Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1912-01-05
BACK TO THE FARM.
Hope Of Prosperlng Much Better There
Than In Working for Small Wages In
the City.

the City.
Men who work for wages of from nine
to fifteen dollars per week, II they are
reasonably steady in habits, can usually
feel assured of steady work as long as
their health holds out but with the cost
of living where 1t is now and with a
prospect of being higher rather than
lower, they have mighty little to look
forward to in the way of profit. At these
wages 1t is practically impossible for
them to ever lay up anything or even to
own their home. On these wages, 1t is
only by the most rigid economy that
they can support a wife and bring up a
family. In their old age, If they live
that long, they can count on being re-
duced to living on much smaller income
and perhaps depending on relatives or
even on charity. 1t would seem as
though their lack of prospects for the
future would open their eyes to the
gloom of their situation.
There is one remedy and only one for
the man of average ability, who knows
that he is likely to always have to work
for moderate wages and that remedy is
the movement back to the farm. The
rural sections of every eastern state
have been depopulated by the call of the
towns and cities. Great industrial COM
munities have grown up where it is
harder and harder for the wage Garner
farms has made food permanently high.
All economists agree that there is little
likelihood of farm products ever being
permanently low in price again. This
means that from now on, the best bust
ness for the man of ordinary ability will
be farming.
No farmer, unless a loafer or a drunk
ard, or too dense to learn ever comes to
want Farming is a business and a
profession combined and brains win
count on farm just as much or more
than they will in other places, but any
man who is willing to work and study
and learn from books and observation
can hope to get ahead on a farm and
lay by something for old age, which is
something that cannot be done in the
towns and cities by men who have to
work for small wages and are exposed to
depressions, shutdowns, failures and all
the changes and transitions of industrial
activity. Throughout the rural sections
| of New England, New York and other
| eastern states, are thousands of farms
| once prosperous and supporting large
| families, which can be bought for little
| money Some of them are back from
the railroad but in healthy, attra tive
| locations and within reach of schools,
! church, and rural mail delivery and ru-
| raj telephone service.
There are hundreds of these farms in
| Vermont that can be bought for less
, than what the buildings cost. Most OF
| them can be bought for a little money
| down and rea sonable credit for the re-
| mainder. 1t would be foolish thing for
a man who knows nothing about farm
| ing to think he can go onto a farm
| without previous training and make ii
| pay, but any man under fifty years OF
| age who is willing to work and study
and learn from the intelligent among his
neighbors can learn farming and have
| reasonable hope of prospecting, better
than he ever could at small wages in
| city or village.
| The long winter evenings are at hand
| and a man who wishes to better himself
| might we'll get some of the well known
I works on farming and study the ques-
! ton in all seriousness. There is a text
| book used in the Bennington public
schools which gives a pretty good in
sight into elementary agriculture We
presume that copies of this book could
| be secured through the superintendent OF
| schools at cost, and there are doubtless
| others which might be had The cheaI
| lands of this country are no longer In
| the west but In the east, near to market
| and where the profits are not all taken
away by transportation charges. Any
| man of moderate income and moderate
| prospects will do well to consider the
| Observation-Disclosures Banner.