Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1913-09-25

farms are owned 10y gentleman farmers,
more productive perhaps than ever be-
fore, but the profits 70 to outsiders.
During three or four months of the
year the town is alive with people, all
bent on one purposc-recreation The
clang of the trolley or the shrek of the
auto is always in evidence. \ few of the
original inhabitants are busy catering to
the needs of the visitors or amusing
themselves by watching the show. Then
winter and silence come upon them. The
darkness shows many unlighted win
dows, the town seems empty and dispirit-
ed. Some of the people are rcstn" up
for the next years siege, n few are away
spending the harvest they have won. All
the community interests drag. Why not?
The town is no longer their own. it be-
longs to the summer horde, Wages for
house and farm laborcrs have risen so
high that only the rich can pay them,
and many of the lahorcrs have been car
ricd away to fiji positions in the city. All
the young people feel the glamour of the
city life and are restless and ready to
leave home.
Some such condition as this may even
now he found within the borders of our
own State. OF course it brings money in:
to the town. Some of those who have
taken 1T in exchange for ancestral homes
have used il to purchase for tn mselves
homes in the city, and so have Joined
the ranks Of those tired city-dwellers"
for whom Vermont is trying so hard to
provide. They are Nermonters no long
er Altogether too much of Vermont
life-hlood has been drained away al
ready.
When the north end of Grand Isle is
owned by man from Missouri and the
south end by one from Florida, when our
entire lake-front is In the hands of a
few millionaircs, when our small lakes
are surrounded and our pine-Erovcs filed
with summer colonies from the South
and West, and when in all parts of the
State are farms or apple orchards of
from 100 to 1000 acres each. owned by
men from all over the United States.
whore will the Vermonters be? 1t would
be interesting to know how many square
miles Of Vermont soil are already decided
to outsiders,
If this advertising that Is going on
could have been suppressed until the new
civic spirit that is stirring In Vermont
towns could have had time to grow to
larger proportions, the result might have
been different. The celebration of Old
Home Week and Town Charter Day has
brought to many communities a new
knowledge of and appreciation of their
history, and a new civic pride The new
Developments in agriculture, in providing
| for it's teaching ana making practical APP
plcation of the knowledge available to
every farmer is most promising provid-
! ing the Vermont farmers can retain their
farms and their sons and daughters can
be enthused with a love for farm-life
The attempts to improve rural conditions
and to arrest degeneacy of the native
stock will In time he of potential benefit
| to the State.
Let us have the best possible roads,
mot" for the tourists who wear them
out faster than we can make them, and
who cover us with dust and poison us
| with odors and tear the air with their
shrieking horns as they fly past, but for
our farmers on the remets.A Mills as well