St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-06-21
Why UndevelOped.

For two weeks past we have spoken
of the undeveloped forestry and agri-
cultural resources of the state of
Vermont. There must be reasons
for such undeveloped conditions in
a state located so near the great
markets for the products of the for
est and field as the state of Yer
mont. The first cause for the neglect
of Vermont resources is the lure of
quick returns on capital invested and
cheap lands The destruction of the
forest was the first necessity which
faced the pioneers in Vermont. The
stripping of the forests that remained
of their best timber was the most
profitable return that proprietorship
of those lands could secure. The
marvellous fertility of the virgin soil
invited soil robbery rather than soil
cultivation from the first. AS soon
as the first strength of Vermont soil
was gone there was still great areas
of untouched land to be had for the
asking and the strong and progress
sive men turned to them. At that
time the great prairies SD easily Gull
possession than the partially depleted
lands of Vermont. Back to the
people at home came the fabulous
stories of the productivity of the
virgin soil and the unfavorable COM
parison of home conditions which
created the impression that Vermont
was a most undesirable place for a
young man to undertake farming.
Hence the great emigration that
continued as long as virgin soil was
so easily obtained.
Now the soil of those regions has
become impoverished to such an ex-
tent that their productivity does not
equal that of the old state of YER
mont, cheap land is not to be found
and the lure of cheap land should no
longer rob the state of it's strong and
progressive young people.
We shall speak of only one other
cause in this article and that is an
erroneous theory of system of edu-
cation. We believe there is much
force in the statement of DR.. H. J.
Weber of the New York College of
Agriculture that education as pur-
sued in the earlier times was primari-
ly foc ornamentation. He says:
eve give our boys a classical edu-
cation even yet, that they may be
gentlemen, not for the reason that
this education will be of direct value
yet we teach our girls, in large meas
ure, by giving them the so-called
cultural subjects and send them to
finishing schools, where they will OBJ
tain a smattering of Latin and
French, little music aud painting,
and become adopts in the art of dane
ing"
Educating our boys to be gentle
men and our girls to be ladies has led
to the overcroTding of the pro-
LESSONS and the serious depletion of
intelligent productive forces of our
communities. Falsely educated, our
young men and young women have
f1ocked to the towns and cities with
misconceptions of what their purpose
EDIT-WHY UNDEVELOPED?
in life should be and failed when
they should have succeeded. 1t has
left The opportunities for honorable
effort at home neglected and con-
verted those capable of valuable SER
vice into social and Industrial paup-
ers. 1t has greatly increased the ex-
penses of transferring the product of
the producer to the consumer and
built up an immense class of middle
men to be supported by the dwindIing
producing classes. 1t has decreased
the return to the producer and in
creased the cost to the consumer and
the decreased return has made pro-
duction less attractive.
Two very important matters are
named in the preceding paragraph.
To raise the producer to a higher
level necessitates a higher apprecia-
ton of his ability. It would seem
unnecessary to argue that ability
to produce useful and necessary ar
ticles is as high grade of ability as
any but it certainly is not so recog-