Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-06-19
WHAT OUR NEIGHBORS SAY
DORMANT FARMS AND FAMILIES

CFrom the Rutland Herald)
Reading Albert Bgelow Paine's charm
ing story. jewellers in Already" in which
he tells of taking up an abandoned farm
in Connecticut, presently turning 1t into a
habitable and more or less producing
homestead, recalls much that has been
said and printed about the unproducing
or part-producing farms of Vermont.
many Of which constitute a very con-
siderable part of Vermonts rural prob
lem.
outside of a few farms that by reason
of poor soil, stone and natural unfitness
should never have been cleared of trees,
there are no abandoned farms in YER
mont, but there are a lot Of farms rum
ming TO weedy pasture, or only half pro-
ducng, that occasionally are found in a
town group so situated as to constitute
a rural problem" and which make up
those few isolated instances which give
rise to the term dying towns'-a term
in more descriptive than gracious, by the
way.
In this connection, the Bennington Ban
ner, whose editor knows rural Vermont
pretty well, says:
There are only few of these exceed
ingly small towns without hope of future
development. The great majority of the
rural towns of Vermont will return to
their former prosperous condition when
the increasing population Of the United
States forces again the cultivation of the
hill farms OF the eastern half of the
country which were drained by western
emigration during the last half of the 10th
century. The state cannot by legislation
do much to change conditions in these
vol no at Cnn
through It's publicity bureau let the world
/ know that Vermont has some 10000 low
priced farms which can be proftably
| worked"
| The Banner should remember that this
has not only been done, but for all prac-
tical purposes it has been done twice,
once through the publicity department of
I the secretary of state, for which the
usual $4,000 was appropriated in the
budget, and again In No. 10 of the acts
of 1919 which authorizes the commits
sioner of agriculture to take a farm CEN
sus and publish the result not later than
August 1st of this year
| 1t is not true, therefore, that the listing
and advertising of such farms was
Thrown overheard by the legislature, -
but that it is probably being done little
too we'll.
1t is true that legislation cannot helT
a great deal to solve the rural problem
Of dormant farms. but The Herald be-
l!eves with the Banner that the problem
except in isolated cases, will gradually
solve itself. \ farmstead that warranted
clearing the wilderness and building W
a home that paid for several generations
of husky Nermonters who directly tool
part in building up the glorious tradi'
tons of the state, is surely well worth
living on and working to its full capacity
The trouble is that real husbandry car
never he done successfully except by
some one who lives close to the soil
Absentee ownership on some main roat
is what ails lot Of little farms on thu
side-hils Just let a real farmer-type O.
boy and girl marry and settle down OF
such a dormant farm as we have de
scribed, provided, of course, that it il
not absolutely hopeless from an agri
cultural standpoint, and then see it bios
som like the rose.
The agricultural schools. the state col
lege ard the county agents and farm
bureaus are doing something along thu
line of showing folks how to farm t,
better advantage, but they haven't mad
much progress toward solving the dor
mant farm problem, in which tn
profits at best. are apt to be small ant
in which hard work is Il very positiv
and reliable factor
) It is not that the dormant farms ar
so frequent as to constitute anything
like menace, but in a state like Yer
mont, with so much of its plane are
; set up on edge, it behooves us to cul
tivate practically all the tillable Ian
! there is and we haven't yet seen
Vermont farm that wasn't fit 70
specializing in something of the foo
variety
What we need in Vermont more tina
anything else is a few thousand ambi
> tious, not too hiGhfalutn' and const
tutionally hardworking young men an
women-n couples-who are courageou
enough to take dormant farm, wit
; mustard, paint brush, daisies or wha'
i ever pest 1t last yielded to, and go t
u making a regular home for two and wha
follows after.
1t can be done. although winning
home out of a wilderness of weeds an
| and neglect is next door to hewing it OF
= of the virgin forest. with perhaps a fe
l. ! odds on the wilderness.
. Legislation certainly won't give I
" these boys and girls, but education an
> common-senso will go a great way
that direction. Watch the Vernon
- farms grow as the Vermont familie
! grow-wthn the next few years.