The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-05-29
Price sos Per Share
With Accrued Interest
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constant drain Of our young men and
women to other lands of opportunity,
resigned to the situation as inevitable
We have been sa listed with small
business developments. We have
been not TOO cordial or receptive to ont
siders who would have helped us in
various ways. Accepting our rural
situation as one from which We could
not escape if We would, we have yet
failed TO make the mos. CT it, or con
due its promotion along the lines Of
progress. Such Industrial development
as come we have egarded al sporadic
and not natural, therefore not to be
specially encouraged. Vermont IS
AN agricultural state" we have said
land yet we have even failed to make
the most of it from that standpoint.
Looking at it big and large" Yer
mont s. not an agricultural state. The
tact that a large proportion of her
lpopula ion-though not majority
engage in some measure In land till
lage and therefore class themselves as
farmers does not make Vermont a
great agricultural state. Even the
fact thai. acre for acre, her crop pro.
lducticn ranks high does not establish
her as such Compared with the great
producing states of the union, she is a
weakling. Her rugged soil fertile
though it is in spots, yields so little
in return for the hard efforts put
| forth upon il that it cannot be com
pared, for instance, with the Central
Or many of the Western states. And
whereas the latter are so largely till
able, considering the VINCE surface,
Vermont is by con our limited 10 a
comparatively small acreage, making
/ the cost of crop production so much
the heavier. Any business conducted
on a small scale, with limited equip.
ment and capital, cannot compete in
the same lines with that conducted
on q large scale. In the staple agri-
cultural crops like whea, corn and
oats, Vermont, though classng herself
as producer really has to buy from
her rivals of the West. And while
claiming to be agricultural, she buys
both beef and pork,
1t is only by specializing IN milk
adm dairy producers and by ekeing out
with maple sugar, wood and lumber.
poultry and eggs and by vegetable
farming that Vermont gets into the
agricultural column II she depended
upon the big aples she would be left
hopelessly behind Her nearness and
quick access to the, big markets and
her adaptability to this Kind of spec
lializing enables her to make a fair
showing in the lines to which she
gives special attention Yet even
here it is hit-or-miss largely. The
business takes no directed course The
producer grubs along as best he can,
exploited right and left by middlemen
and profteer He needs the quick
dollar and he sells for 1t when if he
could wait he would receive two. The
grower of wheat or corn in the West
realizes a fair proportion of the retail
selling price of the product. He holds
out for it and he geJS it. BY co-cpera
tive associate s and especially by a
proper comprehension Of his own i'm.
portance, he rules the market in nor
nal lines In Vermont, except
through cooperative dairy products
concerns and few other struggling
efforts, nothing has been done to or
ganiSe the producing end to its own
In fact, the wonder Is
that in these modern times, agricu