The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1917-11-08
rHE FARMER on
HIS WAY TO HEAVEN


The other day In Vermont an agent
was nuleted In the sum Of $500 By a
Jury In the Washington County Court
for false representations in The sale Of
a farm. The agent had assured the
purchaser that there Was mo better
land in Vermont" and that the pasture
would keep forty cows" The pur-
chaser found that there really was
much better land and tina, his pasture
would keep nowhere near to forty
cows. He sued for damages. and IL is
70 the immortal credit Of Vermont
honor that he got them. For, broadly
speaking. every farm in Vermont
shall We say in New England lis for
sale. and the agricultural population,
from which petit jurors are drawn, is
sll interested in getting as much for
its farms as possible. To lay down
the principle, therefore, that an agent
shall not crack up farm above It's
honest merits represents possible
sacrifice TO a precious selling oppor-
tunity 1t seems to prove that Yer
mon, puts commercial honor above
pecuniary advantage.
II certainly takes good deal of
moral force 10 lead New England
farmer. on a petit jury or anywhere
else, TO renounce the privilege of rep
resenting his farm as the best in the
world--as possessing the richest soil
outside of Golconda, and as capable of
supporting as many cattle as you
stand on it. You may read of the
superlative attractions of hundred
farms in any paper that has a lot OF
them for sale. II would really seem
that there must be Misrepresentation
in some of these advertisements, be-
cause each one of them is the best farm
ever heard of--and not all of them can
be that. Each one has an unrivalled
view. Each unites the acme of pictur-
esQue rural seclusion with the readiest
accessibility to markets, churches,
schools and creameries. Each has the
best living well Of purest water ever
known to the throat of thirsting
humans. Each one Of them, while
Astounding in fields and pastures,
possesses, in the space Of hundred
acres or so, enough heavy timber TO
pay for the place in one year, if cut.
And so on through the superlative
category. All this, according to the
Washington County verdict, must be
given up, unless it is structly true
and il can't be! No longer is "caveat
emptor" to be the watchword in the
sale of farms. 1t is now the seller
who must be aware, lest he compli-
ment his property too highly.
It must be that the business of
farming, the essential morality OF
which was SO eloquently asserted by
Thoreau more than sixty years ago,
has begun to elevate the farmers con-
science. II was Thoreau's idea that
the farmer became more moral with
the process of improving his place-or
something life that. after having
read various books on various subjects
for some months" said the Sage of
Walden, 81 take up report on farms
by committee of Middlesex husband
men. and read of the number Of acres
Of bog that some farmer has redeem
ed, and the number of rods of stone
wall that he has built, and the number
Of tons of hay that he now cuts, or OF
bushels Of potatoes he raises there,
and feel as if had got my foot down
on to the solid and sunny earth, the
basis Of all philosophy, and poetry,
and religion even. l have faith that
the man who redeemed some acres of
land the past summer redeemed also