The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-08-19
For a Greater Vermont.


Thetford, by a branch of the Camp
fire Girls of America a festival for
purpose as unusual as it is praise
worthy. The National Council of
Grain Exchanges has offered to any
county which will raise a like am
cunt, the sum of $1,000 to be devoted
to crop improvement and the pro
ceeds of this entertainment will go
toward the $1,000 that Orange coun-
ty is trying to raise.
A news item says:
THE idea is that the $4,000 will go
to hire a crop expert who will live
in the county and devote his time in
studying the soil and the methods OF
tillage employed. He would have an
opportunity to become acquainted
with many of the farmers and study
their special problems. The farmers,
on the other hand, would have a
chance to get ideas from a thorough
ly trained scientist.
This plan is already in operation
in some parts of the country. The
purpose of the Thetford committee
in giving this performance is to con
tribute toward the $1,000 to be raised
in the county. The members of the
committee are very enthusiastic for
the plan, feeling sure that there is
a good deal more money in the soil
in Vermont than is gotten out of it,
and if there is a way of accomplish
ing this they want to know about it."
Ordinarily the proceeds of an en-
tertainment given by young ladies
would go for some church or char
ity, but here is a band of girls thor
oughly imbued with the Greater Yer
mont spirit and ready in a very
practical way to help the old Green
Mountain commonwealth onward and
upward. This is a notable event.
not so much that a certain sum of
money has been raised but rather
because it marks a hopeful spirit of
interest in and loyalty to Vermont's
welfare. Ii represents a very prac-
teal kind of patriotism and if this
spirit only spreads throughout the
state a great future for Vermont is
assured.
Ii is reasonable to suppose that
this movement, in part, at least, is
the outgrowth of the Thetford pa
geant' of spirit in that vicinity just
as the Lake Champlain Tercentenary
celebration was the beginning of a
new era of progress in Vermont.
There has been other signs of pro
gress of late in the Connecticut val
ley. The Hartford Forward Move
ment in which Rev. Mr.. Scheuerle
has taken an active part. and the
corn growing contest OF the Windsor
County Y. NJ. c. A., so ably con
Quoted by A. C. Hurd, have been
encouraging indications of new
agricultural era in Vermont.
The news item is entirely correct in
indicating that there is a good deal
more money to be dug out of YER
mont soil than as yet has been ex.
tracted. We need all the encour-
agement and aid that we can get
from every possible source. Ma
tional and state aid, private contribd-
tions and public benefits, all can help
in the work of Analysing soils, learn
ing what fertilizers and seeds are
needed, testing our dairy herds and
solving the manifold problems that
arise in Vermont agriculture.
These enterprising Thetford girls
really put to shame the feeble efforts
that many of us are making in be
half of our good old state If $1,000
will be contributed to Orange county
provided a like sum is raised, it is
likely that the same terms would
apply to Washington county. This
county ought to be as well able to
raise the money as its near neighbor
and it could be spent TO good purpose
here. This also applies to other
counties of the state.
Vermont needs more Campfire
Girl if they are all like this up-to-
date Thetford band and that organ
ization ought to be taken i'm as char
ter members of the Greater Vermont
Association and. perhaps, sent out
as missionaries of the new move
ment.-Montpelier Journal.