Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1919-03-26
CHAPTER V.
The Dominant Industry.


Orleans county is prominently an
agricultural area, lacking as it does
the influence of large quarrying in
terests that have so profoundly affect
ed the Hardwick, Woodbury. and Bar
re areas, which are closely similar in
rural conditions to the towns under
/ discussion. There are no large man
ufacturing industries which tend to
| develop the railroad villages at an ex-
! cessively greater rate than the farm
| ing districts behind them. Newport,
/ West Derby, Orleans, North Troy and
! Barton have thriving manufacturing
| industries, but their growth, while
| large, has not been so great as serl-
| OusIy to iniure the purely agrlcul-
tural regions around them.
The people of the county are farm
ars by heredity and tradition. The
early settlers, men from the older set
Elements of Vermont, New Hampshire
and Connecticut predOminating, were
the usual type of pioneer farmers
that settled Vermont, and all the lie
cor decades tended to produce con-
servative and self-reiiant race. Yer
mont has kept the old Yankee stock
the purest of all the New England
states, according to Rossiter, and IN
Orleans county this has been mingled
only with the strong Scotch and Irish
races. which tended to intensity the
characteristic traits.
The earliest agriculture produced
potash salts, which were foated to
Montreal and Quebec. During the
War of 1912 good prices were obtain
ed for provisions just across the
"Line" at Stanstead and much SNUG
Cling occurred. Later in normal
times fattening cattle, wheat raising,
hop raising and the making of potato
starch became the more important
industries, all of which are of no i'm
portance in the present-day farming.
In a report upon agriculture in the
year 1867 the statement is found that
| ''the tendency has been for several
years among large farmers to devote
their chief attention to dairying."
Geographically, the valleys furnish
the more valuable agricultural land,
as we'll as the best highways and rail
road facilities. The more valuable
farm land is found in the Clyde river
valley in Derby and Charleston, the
! Barton river valley in Barton and
| Glover. the Black river valley in Gov
entry, Irasburg, Albany and Crafts
! bury, and the Missisquoi valley in
/ Troy and Lowell. In the old report
upon local agricultural conditions
| quoted above, the statement is made
/ that the hill lands were considered
J more valuable at that time than the
valley lands, indicating that the hill
} farms, which today are not considered
as valuable, should be as valuable I'M
der proper management as the better
! located farms in the valleys. "Aban-
doned farms" are few and are gener-
ally upon poor soil far back in the
/ L. 10 raI
! The census indicates a decrease in
/ the number of farms of 4.1%o from
| 1900 to 1910 and 4.4%o from 1870 to
1910, though these figures are offset
! by an increase in the average area of
improved land per farm, to slight
extent.
The remarks Prof. Gillett makes are
applicable to these conditions: The
regrets so manifest over abandoned
farms in the East is largely sentimen-
tai rather than based on economic
reasons The buildings are old, ill
adapted, and often deserted because
of farm consolidation. The farms are
in size and adaptation traditional
rather than social and economic. War
or early settlement made them small,
probably too small for competitive
purposes"
This farm consolidation is only one
of the results of the change in agri-
culture brought on by competition
with the West, by the new interde-
Tendencies caused by the great in
crease in industrial development
and by the marvellous increase
exported have changed entirely,
today the hop fields are but memories
lingering here and there in fence
made of hop poles, and a field of
wheat is a curiosity to the younger
generation. The agriculture of the
county has been and still is under the
strain due to these changes. The back
towns have lost in population as have
all the strictly farming sections, and
the hill land has failed to increase in
value as rapidly as the valley land.
An increasing amount of hay, pota-
toes and similar crops are being rals-
ed for sale, but thus far the
farmer clings too closely to methods
that have been proven partially sue
cessful. Permanent prosperity under
present conditions demands a wide d.
versity of products, a good dairy and
the sale of some cash crop. what
the future may have in store for the
eastern farmer is a question, for IN
dications today point to a time when
New England can no longer compete
with the West in butter making and
further changes will be forced upon
the reluctant farmer.
The most important dairy product
! shipped from the county is butter
! both dairy and creamery. Recently
the wholesale milk companies of Bos-
ton have begun to ship milk from the
region, but it will be long before
! they can reach the back farms and
! today nineteen creameries are doing
: a thriving business.
r An industry that has been steadily
losing with little prospect for change
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