HISTORY OF VERMONT. 353 



EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PEOPLE. 



Agriculture. The body of the people in 

 Vermont are engaged in agriculture. In a new 

 country where the settlements are yet to be 

 made, agriculture puts on a very different ap- 

 pearance from that^ which it bears in the ancient 

 and well cultivated settlements. There, the bu- 

 siness is to cultivate and improve the farms, 

 which have been already greatly improved : To 

 increase the produce, by the application of more 

 labor and cultivation, and thus to derive a great- 

 er profit from the land. In a new settlement, 

 the first business of the husbandman is to cut 

 down the woods, to clear up the lands, to sow 

 them with grain, to erect the necessary buildings, 

 and open the roads ; and thus to connect and 

 form a communication between the scatttred 

 settlements, and make the most of his labor. 

 Amidst the hard living and hard labor, that at- 

 tends the forming a new settlement, the settler 

 has the most flattering prospects and encourage- 

 ments. One hundred acres of land in a new 

 town, does not generally cost him more than he 

 can spare from the wages of one or two years. 

 Besides maintaining himself, the profits of his 

 labor will generally enable a young man, in that 

 period of time, to procure himself such a tract 

 of land. When he comes to apply his labor to 

 his own land, the produce of it becomes ex» 

 tremely profitable, 1'he first crop of wheat will 

 fully pay him for all the expense he has been at, 

 in clearing up, sov/ing, and fencing his land ; 

 and at the same time, increases the value of the 

 land, eight or ten times the original cost. In 

 VOL, n U 2 



