538 State Board of Agriculture, &c. 



"The sounds of population fail, 

 No cheerful murmurs fluctuate in the gale, 

 No busy steps the grass grown footway tread. 

 But all the bloomy flush of life is fled. 



Sunk are thy bowers in shapeless ruin all, 



And the long grass o'ertops the mouldering wall,"'. 



We should remember that improved agriculture has, 

 within the last fifty years, made two blades of grass grow 

 where but one grew before, in the country of which the 

 poet wrote, that there every nook and corner of available 

 laud is occupied and improved, and that annual rents are 

 paid equal to the price of good lands in Vermont. In like 

 manner, we have reason to believe, our productive lands will in 

 time be wanted, occupied and injproved. The more remote 

 hills and mountains, and the rougher portions will be valua- 

 ble for the growth of wood and timber, for which the pro- 

 gress of the country will create an increasing demand. 



But I designed to say more of the 200,000 Yermonters 

 that we miss, Wliat have they gained in material prosper- 

 ity not attainable in Vermont ? They have left behind them 

 their native State and the friends of their youth. There 

 should be some compensation for this. What have they 

 gained ? ■ There are things that have value, that are not 

 purchased with dollars and cents. Among these are friends, 

 and the dear associations surrounding the old home that the 

 emigrant leaves in his native State. But this is a view that 

 public opinion ignores. When the inquiry is made, " Can 

 wc do better in this or that distant State ?" it only means, 

 "Can we accumulate more property there ?" not " Is health 

 surer, the associations more agreeable, or the locality better 



