubt more northerly through the
State High prices are fundamental
ly working this transformation, and
the telephone and rural free delivery
and other aids to the dissipation of
| the old loneliness of hill farm life
contributed not forgetting the auto
mobile, which is now seen in the worst
of these solitudes and is beating down
the roads into greater possibility as
we'll as giving to the new life therein
some color and zest. Prices? They
tell in Townshend, the home of Presi-
dent Taft's ancestors, of eggs selling
at 80 cents a dozen for the farmers,
and other products in proportion; and
one looks through that remote but
pretty village practically in vain for
a single dilapidated house or one that
is not bright and trim with new paint
and a careful upkeep.
/ "Assuredly there is under way a
movement back to the farm. and there
/ is also a movement among the farm
population of the country, and it no
longer sets entirely westward. 1t di-
vides in the central West and from
there moves in part over into the new
er regions of our Southwest and the
Canadian Northwest, and in part east
ward to the regions which it unduly
drained after the Civil War and which
thereafter fell into such value depre-
citation from the double cause of fall
ing commodity prices and desertion as
to make present farm purchases there
profitable even with commodity prices
lower than they are now"
This movement recorded by the Re
publican, is distinctly encouraging,
and while it will not do to be too san
guine over it. yet the tendency is sur
fciently well marked to indicate a
real change of sentiment that means
much for Vermont. There is no doubt
that the price of good farm lands is
less in Vermont than in many other
States, and that there is an opportuni-
ty. by the use of modern scientific
methods, to purchase cheap lands and
make money by the application of the
principles which have been found pro-
ftabls elsewhere.
/ There are great possibilities for ag-
riculture in this State and they ought
not to be left to people who come into
the State looking for investments
Many of our home folks are begin
ming to realize what may be accom-
plished by greater attention to selec-
ton of seed, soil analysis, the
use of the proper fertilizers and in
tensive cultivation.
! The State, however, should welcome
all intelligent earnest farmers who
seek to make two blades Of grass grow
where only one grew before. and that
other class who are looking for pleas
ant summer homes. No State offers
greater attractions for city residents
and there are many farms too far up
on the mountain slopes to be very
productive of agricultural harvests
which are abundantly rich in the seen
cry which is the harvest sought by the
summer visitor.
Slowly, but more the less surely. the
waste places are being built up, and
another decade ought to show dis
tinct Improvement in the rural dis
tricts of Vermont.
Meanwhile the Workers who seek
farms on the New Hampshire Grants
will be given a more cordial welcome
than their predecessors received a CEN
fury and half ago.