VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 79 



crease the demand, and if we take the right course our advan- 

 tages will be increased. To keep apace with the demands of 

 the times it becomes our duty to raise the tone of our towns 

 and to give to our farm homes a better, more attractive look, 

 to cultivate lawns, lay out driveways and make them beauti- 

 ful. All this would give to the city and town a more harmo- 

 nious look; to the country dweller it would be a direct bene- 

 fit, adding largely, not only to his contentment, but to that of 

 his family as well; it would be a restorative, to a large extent, 

 for that vague unrest which sees only in the city the desires 

 of life and its enjoyment fulfilled; it would be a great leveler 

 of the wide distinction that seems to exist between city and 

 country and make the life of the farming towns so much more 

 attractive that we should more nearly retain our own. As 

 there is everv year, more and more, an apparent desire npon 

 the part of city people to migrate countryward for homes, a 

 general country improvement — even to the putting on of 

 smart airs — would add much to this movement and attract 

 where now indifference prevails. From these premises I speak 

 for rural improvement societies, a general uplifting in the 

 country and a sentiment that gives hearty endorsement to 

 this purpose, that will assist in giving an air of prosperity, 

 even a citified air of blue blood, about the house, lawn and 

 farm, in place of the so often heard spirit of carping and in- 

 sinuation, as if it were a crime to pick up, clean up, beautify 

 one's home and surroundings. This carping is a disease that 

 should be eradicated as soon as possible by public sentiment, 

 true and loya I, and the after attainments will be all the more 

 enjoyable. 



It goes without dispute that the farm is not paying as 

 well in dollars and cents as it once did. It is true, also, 

 that the farm does not afford great opportunities, except to a 

 small minority, to gain wealth, distinction and fame, but is 

 this not as true of the shop, the store, the machine works or 

 the cloth factory? Where the thousand find employment, the 

 one, only, finds more than a living ; while the thousand live, 

 the one, only, gains what may be called success, but of vary- 

 ing degree, and few indeed are they whom the world stops 

 long to mourn or regret when death overtakes them ; it hur- 

 riedly throws the soil above their coffins and then hastens 

 again into the whirl and rush of business to make up what 

 may be called lost time. Still through all this warp and woof 

 of life is here and there a man to whom we ascribe the mea- 

 gre word, success, which analyzed means this : that which 

 this person did was done well; a measure of thoroughness, an 

 appearance of tidiness, a display of workmanship, whether 

 mental or physical, gained for this person recognition and we 



