The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-09-17
BENNINGTON COUNTY
VERMONT IMPROVEMENT
ASSOCIATION NEWS

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land Apples have always been
New England staple crop, but 1t Is
1 only within the past few years tnat
apple raising has become recognized
as a possible source of very great al
ditional wealth. There are now many
large commercial orchards growing,
and within the next five to eight
4 wears New England apples will have
recovered the eastern and export
markets. Prof F. G. Sears, OF Mas
sachusetts Agricultural College, says,
in summing up the advantages OF
New England as an apple region:
'In the first place, land values are
very much in favor of New England.
Men have been going west to grow up
with the country for so long that
prices for land in any of the good
| fruit sections are abnormally high.
while they are correspondinigly low
here in the East. One hears con-
stantly of the wonderful prices which
are paid out there for raw lands, or
for land just set to orchard, while
$1,000 $4,000 and even $4,000 per acre
have been refused for bearing orr
chards. Here in New England, on
the contrary, splendid orchard land
can be bought for S., so to $50 per
acre. No country in the world
abounds more in ideal orchard sites
than New England. Next to the ques-
ton of land, and more important in
some ways, | should place the matter
of the quality of New England-grown
fruit. | believe that there is no 9th
err section where the Havor and arc
ma and juiciness and sweetness, ana,
in fact, all these factors on which we
base our estimate of the quality of an
annie. are more highly developed
than right here A third factor which
certainly ought TO stand in favor OF
the New England orchardist is the
matter OF markets. If he is Compel
ing on anything like equal terms with
his western competitors in other re-
spects. ii would certainly seem that
the fact that he is right in the midst
of the best markets in the world,
while his competitors are three thous-
and miles away from them, ought TO
give him the difference in the cost OF
freight and express rates as a mar
gin of profit, or handicap on his
competitors
Apple culture is not necessarily a
difficult thing. An orchard once To-
Gated. is largely a question OF giving
proper fertilizing, cultivation, and
looking out for insect and fungous
pests.
"As showing the remarkable re-
turns that follow Intelligent culture
of the apple, we cite: c. 7. Holmes
of Charlotte, VT, has an apple or
chard of 100 acres. In 1909 he gath
cred 5000 barrels, mostly Greetings.
These brought better than $4,000.
What Mr.. c. T. Holmes has done
can be repeated by hundreds OF far-
mers in our own County There are
many young men who are looking Tor
ward to an agricultural career in our
own County. 1t is the purpose OF the
Remington County Vermont Improve
ment Association to encourage all
such young men along every line OF
agriculture. II this County can be
organized as the Hood valley is or
ganized for cooperative production
and marketing these young men VIII
have opportunities undreamed OF oy
their fathers.
Cooperation.
The following is paragraph taken
from the New England Homestead.
In the subject of cooperation OF
farmers In foreign countries and
America it says:
Get together! Get better &C
quainted, know and understand each
other better bury suspicious ana
jealousies, develop mutual confidence,
cultivate charity of views and unity
of action. be willing to trust capable
men TO manage your cooperative I'M
dertakings and Loyalty back them up.
This is the only solid basis upon
which to build cooperation"
Schools
At this time the attention of Ben
nington County people is turning
toward the schools. The New Eng
land Homestead for Sept. 7th.. has an
article written by Mary l.. Damn, that
ought to be read not only by every
farmer in the County but also by
these living in the villages. Here are
few sentences taken from the ar
ticle.
You can pick out the average rur-
al school house by its ugliness and
barren yard"
statistics show that "a out of every
100 country children never go far
Their than the rural school"
"A shop and kitchen will be at
tached to the coming rural school
where manual training and domestic
science will be taught"
"The young, inexperienced teacher
must go. and the normals must train
teachers especially for rural schools"
The Bennington County Vermont
Improvement Association will like TO
add one more subject to the above.
"A garden and an instructor in agri-
culture will be connected with the
coming rural school,
Mary L. Damn further says:
Whether we are aware of 1t or not.
the solution of the burning back-to-
the-farm problem rest. to a great ex-
tent. with the rural school" This
unquestionably is true. The boys and
girls ought to be given little patches
of ground and little tasks of house
work that are all their own where
they can carry out the practical in