The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-06-12

6l0. There were then II cities and
towns out Of Vermonts 246 that had
to their credit annually manufacture
ed products to the amount OF $751;
861, 29S, or only $2,0O0,0OO less than
the total agricultural products Of the
whole GAG.
In raising beets and cultivating
wheat and other grains he cannot
with the West"
Vermont certainly cannot raise cat
tie in the same vast numbers that can
be reared on the ranges of the West,
nor can any Eastern state. And yet,
according to the census of 1900, again
the animal products Of the state rep
resented 459 per cent of the value of
all farm products and 20 per cent OF
the gross farm income The Sun It.
self admitted just before this last
assertion that, "the dairy has become
the farmers main support" Now, the
question Is, If little Vermont, with
less than 10000 square miles OF ter
ritory, can raise cattle in this proper
ton and TO this profit, isn't she MAX
ing fair comparison with the cattle
raised on the vast ranges OF the
boundless West? The test of com
parlson should be relative proper
lions, not gross against gross. If
the cattle that pick their way
through the fast shrinking and none
too luXuriant grazing acres OF the
West were fed on the green pasture
lands of Vermont, they would not be
simply making a seasons procession
to the slaughter house for beef be-
cause they would be worth more
alive in the dairy, year by year. The
Sun has not made fair comparison.
Vermont cattle, though fewer in nun
Der than the Western cattle, bring
more money to their owners-and
live longer.
Vermont does not attempt to COM
pete with the West in raising wheat
and some other grains. Neither do
any of the other Eastern states.
Neither do we raise pineapples here
in competition with the South, and
for the same reason. But is that any
mark of our decay? Could we ever
do it? But let us consider something
of the crops that Vermont can raise.
The yield of corn per acre in Yer
mont. according to government re-
ports, is AZ bushels. No state out
side of New England, except Penn
sylvania, raises as much. OF spring
wheat, Vermont yields 1913 bushels,
yields 5 bushels an acre, South Da-
kota, 1913, Kansas, 81, and Mime
sofa. 16. Let us take oats. Vermont
raises AIS an acre Only Nevada,
Utah, and Washington excel this
figure. In raising buckwheat, Maine,
New Hampshire, and Vermont, in
that order, lead the whole country.
In the yield of potatoes, Vermont at
1870 bushels an acre, is beaten outside
of New England only by Nevada,
Utah, Idaho and Washington.
II is true that the farming regions
of Vermont are losing in population.
But the same thing is true all over
the country. And it is in obedience
to an instinct of society that is as old
as the race. Precisely the same ur-
ban movement centuries ago gradu-
ally worked its way in Europe and
made the economic problem of that
region what il is today. America is
no exception, and Vermont is no pc
culiar example in America The
problem of the craftsmanship and of
social science of today is to find
some healthy check upon this un-
healthy tendency.
Has it been found in New York
state?
But there is one phase of this de-
crease of population in rural towns,
this so-called threatened abandon
ment of some towns, that The Sun
and other contemporaries have harp
ed upon since the publication of the
Rossiter article that deserves seri-
Gus attention The impression given
out by such superficial observations
is that Vermont towns of this class
are decaying from natural causes.
Now, as a matter of fact, they are not
Idecaying, even though the population
is decreasing. They are actually
growing more valuable year by year
Any one that desires to write criti-
cal article on Vermont that is found
ed on facts learned by first hand OBJ
servation would soon discover that a
very large part of this state that
was cleared by the first settlers for
agricultural land, is not agricultural
land at all and never should have
been cleared in the first place 1t is
forest land, designed by Nature to be
nothing else, and, if the same region
were to be visited today for the first
time by men looking for property up
on which to settle, the light of mod
ern knowledge of agriculture, fores-
try, and kindred sciences would
prompt them never to put an axe in
to the primeval trees at all, but to
move on and clear their farms else
where. There are constantly in
creasing acres of land in Vermont
year by year reyerting to forest, and
when the second growth has once be-
come established, those acres will
mean fortune to their owners, and,
under modern forestry methods, q
fortune that will pay its handsome
annual dividends without disturbing
the principal. Those so-called de
serted acres of Vermont today in a
few years will be worth more in
money than centuries of farming
could have realized upon them if
their owners had stayed there and
| TILED the land.
Does this look like a decline, or
does 1t look like an awakening com
mon sense?
AS for the remainder of The Suns
editorial little need be said. 1t would
be laborious to attempt to show how
the industrial side of Vermont life is
thriving and growing, and how the
agricultural side is fast developing
along the lines of specialized and in-
tensive farming and making more
money than it ever made before, and