534 State Boaud of Agriculture, &c. 



should we disparcage our own State. Too many sons and 

 daughters of Vermont have spoken deprecatingly of the 

 land of their birth. Too many have spoken thus through 

 ignorance of its merits. An examination of the statistics 

 referred to will go far to refute the prevalent idea that there 

 is something vastly better in some distant locality than can 

 be found at home. It may be a common fault to underrate 

 that which is near and familiar, and to overvalue that which 

 is distant or far fetched. If we may judge from the num- 

 ber that leave our State to seek for homes elsewhere, this 

 fault appears conspicuously in Vermonters, in the failure to 

 appreciate their native State. 



While in other parts of the country the farming interest 

 has been maintained with increasing prosperity, in large por- 

 tions of this State it has declined for want of hands to man 

 the farms. The methods of farming have improved, but the 

 number of farmers in many of the towns has diminished, 

 and, consequently, the value of farms has depreciated, sell- 

 ing now for no more, and in many cases, when a sale can 

 be made at all, for less than they would have sold for thirty 

 or forty years ago. An increasing number of farmers would 

 keep up the price of farms ; a decreasing number as surely 

 depreciates the price. Other branches of industry suffer in 

 sympathy with agriculture, which is the foundation and sup- 

 port of them all. "What is the cause of this decline in so 

 many of our towns ? It may not be the result of a single 

 cause, but there is a principal one apparent above all others, 

 and that is the wholesale emigration that has swept away 

 from the State the natural increase amone; the farming com- 

 munity. A better knowledge of facts concerning the 



