1009. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
229 
MORE ABOUT THE BASHFUL STATE. 
Home Markets in Vermont. 
For many years the saying has been 
abroad in the land that “Vermont is 
a good State to emigrate from.” This 
phrase, catching to the ear, seems to 
express the idea if the average man 
regarding the G.cen Mountain State. 
Because we who live within her borders 
have been slow to refute this idea 
by speaking well of Vermont’s oppor¬ 
tunities, the Hope Farm man has fit¬ 
tingly called us “the Bashful State.” J. 
H. Hale, who is never bashful, has 
:ome forward with a hopeful forecast 
of our possibilities in apple growing, 
with which Mr. Collingwood has agreed, 
and when these two agree upon an or¬ 
chard problem, further discussion is un¬ 
necessary. Now, I wish to say some¬ 
thing of what may be done in another 
branch of agriculture,—gardening and 
intensive farming. Since the proof of 
the pudding is always in the eating, 
I can, perhaps, give no better idea of 
the situation than to give an account 
of what is actually being done in these 
lines of work by two of our citizens,— 
one doing a small business with little 
capital involved, the other doing busi¬ 
ness upon a somewhat larger scale. 
Up in northern Vermont, in a little 
village on the shore of Lake Cham¬ 
plain, there lives a French-American, 
whom we will call Mr. G. Twenty 
years ago, at the age of 39, he found 
himself in such poor health that he 
could no longer support himself as a 
laborer in a brickyard, which occupa¬ 
tion he had followed since boyhood. 
His savings at this time were repre¬ 
sented by a little house and an acre 
of land, which were valued at $350. 
With this small capital, and with poor 
health, Mr. G. must begin in middle 
life to win a living for his family at 
some new and easier occupation. To 
make matters worse, Mr. G. could not 
read or write; and when we think of 
it, how much alone in the world is 
the man who*cannot read! Lie is shut 
out from the knowledge and experi¬ 
ence of his fellow-men, except what 
he can gather in his own little circle. 
But. Mr. G. was resourceful. He 
saw that a neighbor was v.oing well 
growing strawberries. He purchased g 
few plants, set them out, and took care 
of *them as best he knew. The first 
bearing year convince, him that they 
were profitable, and he increased his 
plantings. Then he began to grow early 
cucumbers, early potatoes, cabbage, 
sweet corn, and tomatoes. These prod¬ 
ucts found a ready market in a large 
town- 2 l / 2 miles distant. Soon Mr. G. 
needed more land, and he has added to 
his little place until now he has 16 
acres. Seven of these acres are devoted 
to garden crops each year. From them 
he has an average gross income of 
H.500 yearly, with a labor expense of 
about $250. Mr. G. has lived simply 
but well; he is now well-to-do, and 
has a nice home. A skilled gardener 
could probably have done much bet¬ 
ter, but when we consider that Mr. 
G. began the business late in life, and 
had all the time to feel his way, we 
cannot help feeling that he has made 
good. 
Now let us consider a Vermont farm 
business, which is conducted on a some¬ 
what larger scale. Down in the south¬ 
western part of the State there lives 
a man whom we will call Mr. S. At 
: 'iy request Mr. S. wrote me the story 
of his farm and I will give it in his 
own words. He says: “Our policy is 
to cater to the local markets and have 
something to sell so as to keep an in¬ 
come coming all the time. Our market 
is a village of 2 . 000 , and perhaps 100 
cottages and a few hotels for Summer 
trade on Lake Bomoseen. There is 
a manufacturing town of 8 000 within 
nine miles, and the city of Rrthrd with 
15.000 people, is 18 miles distant, but 
so far we have had all we could tio 
in our own village and at the lake. An 
eight-acre apple orchard, having a range 
of varieties from the early Summer 
to late Winter, furnishes apples which 
we sold at retail from the delivery 
wagon. Pears, cherries, plums, straw¬ 
berries, red and purple raspberries, all 
help in their season. Vegetables in 
great variety are grown. About 500 
feet of glass in hotbeds furnish plants 
for the farm and a large number for 
sale. Some fertilizers are bought, but 
it is thought that homemade manure 
is the best and cheapest. A dairy of 25 
cows gives a supply of milk through¬ 
out the year that is sold at the door 
to a local milkman. Cement gutters, 
absorbents, feed bought with reference 
to manurial value, all combine to fur¬ 
nish good manure and lots of it. 
“Does it pay? Of course it does. 
‘.‘The 17 -year-old boy in charge oi 
the lake route took in during his school 
vacation and Saturdays about $1,500. 
The farmer’s wife has a side line of 
homemade cakes that are sold to local 
grocerymen. She employs two girls and 
the sales in the village amount to $3,000 
per year. The farm itself might not 
bring over $5,000 in the open market. 
Our gross sales for the past season 
were about $ 8 , 000 . Our trade, with the 
exception of the dairy, is mostly ‘home¬ 
made.’ We are not doing nearly what 
we might do and what we hope to do. 
The business is right here at our doors 
if we choose to p«ck it up. Labor and 
feed are our chief outgoes. Before we 
worry about competition in distant cit¬ 
ies let us develop the markets in old 
Vermont.” 
You will note that both Mr. G. and 
Mr. S. are getting their full share of 
the consumer’s dollar by taking ad¬ 
vantage of our home markets. These 
markets are not fully supplied by home¬ 
grown products at the present time. A 
few years ago the annual meeting of 
our horticultural society was held in 
the largest city in our State. At this 
meeting Mr. S. read a paper telling 
something of his method of market¬ 
ing his products. When he had finished 
a college professor arose and said that 
if some man like Mr. S. would estab¬ 
lish a farm business of the kind near 
that city lie would be responsible for 
its success in so far as his own patron¬ 
age and that of his friends could make 
it so. The consumers in our towns are 
glad to be in touch with just such 
producers. 
Now, there is much land in Vermont 
that is near good markets and near 
good schools that is for sale at com¬ 
paratively low prices. There are many 
men in our large cities, working for 
others at little more than a living wage, 
who could win a home and independ¬ 
ence by doing what Mr. G. has done; 
and there are others with more capital 
and experience who could build up a 
profitable business like that of Mr. S. 
For all who are looking for a home 
in the country, Vermont is to-day a 
good State to emigrate to. 
E. S. BRIGHAM. 
“When a man talks about luck,” said 
Uncle Eben, “he nearly alius means 
hard luck. ’Cause when he’s prosperous 
he’s gwinter take all de credit foh his 
own smahtness.”—Washington Star. 
“De wisdom of Solomon was great 
in his day and time,” said Brother Dick¬ 
ey, “but it’s de wisdom of yo’self an’ 
yo’self alone dat’ll take you thoo’ dis 
bright, sunshiny work !”—Atlanta Con¬ 
stitution. 
“I want you,” said Mr. Dustin Stax, 
“to show that this law is uncon¬ 
stitutional. Do you think you can 
manage it?” “Easily,” answered the at¬ 
torney. “Well, go ahead, and get fa¬ 
miliar with the case.” “I’m already 
at home in it. I know my ground per¬ 
fectly. It’s the same law you had me 
prove was constitutional two years ago.” 
—Washington Star. 
DIBBLE’S SEED 
POTATOES 
grown in the cold North on land especially 
adapted for each variety, are full of health 
and vigor and produce larger and better 
crops in any soil and climate than those 
from any other source. Our Seed Potatoes 
in the greatest competitive test in history 
conducted during the last four years by 
J. R. Lawrence on the Eden Trial Grounds 
in Massachusetts where over 1000 varieties 
were grown, have proven to be 
Best in the World 
and four varieties of our introduction are 
pronounced by Mr. Lawrence the “best four 
varieties for general culture both for pro¬ 
duction and quality, now in existence.’’ 
Thousands of progressive business farmers 
in the Middle, Southern and New England 
States, plant our seeds annually as they have 
found by experience that Dibble’s Northern- 
grown Seed Potatoes give splendid crops 
when others fail. If you want to grow the 
best crop of potatoes you ever raised, 
START RIGHT by planting the Best 
Seed Potatoes that money will buy and they 
will cost you no more than ordinary, 
run-out, mixed lots sold by your local dealer. 
If you want to plant culls or seconds, don’t 
Send to us, we cannot supply them. Dib¬ 
ble’s Seed Potatoes don’t produce that kind. 
They are not bred that way. Last season in 
spite of the drought, we stored thousands 
upon thousands of bushels that sorted less 
than 2 bu. of seconds to the 100. We are 
Headquarters for Seed Potatoes 
over 50,000 bu. in store, 30 varieties in all, 
containing the new sorts of merit and all the 
standard kinds worth growing and every 
bushel was saved from fields free from blight 
or disease. 
We are not merely Seed Dealers but 
SEED GROWERS and sell direct from 
our 1200 acre Seed Farms to yours. We 
KNOW Seed Potatoes and from nothing, 
have built up a Farm Seed Business in 20 
years, to one where the sales average over 
100,000 bushels annually. 
DIBBLE’S SEED CORN 
absolutely the best, high-grade, pedigree seed obtainable regardless of price. Our Seed 
Corn is from hand-picked ears, the tip and but kernels rejected, thoroughly screened 
and graded and shows a germination test of 95 to 98$. If you pay three times what we 
asK, you cannot get better seed. 
The three kinds described below are the BEST for the Middle and Eastern 
States and we KNOW because we have tried over a score of different varieties on our 
own farms, and these stand at the head. 
DIBBLE’S MAMMOTH YELLOW FLINT 
the largest growing, earliest, most productive flint variety in cultivation, stalks 8 to 10 
feet in height, ears 10 to 15 inches in length and matures here in Western New York in 100 
days. This is the corn that made a World’s Record for Ora D. Blanchard of New Hamp¬ 
shire, yielding 243 bushels from a peck of seed, and producing 460 bu. from 2 measured 
acres for Henry E. Medlong of Oswego, Co., N. Y. 
Samples Free. Test It Yourself. 
Price, 1 bu. $3.00; 3 bu. bag:, $3.00; 10 bu. $13.50. Bags free. 
DIBBLE’S 80-DAY YELLOW DENT 
the earliest DENT corn in cultivation, ripening on our own farms way ahead of 
all others. Stalks average 10 to 12 feet high, ears 8 to 12 inches long and enormously 
productive. G. A. Sharp, Erie Co., Pa. writes, “Matures easily in 80 to 90 days.” D. L. 
Valentine, Washington Co., N. Y. reports, “A yield of 140 bu. per acre, stalks 10 feet tall.” 
M. C. Webster, of Connecticut, says, “Filled a 40 ton silo from three acres and had one 
acre left.” This is the corn, either for crop or silo where seasons are short and the frosts 
come early. 
Price, 1 ini. $3; 3 bu. bag $3; 10 bu. $13.50; bags free. Send for samples. 
DIBBLE’S IMPROVED EARLY LEAMING CORN 
is from 10 days to 2 weeks earlier than the common Learning and is the best big Dent 
for tlie farmers of the Eastern States for the silo. Stalks grow 10 to 15 feet high, ears 
are large and numerous and it ripens on our farms in from 100 to 110 days. 
Crops of 80 tons to the acre are common, carrying 125 to 150 bu. of mature ears. 
II. \\ . Carder writes, “Ears 11 inches long, 10 to 14 feet tall. It was the best crop in 
Herkimer Co.” 
Probably over 1000 silos were filled last fall with our Improved Learning. There 
is nothing better. 
Price, 1 bu.$3; 3 bu.bag $3; 10 bu.$13.50; bags free. Liberal samples free. 
DIBBLE’S NEW SEED DATS 
the result of years of improvement and careful 
breeding, are absolutely the earliest and most 
productive we have ever grown.aud are especially 
suited to the Eastern States. 
Our Oats are early; have tall, stiff straw, 
branching heads averaging a foot in length, free 
from rust and they have outyielded other kinds 
in the same fields from 10 to 30 bu. per acre. The 
Government crop report for December, gives the 
average yield of Oats for New York, 30 bu. per 
acre. Our own crop of 135 acres on six different 
farms, turned out between 8.000 and 9,000 bu., or 
practically twice the average for the State, and 
the profit in Oat growing is in that extra 30 
bushels. Levi Simmons, Livingston Co., N. Y., 
"raised 440 bu. on 4 acres;” John Dann, Monroe 
Co.,N.Y., "reports “Over 2,000 bu. from 26 acres.” 
Our oats aro thoroughly recleaned and weigh 34 
to 38 lbs. per measured bushel. Liberal samples 
I'KKK. Price, 3ks bu. bag $2.35; 10 bu. 
$8; 100 bu. $15. New bags included. 
OUR FAR IVI SEED CATALOGUE 
is the leading Strictly Farm Seed Book of the 
year. The cover design, printed in colors, is a 
thing of beauty and the inside is copiously illus¬ 
trated with half-tone engravings, showing our 
seeds as they are. The descriptions of each vari¬ 
ety are truthful,accurate, free from exaggeration, 
and are written by our Mr. Dibble, who is an 
acknowledged authority on Farm Seeds. It also 
contains letters from over 100 farmers, who have 
found our Farm Seeds to he all that we claimed 
and MOKE. The catalog is free and it describes 
the best Seed Potatoes, Corn,Oats,Clover and Al¬ 
falfa and Grass Seed that money will buy, and 
the prices are right. Send for it today. Address 
EDWARD F. DIBBLE, Seedgrower 
_ Box C, HONEOYE FALLS, N. Y. 
