Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1919-04-02
CHAPTER VII.
Farm Ownership and Labor.

Farm Ownership and Labor.
the value of land, and the price that
is commonly considered the measure
of value is dependent upon it. When
a farming district becomes sufficient
ly profitable to enable each farm to
support more than one family, the
owner often rents the land, ceasing
to work upon it himself, and the rela-
tionship of landlord and tenant comes
into existence. Tenancy may there
fore be considered as one of the
measures of the profitableness of the
agriculture of a district. A c'assifi-
cation of the Vermont counties in
this way indicates that the Champlaln
valley counties are more prosperous
than the remaining counties OF the
state and that the amount of tenancy
varies directly with the price of the
land, Essex county showing the least
and Grand Isle the most. This rela-
tionship is shown even more striking
" by dividing the fourteen counties
into two groups The seven counties
with less than 1870 of their farms
rented averaged S10.21 per acre, the
seven with more than 1870 of the
farms rented show an average value
of SHOT per acre. This classified
ton places Orleans in the 18th place.
only Essex and Caledonia being poor
er.
The social implication of these ing
ures of tenancy are more favorable TO
the county than the economic. Gill
lette makes the statement that the
eastern counties have not as yet felt
the seriousness of the social situation
that is brought on by the rise in the
price of land. With 91.1%o of the farms
of the county owned by the operators,
the farmers are certain to have VI
tai interest in community affairs that
is said to be lacking in the districts
of the high-priced lands of the west
where tenants outnumber owners.
A glance at the farm mortgage sta
tistics indicates the same apparent
lack of productiveness of the farms of
Orleans county. Over 500 of the
farms of the county are mortgaged,
only two counties, LamolIle and
Franklin, showing a higher percent
age, while these mortgages are for
amounts averaging 1870 of the total
value of the farms, the largest per
centage of any county of the state.
This indicates as plainly as the
tenancy figures do that the farms Of
the county as a whole are not sui
icientIy profitable for the retention
of a prosperous, cOntented class OF
farmers. 1t cannot be definitely de-
cided whether the estimate of the
value of the county agriculturally is
more accurate by Spillman's method,
(Chap. g giving Orleans a high place
among the IA counties, by the Factor
method (Chap. 81 which gives 1t an
intermediate position, or by TINS
method, which places Orleans low
down in the list, though it may be
remembered that the first two are
based upon incomplete data and the
latter is more fundamental than the
others. For these reasons the est1-
mate furnished by the tenancy and
mortgage figures may possibly be the
more accurate measure of the agrl-
cultural value of Orleans county.
AS noticed in a preceding chapter
the farms of the county are small,
too small, in fact, for profitable ag-
riculture under modern conditions. In
the days of early settlement each
farm was a little world by itself and
consequently the farms were all so
! small that one man could do all the
work upon them. With the introduc-
ton of new machinery, and the pres
ent methods of marketing products,
these farms were found to be too
small: Under the press of such forces
some farms have been abandoned u
and the old cellar holes are frequent
" found in some back pasture where
the land is too poor for cultivation.
Other farms, and they are many, are
still worked when they would better
be combined with others. With the
small acreage the farmer struggles
along with a heavy debt, meagre re-
turns, and high priced equipment, at
tempting to do all the work himself
If the farms were larger, more and
better equipment and less labor pei
man would be possible.
The supply of labor at present
however, is hardly sufficient to meet
the demand. Many of the farmers
depend upon the help the growing
sons can give. Others hire schoolboys
who work nights and mornings fol
their board. On the larger farms
labor is largely supplied by the sons
of neighbors who desire to acquire
capital to enable them to buy farms
of their own, consequently the farm
ers who began life by working fol-
|. others are common. Some men anC
boys from the villages work upon the
farms in the summer, and another
source of labor is supplied by the
. Irish and to a lesser extent, by tht
Scotch immigrant. The quality o.
the labor secured is very good upoI
the whole and drunkenness is not {
very serious failing of the men.