36 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Book farming long has been a term 

 Expressive of derision, 

 Repeated failures but confirm 

 And strengthen this decision. 



Half truths, half taught, the primal cause, 

 For this misapprehension, 

 For the practical a limit draws 

 To theory's pretension. 



But if experimental lore 

 Will cause two blades to grow 

 Where only one has grown before 

 Its worth awhile to know. 



If worn out soils new vigor gain 

 Through scientific aid 

 And bugs and worms greet life in vain 

 And blight and rust are stayed. 



Seeing, the farmer will believe 

 Nor longer will deride. 

 Think for himself, but gladly leave 

 False prejudice a:.d pride. 



The idea has passed forever 

 That brainless grinding toil 

 Is the all-controlling lever 

 For the tiller of the soil. 



For machinery is King to-day 

 With sovereign aid to lend, 

 And best of all has come to stay, 

 The farmer's loyal friend. 



For a time, from competition 

 With the new lands of the west, 

 Loaded with their rich fruition — 

 Eastern markets were depressed. 



Low prices ruled farm products, and 

 We viewed with vague alarm, 

 Depreciation in the land 

 And the abandoded farm. 



Double taxation on real estate. 

 Was added to the pack 

 That needek but a feather's weight 

 To "break the camel's back." 



The first wrought havoc with the hour 

 The last is with us still 

 A serpent in whose venomed power, 

 Men writhe, but dare not kill. 



And what about the farmer's wife, 



Is her world standing still ? 



With changes wrought in farm-house life 



By factory and mill ? 



The busy hum of spinning wheel 

 The wool, and flax and tow 

 The clumsy loom, the swifts and reel 

 Were banished long ago. 



