f^4^ % >" ••■• .*' iV . t • © ^°^^^ ii<^^ .^9«v » aO /^ %--!^V^ V'^'**/ %''^V X -^'N 5^' >^ ^^^-^ \^^?^V v^v % ,0 -V '^If^^^'' J^ ^' •" <^^ *^. '•■• \<^^ * ^^% .^ .^ \^^\/ v^V V^\/ v'^- VERMONT The Green Mountain State PAST PRESENT PROSPECTIVE Compiled by FRANK L. GREENE PUBLISHED BY THE Vermont Commission to the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition 1907 '■t. AlbititH Mt'Uhfttfft t- ( tiiiipiiuv I riiir VERMONT COMMISSION JAMESTOWN TERCENTENNIAL EXPOSITION Gov. Fletcher D. Proctor, Proctor Fred. L. Davis, Pomfret Charles S. Forbes, St. Albans Lieut. Gov. George H. Prouty, Edgar O. Silver, Derby Newport Edward M. Goddard, Montpelier J. Forrest Manning, Rutland James E. Pollard, Chester President, {ex-officio) Fletcher D. Proctor Chairman, George H. Prouty Secretary, Charles S. Forbes printing and publicity committee: Charles S. Forbes Edward M. Goddard Edgar O. Silver D. OF D. FEB 181908 FOREWORD THIS little book aims to tell in a simple and unpre- tentious manner the most important of practical everyday things that people unacquainted with Vermont would naturally like to know about the state and its inhabitants — what they have done, what they are doing, and what they can do to entitle them to an honorable place in the mighty family of progressive commonwealths that in this great Exposition is aus- piciously commemorating a momentous event in its origin. There is much more to the same end that might be written: details of glorious achievement in war; of signal accomplishment in the evolution of free govern- ment, of landmarks set and passed in the development of social culture ; and of steady growth in substantial material prosperity that has been born of the sturdy character, keen intelligence, and steadfast industry of a patriotic, high-minded, home-loving people. But this book has been prepared to serve the im- mediate purpose of the busy man of affairs and not to gratify the quest of the student. It will be found to avoid statistics and comparisons and simply to indicate present day conditions in a more or less easily readable generalization. And thus devoted to the mere hasty suggestion of a wealth of social advantages and business opportunities beyond the power of the printed page adequately to convey to the inquiring mind, It must be supplemented by the hearty invitation of the whole people of Vermont to all their kinsmen and fellow citizens in the land to come to the old Green Mountain state, partake of the hospitality it will be their delight to extend, and see for themselves that all that is told here, and more than volumes else can tell, is true. History OXLV two years after the Jamestown Settlement (1607) eommemorated by this s]:)lendicl Exposition and in the same vear that Henry lludson in the clumsy old Dutch ship "Half ^loon" sailed up the river that was named for him, Samuel de Chami^lain, the ^reat French navi,^ator, piloted by Indians in a birch-hark canoe, discovered the majestic lake that bears his name, (July 4, i6oq), being- the first white man to look upon the reo'ion now known as \'ermont. For some time thereafter the natural logic of events or the caprice of historic circumstance might have made this region French. Now all that is French about it is its name, and that was given to it by the English. And, strangely enough, its very French name, "\'erd Mont", "green mountain", is a contradic- tion of the testimony of the discoverer himself who writes in the account of his memorable voyage, "Continuing our route along the west side of the lake, contemplating the country, I saw on the east side very high mountains, capped with snow." Vermont's mountains are not high enough to reach the perpetual snow line, and, as the distinguished Frenchman saw them on this occasion on the day that was long afterward to become memorable in American history as the Fourth of July, there has been more or less puzzling among historians to decide just what Champlain actually saw on the mountains that gave him the impression they were covered with snow. For Green Mountains they are, if ever mountains were green, and the most refreshing verdure, too, that ever rested mortal eyes. In Pioneering Days. — Vermont was the last of the New England states to be settled by the English colonists. Even while settlements had sprung up all along the coast and had begun to make their way toward the interior, the territory now known as Vermont was regarded by the English as a terra incog- nita, a dense and forbidding forest wilderness stretching far oflf to the northward, its mountain fastnesses inhabited otdy by wild The Crccii Mountain State. 7 beasts, and the whole region, lying between the haunts of the Iroquois Indians on the one hand and the Algonquin tribes on the other, a prized and coveted hunting-ground jealously fought for by both and permanently inhabited by neither. In later years, when the warfare of centuries between the English and the French in the Old W^orld was renewed in the New and what Approach to Montpelier. proved to be a long desperate struggle for the possession of a great continent was under way, Vermont's lakes, rivers, and moun- tain passes became the high\va\s along which the soldiers of the French king and their savage allies made their way down from Canada to the straggling English settlements below^ on many a frightful raid and massacre. And hack again over the same courses the plucky English ])ursued the retiring foe. to rescue The Civccii Mountain State. g captives and to wreak righteous vengeance,, often grappling with them in fierce woodsman's combat that made the Green Mountain region a dark and bloody ground, indeed, and the theatre of some of the most tragic and most rudely romantic events in the pioneering days of the American people. A Record of Glory. — But it is not the object of this little book to give even a sketch of the glorious history of this glorious old commonwealth. It would have to deal with a variety of incident and an importance of purpose and achievement that could not even be satisfactorily hinted at in such abbreviated form. It would have to begin with the pioneering days and their lessons of courage, enterprise, fortitude, and valor ; and then tell how greedy neighbors tried to dispossess the plucky \'ermonters of the pleasant lands they had redeemed from the wilderness and the savages and how for many a long year Ethan Allen and the Green ^fountain Boys successfully resisted the attempts of the rich and powerful royalist government of New York to govern them against their will, and wrote a chapter of tingling romance unex- celled, and in but few instances equalled, in the history of America. It would tell how in the Westminster massacre of March 13, 1775. what was in fact the first blood shed in the Revolution was spilled upon the soil of Vermont, and how in the capture of grim old Fort Ticonderoga one ]\Iay morning bright and early Vermonters not only wrested from proud old England a great military stronghold but captured the first British colors to be surrendered to Yankee Doodle in the glorious War for Independence. It would tell how. beset on the one hand by New York that still claimed jurisdiction over their territory and attempted to enforce it. and on the other by Great Britain and her armies of red coats and redskins, and all the while denied recognition or help in defence b}- the Continental Congress, the plucky little band of Green Mountain Boys declared the independence of the state of \'ermont. January 16, 1777. and then later in the >ear adopted a constitution containing the first prohibition of slavery made on this continent. Then they set up a little republic that there- after for fourteen years maintained itself against all the world, in war and in peace, as a sovereign state, making and administer- ing its own laws, establishing post-roads and post-ofifices, coining its own money, negotiating trade arrangements with foreign The Monarch of Green Mountain Elms, Feacliani. The Green Mouittaiu State. 1 1 states, and contributing one of the most uniciuc and brilliant chapters to American history. It would tell how the faithful Vermonters. still stubbornly denied all official recognition by the Continental Congress and driven to this expedient of an in- dependent government for self-preservation, nevertheless con- tinued to fight for the cause of liberty and to bear signal part in such glorious achievements as the battle of Bennington and the repulse of Burgoyne's expedition. For that matter, Burgoyne's own words in the language of a private letter best tell how the British themselves at the time regarded the part \'ermonters were playing in the desperate conflict : "The Hampshire Grants in particular, a country unpeopled and almost unknown in the last war, now abounds in the most active and most rebellious race on the continent, and hangs like a gathering storm on my left." It would tell how the diplomac\- of the far-seeing and sagacious statesmen of this little mountain republic kept a British army in idleness on the Canadian frontier for months and months and thus prevented another great invasion of the colonies from the north- ward that threatened disaster to the cause. Then it would tell how after liberty had been won, \'ermont went peaceably about the task of building up her state, all the while maintaining its independence and waxing thrifty and proud, until on the 4th da> of March, 1791, the reconstructed Congress admitted \'ermont to the Union of states, the first child born to the Old Thirteen. And when a sketch had reached even this point, the outline of the his- tory of \'ermont would only be begun. Then would follow the stor\ of \'ermont's part in the war of 1812 and the great victory on land and water at Plattsburg ; her part in the war with Mexico : her part in the war for the preservation of the Union to which she gave ten men out of every hundred of her population, suffered a higher percentage of men killed in action than any other state, and never surrendered a flag in battle ; and the war with Spain in which again this little commonwealth gave to the countrv a regiment of soldiers when her quota was only a battalidn. and enriched the annals of the nation l)y the exploits of two such' vikings as Dewxy and Clark, beside. The Victories of Peace. — -^nd this is only llie melan- choly tale of war. All along down through decade after decade of peace the story would have to tell of "victories no less re- 12 The Crccn Mountain State nowned than war"', of remarkable inventions and discoveries of scientists and mechanics, of distinguished hterary accomphshment. of sagacity and progress in statecraft, of practical achievement in the art of husbandry, of steady development of manufacturing and industrial life, of a broadening of the public educational field and scope, the uplift of social culture, and the development of a Ci>nnectKiit River Above Brattleboro. people whose character and institutions have made them worthy their honored place among the sons and daughters of Columbia. This little book must forego all the delig^ht of such a recital and confine itself to the suggestions of social and business promise that grow out of the \'ermont of to-day. The Green Mountain State. 13 A Few Words of Description Vermont, one of the New England states, is bounded on the north by tlie Dominion of Canada, on the east by New Hamp- shire, on the south by Massachusetts, and on the west by New York. The eastern boundary Hne of \ermont is the Connecticut river, while the greater extent of the western boundary line passes through Lake Champlain. including within the state the major portion of its waters and nearly all the beautiful islands that lie therein. Its greatest length, north and south, is about 160 miles, its width on the northern boundar\- 90 miles and on the southern boundary about 40 miles, with an average width of 57^ miles. Its area is between 9,000 and 10.000 square miles. The famous Green Mountain range runs north and south, approximately in the middle of the state, dividing near the center to form something like the two upper arms of a Y. These with their numerous foot hills and the Taconic range of mountains in the south- western part of the state give an undulating character to the country, sloping down to the level of the Champlain valley on the west and the Connecticut River valley on the east. Lake Cham- plain is about 90 feet above the sea, while the highest peak of the Green Mountains. Mansfield's "Chin" is 4..^) ^^'^'t above sea level. Several hundred lakes and ponds and hundreds of rivers and streams make their beds and courses among these hills and valleys, some draining to the Connecticut river, some to the Hudson, and others to Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence river, the waters of all ultimately reaching the Atlantic ocean. The climate is that of the north temperate zone, modified !)> local conditions to form perhaps the most salubrious of all the New England states. The mean annual temperature ranges from 40 to 47 degrees, the highest from 90 to 100, and the lowest from 30 to 45 degrees below zero, while the rainfall averages between 30 and 45 inches per annum. The winters, while occasionally pro- longed, are by no means as severe as is popularly believed by outsiders and the wild storms and fierce blizzards that are charac- teristic of many more populous parts of the country are wholly unknown in \'ermont. 14 TJic Green Mountain State. The population of Vermont, according to the census of 1900, was 343,641. These figures show a gain of 11,219 c>r 1.6 per cent, over the census of 1890, but as the census of 1900 was taken shortly after the opening of a healthy revival of industrial, trade, and social interests that has steadily progressed ever since, there is every reason to believe that the census of 1910 will show the most substantial increase in population the state has experienced since 1820. Connecticut River North of Bellows Falls. There are six incorporated cities and 240 towns in the state, ranging in population from about 20,000 to a few hamlets of less than 100. The average villages are snug little communities of from two to three and four thousand inhabitants with a high degree of material prosperity, modern public institutions, and elevated social culture. The Greetu Mountain State. 15 Social Economy Municipal and Rural Improvement.— Vermont en- joys in its original healthy state the good old town meeting system of local self-government inherited from the New England Fathers. Only six of her communities are organized under a citv government and none of these is large enoug'h to permit the government to hecome corrupt because of the distance from the voters to the public servants. Indeed, it is one of the great elements of strength in all phases of \'ermont public policy that the people live next door to their government and governors and thus have an intimate acquaintance with both that does not fail to make for civic righteousness. Public opinion means something in Vermont because it is based, for the most part, upon a peculiarly first-hand knowledge of the details of the issues in- volved and a very wide personal acquaintance with public men on the part of the body of the citizenship. Few of the unsavory problems that vex the government in more populous centers have to be dealt with by Vemiont munici- palities. The exceptions to the law-abiding element in any com- munity are literally individual and the matter of adequate police protection is, therefore, one of the least of public concerns. All the cities and larger villages have modern utilities in the form of wa.ter supply, sewerage systems, and street lighting, and the smaller communities are fast coming into line. Ample fire protection in the larger places is assured by up-to-date facilities and paid fire departments. The good roads problem, made particularly serious by the grades of a hill country and the frosts of winter, is nevertheless being met in each succeeding year by a constantly accelerating movement for the best highways that available skill and money can make to suit conditions, and there has been much improve- ment in this respect in the past few years. Streets in cities and villages are generally serviceable and in many instances the very best. The state is now working for the first season under a law even more generous in its provisions and progressive in its policy The Green Mountain State. 17 than any similar statute heretofore in force in \"ermont and the idea is fast developing among- the people that the rural highway problem is one of the most seriously pressing demands upon the public thought. Even under existing conditions, however, Ver- mont roads are vastly superior to those in many larger and wealthier states and afford safe and generally comfortable and convenient highways for transportation and travel by horse and automobile. Social Betterment.— There is comparatively little demand in \ermont communities for social betterment movements con- templating such works as improved housing conditions for the working classes, social settlements, etc. \'ermont's laborers, as a general thing, have comfortable homes in a healthy physical and moral environment, and the characteristic evils of tenement districts are practically unknown in the state. Humane socie- ties are alert and active in all the larger communities, but their efforts are mainly directed to the prevention of cruelty to animals, and there is comparative!}- little call for their interference in behalf of human beings. Charities and Corrections.— The state has for many years made generous j^rovision from the public treasury for the care and education of blind children and deaf mutes in some ot the most successful institutions devoted to this work in the country. It also nianitains at X'ergennes what is known as the State Industrial School to which children of the age of under- standing that are deficient in moral nature or opportunities for moral culture may be sent during the continuance of their minor- ity, being taught some useful craft or trade and given practical instruction in elementary education and ethics. The care of the poor under Vermont law devolves upon the town where they have legal residence. Some cities and towns main- tain their own almshouse ; others combine in groups for the main- tenance of a common almshouse ; and it is needless to suggest that, under such a localized system at work in a comparatively small population, it is practically impossible for cases deserving charitable aid to pass unnoticed and unhelped. Some of the larger communities have w'ell appointed public hospitals that minister to the surroundinsr territorv and that also furnish free i8 The Green Mountain State. beds for the needy at the expense, in some instances, of the town or of some reUgious or secular society. The state provides for the keeping of the insane at the Vermont State Hospital for the Insane at Waterbury, a group of modern buildings combining in their structure and equipment the very latest facilities for the merciful care and effective restraint of these unfortunates. Beside this there is one large institution for Kqumox Mouniiiin. the care of the insane long established in wide public confidence where state patients were kept until the Waterbury asylum was built. There are also several other private sanatoriums, engaged in the care and treatment of all classes of mental troubles. Vermont maintains two distinctive penal institutions, a State Prison at Windsor and a House of Correction at Rutland. In both of these the discipline is based upon modern ideas of penology, the hideously degrading parti-colored dress of the The Green Mountain State. 19 convict is being gradually discarded for a neat uniform for merit men, the lock step has been abolished, and numerous other wise moves in the direction of penal reform have been or are being brought about. Kconomic. — \'ermont has no bonded debt except a small loan held by a state institution for its benefit, and levies no state tax, the government being supported by a tax on corpora- tions, collateral inheritances, etc. Its public finances have long been prudently and sagaciously administered and its financial condition to-day is vastly superior in point of liabilities, assets, and credit to many of the most pretentious states of the Union, A state commission appointed by the governor under an act of the legislature of 1906 is now studying the subject of taxation with the view to submitting propositions for a new law to the legislature of 1908. Provident Institutions. — There are 45 savings banks in Vermont with an aggregate of deposits of $52,087,699.08, an in- crease of $2,717,791.40 over the total for the preceding year. The rate of interest paid on deposits averages 3I per cent. Nearly half the residents of Vermont are depositors in the savings banks. An act passed by the legislature of 1906 practically removes the limit on the amount of money that may be deposited in such institutions in Vermont without being subject to local taxation. The banks themselves pay a state tax on such deposits of seven- tenths of one per cent. There are 50 national banks in the state with an aggregate of $5,725,000 capital. One of the most conspicuously sound and successful of the principal life insurance companies in the country is a Vermont institution, originated by Vermonters and conducted by Ver- monters from small beginnings in 1854 to its present great im- portance. \^ermont is also the home of several well known and successful mutual fire insurance companies that have done a steadily increasing business for many years, one of them since 1828, and that are reckoned among the standby financial institu- tions of Northern New England. It may be interesting to recall in this connection that the modern plan of mutual fire insurance now generally followed by mutual companies throughout the The Green Mountain State. 21 United States was devised hy X'crmoiiters and first put into operation in this state. The rapid increase of the industrial and commercial life of the state is resulting in the establishment of other similarly useful financial institutions which, under the rigid scrutiny of the state law, are sound and reliable, and a great convenience in the modern methods of doing business. Regulation of Industry and Labor.— Labor problems in \'ermont are by no means such disturbing factors in the eco- nomic life of its people as they are in far too many other states, and this, too. notwithstanding the significant fact that the census of 1900 showed that the manufacturing interests had doubled in the preceding decade and the special United States census of 1905 indicated an increase under way that may even promise to show greater results in 1910. The state is fast developing an indus- trial life apart from agriculture and kindred pursuits that is beginning to revolutionize many phases of its material concerns, but all this is being accomplished, for the most part, with the maintenance of generally cordial relations between capital and labor. While trades unionism has largely established itself in control of the labor market in the busiest industrial centers, trades unionism in its most radical and exacting form is not manifest throughout the state at large. Many of the more im- portant crafts and trades under the influence of trades unionism are working under reciprocal agreements with employers to the general satisfaction of both parties and the ill efifects of the persistent disturbance of these relations through the efforts of radicals and agitators in the ranks of labor or obstinate and tyran- nizing employers in the ranks of capital are well nigh unknown in the state. The workmen, as a class, receive good pay, have comfortable homes, and enjoy social advantages far in excess of the opportunities of labor in the more populous districts, while in their political estate as citizens they are freely and cordially conceded an equality with their fellows that makes the distinc- tively labor issue practically an unknown factor in Vermont politics. The state has a child labor law that has been pro- nounced by President Samuel Gompers of the American Federa- tion of Labor to be the best of its kind in the L^nited States. Another law provides for the weekly payment of wages by corpo- 22 The Green Mountain State. rations. One of the decided and pre-eminent advantages of the development of the industrial and business resources of this state now so actively going forward is the general contentment and thrift of the working classes and the high standard of intelligence, capability, and morals that obtains among them. Hygiene. — The general administration of sanitary laws and the guardianship of public health is vested in a state board of Sunset on Lake Chainplain. health established in 1886 and conspicuous as being among the most efficient of similar institutions in the country. The sanitary legislation of the state is thoroughly modern in every particular, even to the point of prohibiting spitting upon sidewalks, in pub- lic buildings, and public conveyances, and is rigidly enforced. Each city or town has a local health officer appointed by the state board and acting under its direction, and once a year a state school of these health officers is held at some central point lasting about a week. Attendance is compulsory and the expense of at- The Green Mountain State. 23 tendance is defrayed out of the state treasury. The death rate in Vennont is one of the lowest in the country, being only 15 in 1,000. The state maintains one of the best equipped laboratories of hygiene in the United States, for the free public service, and this institution is particularly useful in the enforcement of a pure food law most comprehensive in its scope and detail. Through the generosity of an honored citizen, a sanatorium for the treat- ment of tuberculous patients is now being erected in Pittsford and when completed will be turned over to the state as a gift. Liquor L#aw. — The liquor law in effect in Vermont is a local-option-license statute under which each town decides by popular vote annually whether or not it shall license the sale of intoxicating liquors within its jurisdiction for the year ensuing. The fee for license to sell liquor is divided between the munici- pality and the state, one half to each, the state's proportion being devoted to the highway fund. There are at present 32 towns in Vermont that license the sale of intoxicating liquor. Religious. — Vermont enjoys the religious ministry of all the principal Christian denominations which are for the most part in sound economic condition, maintain comfortable houses of worship and employ pulpit talent of a high standard, beside devoting much money and energy to philanthropic movements and institutions of various kinds. There is also a very small member- ship in the Jewish faith in the state with its customary high charactered ministry, wdiile Spiritualists and other religious or- ganizations are also to be found. The private and public rela- tions of all these bodies are exceedingly cordial and truly Ameri- can, and the line of religious dift'erence is not drawn in politics or social life. The Press. — The newspaper press of Vermont is acknowl- edged by competent judges of the journalistic profession to be far and away superior in its editorial standard, literar}' quality, and typographical excellence to the press of the average rural state, and plays a very important part not only in the government of the commonwealth but in the fomiation of the local popular opinion on national affairs as well. There are nine daily and jy weekly newspapers in the state and their circulation per capita far exceeds that of many more populous commonwealths. The The Green Moimfaiii Sfate. 25 X'ermont press is characteristically independent in its editorial attitude toward politics and public affairs generally and is most enthusiastically helping to exploit the great business "resources of the state. Like all rural people. \'ermonters have had to share in the laugh turned upon themselves by the paragrapher and the car- toonist. Ehit the paragrapher and the cartoonist would be ^^:.-^^ ^;v^^^ftte^-*:.^^ Birdseye View of the Champlain Valley. amazed to find how many of the high class newspapers and periodicals of national reputation find their way into the snug homes of the people living among the Green Mountains, they would be surprised to learn what superior literary cultivation, what unusual degree of cosmopolitan knowledge and experience characterize these dwellers out of the country's great market places and off the main highways of continental travel. A Glimpse of Lake Champlain. The Green Mountain State. 27 Education From the earliest pioneering days the people of Vermont have been earnestly devoted to the cause of free popular educa- tion and have steadily kept pace ever since with progressive theory in school laws and the most advanced methods in the conducting of school institutions. The first constitution, adopted in 1777, fourteen years before Vermont was admitted to the Union, simply voiced an already established public sentiment when it declared that "a competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town for the convenient instruction of the youth, and one or more grammar schools be incorporated and properly supported in each county of the state." And the same spirit has influenced \"ermont school legislation from that day to this. Elementary Education.— Every community in the state, of course, has its regularly constituted public schools of the elementary grades and in some of the larger villages and in the cities are Roman Catholic parochial schools covering this field. Beside the established course of instruction for this grade, special teachers may be engaged to teach vocal music, physical culture, drawing, and the industrial arts and sciences. The larger communities have for years maintained kindergarten schools in the public school system and this feature is extending itself more and more to comprehend the smaller towns. Secondary Education. — Under the law of Vermont every child in the state is entitled to free high school advantages to the extent of preparation for college. Every town that does not maintain a high school is obliged to pay the tuition of its advanced pupils in secondary schools of other towns. There are about 75 high schools and 15 academies in the state. There is a growing disposition to introduce manual training, into the public school course and in some schools it is already successfully under wav. 28 The Green Mountain State. Higher Education —There are three colleges in \'er- mont and the state provides thirty scholarships in each. Two of these institutions are over one hundred years old and have long- been recognized in the educational world as among the- foremost of the smaller colleges. The other has been established 87 years and is the most famous and best military school in the country after the United States military academy at West Boint. Killington and Pico Mountains. It was in \'ermont that Emma Willard, the noted pioneer in her line of educational work in this country, opened the first female seminary in the United States. Public Libraries.— All the larger communities have free public libraries furnished by gift or local public enterprise, and the state in addition by a law administered by a state library commission gives generous aid to any community that will establish a free public library. As a consequence, less than a hundred towns in the state arc without such a library. The Green Moiiiitaiit State. 29 Education of Defectives.— 1'lie state generously fur- nislies free education for the blin;l and deaf and dumb in several noted institutions in Xew England. Text Books- — Pupils are furnished free text books throughout the elementary and secondary public schools. Agricultural College. — A X'ermonter, the late United States Senator Justin S. Morrill, was the father of agricultural colleges in the United States and in Morrill Hall at Burlington the state maintains an excellent agricultural college. A state agricultural experiment station also contributes its high class facilities to complete this course of instruction. Normal Schools. — As an evidence of the part played by \'ermont in educational work it is of interest to note that the first school on this continent for the training of teachers was opened in this state in 1823. There are three normal schools in \"ermont supported by the state and alTording free instruction to residents. The standard of qualifications for a teacher in the public schools is high and the granting of certificates to teachers is regulated by a law requiring most searching tests as to mental and moral fit- ness. Administration. — The general educational afl:'airs of \'er- mont are under a superintendent of education from whose de- partment radiates a system of administration that comprehends personal oversight of the work even in the smallest public school in the most obscure hamlet. The state has entered upon a policy of centralization of elementary schools in the rural towns so that instead of the maintenance of several small and scattered schools of this kind, as was customary under the old system, pupils are now transported at the public expense daily from these rural sections to some one large and well equipped elementary school. The law also provides for state assistance to towns in the hiring of expert school superintendents, the state treasury contributing $1,000 toward the salary of every such superintendent engaged in compliance with its provisions. Support. — Each town primarily supports its own school by local taxation, aided by revenue from lands, tuitions, be- quests, and state appropriations, and, in the case of small towns. The Crccii Mountain Stufc 31 by a portion of the state school tax. The state has invested a permanent school fund amounting" to a million and a quarter dollars, the revenue from which is applied to the aid of educa- tional work by the towns. In addition, the laws are most generous and provide for a variety of ways whereby the state treasury can supplement the efforts of progressive towns that make some show of helping themselves to begin with. A \'iew of Lake Bomoseen. An unusual impetus has been given to the {)ublic interest in educational matters within the past year or so, some of the most advanced legislation ever undertaken by the state in this line has been enacted, and the already creditable record of the Ver- mont schools promises to be left far behind in the development of this new spirit of an even more generous and practical free popular education. K'lk I'.iun (11 ]>aki_ C hailiplain. TJic Grccii Mountain State. 33 Manufacturing and Industrial It is a widespread ])opular idea that A'ermont is mainly an ag-ricultural state and that the greater part of her people are farmers. Proud as she is of her prosperous farms and the men and women that have made them prosperous, she still finds other employment than tilling the soil for more than 63 per cent, of her inhabitants. The census shows that of the total population of the state at least 10 years old engaged in gainful occupations, 36.9 per cent, were employed in agricultural pursuits, 26.8 per cent, in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, 17.1 per cent, in domestic and personal service, 14 per cent, in trade and trans- portation, and 5.2 per cent, in professional service. The special census made by the United States government in 1905 shows the total annual value of \'enuont manufactured ]>roducts (in concerns with a product valued at $500 and over) to be $63,083,611, a gain of 22.5 per cent, over the figures of the cjnsus of ICKDO. There was also a gain of 47.4 per cent, in the total capital invested, an increase of 17.5 per cent, in the num- ber of workmen employed, and of 2,^.2 per cent, in the amount of wages paid. Leading Industries. — The eleven leading industries, in the state, according to the United States government classifica- tion in their order of rank are: (i) Butter and cheese, (2) lumber and timber products: (3) marble and stone work; (4) woolen g(X)ds; (5) monuments and tombstones; (6) paper and Avood pulp; (7) flour and grist mill products; (8) foundry and ir.achine shop products; (9) lumber, planing mill products, in- cluding sash, doors, and blinds; (10) hosiery and knit goods; (11) cotton goods. It may be explained that the character of the material used and the work done in the industry shown as "marble and stone A\ork" and the industry shown as "monuments and tombstones" are practically- the same, so that they may properly be treated as a single industry. This makes stone manufactures the l-adinsj The Green Mountain State. manufacturing industry in the state. The capital employed in this industn' increased 170.1 per cent, in the five years, the num- ber of wage earners 73-5 per cent., the wages paid 68.1 per cent.. and the value of products 50 per cent. Next to stone manufactures, the combined textile mdustnes in 1905 had products of the greatest value. The capital invested A Mammoth Bam on a Vermont Farm. in them in the five years had increased 56.4 per cent., the number of wage earners 13.1 per cent., wages, 24.8 per cent., and the value of products 43.8 per cent. For the purposes of this book only the most generalizing survey of the manufacturing and other industrial interests and resources of the state may properly be made. The special ad- The Green Moiintain State. ^5- vantages of no particular locality can be dwelt upon with fairness to all the others where there is such a wealth of material to con- dense into such little space. So, also, to chronicle by name the various manufacturing and business concerns throughout the state whose enterprise and prosperity are such important factors in the development of its economic resources would mean to turn what is meant to be simply a little handbook of suggestions into a commercial gazetteer. What Vermont Manufactures— The great marble, granite, slate, dairy products, canning and lumbering industries may be here passed over with the remark that such details con- cerning them as may be appropriately contemplated by this work are all told elsewhere. The list of manufacturing industries then to follow would embrace a most miscellaneous collection of enterprises. Under the general classification of wood working manufactures might be included the making of furniture, interior house finishings shade rollers, screens, blinds, refrigerators, box shooks and boxes.' butter tubs, barrels, cofi:-ins, clothespins, children's toys, wagons and vehicles of all kinds, and novelties of every description There are extensive pulp mills and paper mills, manufactories of cotton and woolen goods, underwear, dress fabrics, overalls and all varieties of garments. The largest and most famous scale works m the land have long been established in Vermont and have made two trade names household words. The same may be said of the manufacture of organs, one concern in particular ranking among the foremost on the continent in the qualit\- an<] reputation of its product. There are extensive metal workin- plants, machine shops turning out some of the most widely cir^- culated wares, together with manufactories of agricultural im- plements, dairy and maple sugar making apparatus, cutlerv steel carpenters' squares, bridges -tc. Some of the most noted tan- neries in the country flourisii here, also, and one of the largest powder and ammunition companies in the United States is located in the state. Then the list might go on to include photographic supplies, cereal foods, patent medicines, confectionery, cigars brooms and brushes, stereoscopes and steregraphs, boots and shoes, brassware, dyes, foundry products, knit goods, shoddy brick, and a seemingly endless variety of manufactures and in- TJic Green Moiinfain State. 2)7 dnstrial pursuits identified with the hte of a prosperous and growing society. Strange as it may seem to the pubHc at large that has been taught to regard \'ermont as a purely agricultural state, there are in \ ermont to-day various luanutacturing enterprises that are the largest of their kind in the world or in the country and that are sending their products to every (|uarter of the globe. After a long period of comparative inactivity in imlustrial pursuits, apart from farming and allied interests, \ ermont has within the past decade or so begun to enter upon a manufactur- ing and industrial career that ])r()mises to place her well in advance among the states in this employment of the energies of her people. And the best of it all is that this enterprise is founded wholly upon the development of untold natural resource and is in no sense the result of any artificial stimulus. It is the outgrowth of a natural and healthy evolution of business purpose, a keener recognition of commercial opportunities, and a fast developing popular spirit of ambition to exploit the latent advant- ages of a region whose great potential wealth has hitherto long lain practically untouched in the characteristic American haste to pioneer in new fields. Business Opportunities.— ^ ermont to-day stands in need uf men and money to develop untold water-power that for generations has been tumbling down her hillsides unharnessed She offers exceeding great opportunities for far sighted, enter- prising men with capital who will utilize these water falls in the manufacture of an endless variety of wares that can be produced at a good profit within her borders, or who will install electric plants and furnish light for her villages, and power for street railways and manufacturing i)lants. She has yet great possibili- ties of imdeveloped mineral wealth, notwithstanding the tremen- dous strides capital and brains have already accomplished in this direction. All over the state there are yet stores of marble, granite, soapstone, talc, asbestos, kaolin, and other minerals waiting to be delved for by the men that have capital and experience to undertake the work. Favoring Conditions. — And the inducements to these undertakings are something beside the wealth of natural re- 38 The Green Mountain State. source upon which they may be founded. Because the state is in effect only setting out upon this industrial career and her cities and villages are only beginning to appreciate the tremen- dous possibilities in it and are anxious to have a share in the prosperity to follow, land values are still moderate, rents are low, local banking facilities are yet untaxed, and the incidental expense of maintenance and operation of plants governed by .]-:i^ \ .^IKi^ ""'1 r~i^' ,i|l 1 ■■' H ^^^BIH A Alaple Grove in Summer. local conditions is reasonable. Vermont communities, as a rule, are not burdened with debt, the ancient thrift of New England instinct having played a prudent part in all their financing. Taxes are not oppressive, and the current local opinion throughout the state readily concedes to incoming industries exemption from taxation for a period of ten years under the provisions of the state law. The Green Mountain State. 39 The Labor Question. — The labor problem in \'ermont is not complicated. The relations between capital and labor in the state are not only generally harmonious, but the conditions under which labor is employed there ; the advantages of residence in small cities and villages adjacent to the countryside with the resultant benefits of sanitary housing, abundance of pure food lit normal prices; unexcelled and in some respects peculiar oppor- tunities afforded workingmen for participation in local, social. .^- < ^ Camel s Hump. and civic life in the spirit of healthy democracy; convenient and first-class free educational facilities for their children ; the oppor- tunity to own their own homes and play their own individual part in the affairs of a community hampered by no long-standing artificial class distinctions — all these and many more similar con- ditions combine to make the establishment and upbuilding of industrial life in Vermont an undertaking free of most of the vexatious and even threatening evils that make it such a risk of money and effort in the regions already overcrowded. 'I'ln- Crccii Moiiniaiii State. 41 Mineral Resources The country is just beginnini;- to realize the i;reat importance of the mineral resources of Vermont, but X'ermonters themselves have been steadily toiling away at their, quarries for more than a hundred years, have developed immensely profitable industries in the production of rough stone and finished building and monu- mental work, and have yet hardly made the first impression upon the, incalculable wealth of material that generous Nature has stored away among their old green hills. And yet the value of the product more than doubled in the five years from 1900 to 1905 and is increasing proportionately. Vermont to-day produces more marble than any other state and, in fact, more than all the other states of the Union combined. In the production of granite, according to the latest statistics at hand, she ranks third, Massachusetts being first and Maine second. In the production of slate, V^ermont is second only to Pennsylvania. The state actually leads the world in the pro- duction of the more costly kinds of monumental and building stone. Thousands of men are employed in this great industry and millions of dollars are annually distributed in wages to these workmen, while handsome profits are reaped upon the constantly increasing capital employed in the business. The product is sent to every part of the civilized world. Year by year new deposits of these and other minerals are brought to light in various parts of the state and more than one little mountain hamlet of but a few years ago is being transformed into a busy industrial center, while in yet remote and undeveloped parts of the state vast cjuanti- ties of valuable minerals are still waiting the enterprise and capital that are to exploit them. The scope of this book will not permit detailed description of this immense industry or the tremendous possibilities of profit to the public and to investors that are constantly ojx'uing out of it, because any such description must necessaril\ be too technical and statistical for popular reading. lUit this one I)ranch of Vermont's resources alone is destined to give her ]:)rominent rank amonsj the industrial states of the countrw 42 The Green Mountain State. Marble. — Vermont supplies the world with over four million dollars" worth of marble annually, more than all the other states of the Union combined, and more than any other one dis- trict on the globe. Most of the marble produced by other states is of a rather inferior grade and, therefore, can be used only for building purposes, while that produced in Vermont is used for : c$ , 4»«»- \ A Typicil Vermont Marble Quarry. monumental and interior building work, which requires the finest quality, and there is also a large quantity consumed for exterior building purposes. Two-thirds of the valuable marble used for monumental purposes comes from the state. The largest marble companies in the world are situated in Vermont and one of them is said to be actually larger than any other six of the world's marble companies combined. This com- The Green Mountain State. 43 l)any produces about one-half of all the marble sold in this country and probably two-thirds of the best varieties used in monumental and interior work. \'ermont also produces a very wide range of marble, there l)eing; white, clouded white, several shades of blue, green, pink, many shades of red, and the dark green Verde Antique of Rox- bury, this latter standing pre-eminent among the green marbles ])roduced in the world. The state is rich in limestone, some kinds of which when sawn and polished are used as marble, while the remainder is converted into lime in which a large and profitable trade is main- tained. Granite. — There is good authority for believing that there is practically no limit to the amount of granite that Vermont can produce. Certain it is that the state already stands first in the value of rough granite sold for monumental work, and the amount of granite sold in the rough for building stock equals that produced in Massachusetts or Maine, once and for a long time the country's chief sources of supply. Barre has already become the world's greatest granite quarrying and manufacturing center and is growing rapidly. New quarries are frequently being opened in various parts of the state and nobody knows what enormous stores of this stone remain yet to be developed. The N'ermont granite is of unsurpassed quality and has proved highly suitable even for statuary. The total value of the annual granite product is in the neighborhood of five million dollars. Slate. — The only state in the Union that produces more slate than Vermont is Pennsylvania, but even Pennsylvania does not produce slate of a better quality. In some years the value of the Vermont slate output has been double that produced in all the other states of the Union except Pennsylvania and the busi- ness is steadily growing. Most of this product is roofing slate, but stone is also found from which billiard tables, mantels, tiling, etc.. are made and \'ermont may be said to enjoy the largest part of the trade in this latter quality. Some of the Vermont slate, such as the unfading green and purple, is found nowhere else. Other Minerals. — \ ermont has large deposits of good buihling stone, soapstone, lime, talc, manganese, mica, ochre. Tlic Crccii Mountain State. 45 kaolin, and asbestos which are more or less profitably worked. There are also extensive deposits of copper and iron ore, but the latter is not worked at present, although the indications are that the increasing demands of trade and improved methods of min- ing and smelting will some day result in activity along these lines also. There is some gold in \>rmont. but it is not found in paying quantities, generally speaking. 'Riverside Drive" — Lamoille River. All in all there is abundant evidence on every hand that the varied mineral wealth stored away among the mountains of Ver- mont, while not offering inducement to the "bonanza nug-get" and "get rich quick" kind of mining speculations, is nevertheless of such genuinely substantial character as to quality and quantity as to mean limitless wealth to the pluck that is now developing and shall hereafter develop it. A Har\est Scene on a Vermont Farm. The Green Mountain State. 47 Agriculture Vermonters long ago discovered that their state was not designed by Nature to become a great agricidtural region in the sense that the term is apphed to the vast grain-growing sections of the country. But they also discovered, and learned to profit by the discovery, that Vermont is unexcelled by any and equalled by few states in the Union in the production of a variety of small field crops and orchard fruits, for certain kinds of stock raising, for dairying, for the production of maple sugar, for poultry and bee keeping, and, in fact, for a multiplicity of kindred pursuits growing out of or allied wath the tilling of the soil. And along these lines of specialized and intensive farming the Vermont agriculturists have wrought for themselves a substantial pros- perity that, abundant as it already has become, is only the begin- ning of a wealth more abundant still that the development and practice of ever improving scientific and business methods is destined to achieve. However tempting the possibilities of great profits from the broader ventures of farming on the fertile prairies of the West, a few simple facts in regard to farming in Vermont still stubbornly persist, to promise the right kind of a farmer a more even average of }'ear by year prosperity and money-making than can be enjoyed in but few other parts of the country. Some Interesting Figures. — Of a total land area of 5,846,400 acres, 80.8 per cent., or 4.724,440 acres, is included in farms. The higher hills and mountains furnish excellent pastur- age, while the valleys and lower hjlls are put under cultivation. The total value of farm property, according to the census of 1900, was $108,451,427, and the annual products, $33,570,892, and there have undoubtedly been substantial gains in both values since. Over 78 per cent, of \'ermont farms are conducted bv their owners, a good sign of the agricultural thrift of the state. Another good sign of this thrift is that, while the average value per farm for farm buildings in the United States as a whole is $620, in Vermont it is $1,125. ^'i the per capita value of agri- cultural products Vermont is exceeded by only eleven states. 48 The Cvccn Mountain State. Broadly speaking, \'ermont's principal agricultural crops are butter and cheese, maple sugar and syrup, livestock, and lumber. The animal products of the state, according to the last cen- sus, represented 45.9 per cent, of the value of all farm products and 70 per cent, of the gross farm income. Dairy products alone make up 60.5 per cent, of this income from animal products, while 26.9 per cent, represents animals sold or slaughtered on farms; 10 per cent, poultry and eggs; and 2.6 per cent, wool, A Countrv Road. honey, and miscellaneous products. More than half the farms in the state derive their principal income from dairy products. \'ermont farms already support more dairy cows per acre than the farms of any other state, produce more butter and cheese in proportion to population than any other state, and the dairying business is still expanding. The manufacture of butter has been divorced from farm life, however, under the modern creamery system, and that phase of this subject will be treated elsewhere in this book. TJic Green Mountain State. 49 Livestock. — Livestock is one of the most valuable pro- ducts of the \'ermont farms. Not many years ago X'ermont Morgan horses were in great demand throughout the country and the Green jMountain horse market was famous. While the quality of the best breeds has always been that of an intelligent, useful, enduring horseflesh, yet it is only recently that a re- A Prize Dairy Cow. awakening in tlie demand for higiier grades of horses has stim- ulated \'ermonters once more to produce their best. The United States government is now conducting a breeding station for the raising of Morgan horses in connection with the X'ermont state experiment station. The government, after long search and careful inspection of some hundreds of heads of Morgan The Green Mountain State. 51 horses, has selected several of the best of the type and is under- taking to restore the old stock by modern scientific methods. It is now many years since sheep raising was the principal source of income of Vermont farmers, but some of the benefits to the native stock originating in that day have been perpetuated to the present time. It was a Vermonter, it will be remembered, that introduced the Spanish Merino sheep to this country and A Flu.. '/■ niont Slieep. adapted the breed to our climate and environment. Since that day the breeding of Vermont Merinos has been a profitable busi- ness in some parts of Vermont. Radical changes in market demands have made general sheep raising less profitable than in former days, but there is a noticeable awakening toward better realization of opportunities in this line. Vermont's hillsides fur- nish excellent pasturage for sheep, while there is some land neglected and worthless to-day that might profitably be turned The Green Mountain State. 53 into sheep pasture. Even as it is. the averaoe value ])er head for \ erinont sheep is $4.10, or 26 cents oreater than the average valuation for the country at large. So, too, \'ermont swine are valued at $9 a head, whereas the average valuation for the country is $7.62. A\'hat \'ermont farms are doing in the production of lumher Haying Scene on a Vermont Farm. IS told in another part of this hook in connection with the account of the state's forestry interests generallv. Field Crops. — \'ermont's principal farm crops are corn, oats, harley, rye, buckwheat, potatoes, and hay. The viekl per acre and the price per bushel of corn. oats, barley, and rye are considerably in excess of the average for the country at large. The Green Mountain State. 55 but, with the exception of potatoes, all these crops are mostly raised for home consumption, and, while the national average of productiveness per acre for potatoes is 1.2 bushels more than the average for Vermont, the X'ermont price is 3.9 cents a bushel higher. Hay is one of X'ermont's great staple crops, and even with the immense amount of pasture lantl kept for the use of Scene Along the \Vhite River Valley. home dairying interests and the great quantities of home grown hay fed to Vermont stock, the yield for market is abundant and profitable. Wonderfully productive fruit orchards in the Cham- plain Valley and flourishing tobacco fields in the lower Connec- ticut Valley represent two strong specialized farming interests in Vermont and may well, be taken as illustrating extremes within which the money-making opportunities of Vermont farmers lie. TJic Grccii Mountain State. 57 As a matter of fact there practically is no such thing as abandoned farming land in \ermont. There are considerable areas, once devoted to fanning, that are no longer under culti- vation, it is true, but they represent lands that probably would never have been deforested in the light of modern knowledge of scientific farming. They are now simply reverting to forest in which condition they will be even more valuable, if anything, than they could have been under cultivation. Some Advantages. — The soil of \'ermont. if not i)rolific, is generous and readih' \ields al)un(lant crops when skilfully tilled and jutliciously fertilized. And this very matter of refertiliza- tion of his land to compensate for the enormous expenditure of productive elements that have been taken out of it without renewal all these years, that is coming to be such a problem to the Western farmer with his miles and miles of fields, gives the X'ermont farmer comparatively little concern. His farm is much smaller, its various parts are more diversilied in character of soil, he can successfully practice a careful rotation of crops that will maintain its productive capacity in constantly healthy condition, and his stock will help him to piece out with natural fertilizer the elements necessary to complete the renewal of the productiveness of his lands. The \'ermont farmer spends less money per arable acre for commercial fertilizers than any other farmer east of the Mis- sissippi River. Water Supoly. — I'he question of sufficient water supply from rainfall or from springs and water courses gives him no anxiety, because he dwells in a region abundantly supplied the whole year through with all the essentials to the most profitable farniing. Elsewhere in this book reference is made to the copious rainfall regularly induced b\- the peculiar mountain formation in \'ermont. There are ^f)^ lakes and ponds and hundreds and hundreds of rivers and lesser streams beside, and such a thing as a drouth is practically unknown to \'ermont agriculture. So is the complete failure of cro])s from other natural causes. There are no fat and lean years in N'ermont farming, broadly speaking, because every farmer raises a variety of crops that are not all likely to be affected for good or ill by the same causes. The Vermont farmer is not troubled by the transportation problem because he is next door to the most populous section of TJic Green Moil It tain State. 59 the country and can land his proihice in the hest markets in the shortest time. Not only thai, Init the remarkable growth of manufacturing and general industrial interests in his own state has opened for him a home market in the neighboring cities and villages that offers the best of steady prices for the variety of small fann products that he has to sell. The Vermont farmer can be more nearly intlependent upon his comparatively small farm than his Western contemporary can be upon his vast estates, because the Green Mountain farm is made up of more diversified lands and includes timber for building and fuel, pasturage, orchard tracts, garden plots, fields, and meadows, all within an easy range of economic and self- supporting husbandry. The Social Side. — Finally, the Vermont farmer can live closer to the village life and in more reciprocal social relations with the busier world outside because of the nearness of his farm to all of them and the ease that has come to travel by convenient and constantly extending transportation facilities. His children are nearer to more advanced schools than the old time rural dis- tricts once afforded, his family can enjoy the recreations and amusements that the village and city life next door at all times offer, the rural free delivery of mails brings the daily newspapers to his very doorstep, and the telephone will put him into momen- tary communication with a friend, the store, or the family physi- cian. The Vermont farmer is no longer a pastoral recluse, a rural type in voluntary exile from the social, business, and political life of the township to which he belongs. He is as familiar with the affairs of his nearest village as the citizen that dwells therein, takes an active part in the affairs of the village and township, holds his share of political offices, and plays an important role in the machinery of the state at large. Happily for him, the state is not so large that her people cannot dwell together in neighborliness and communal spirit, and, of those that seek the pleasures of such companionship, he on his well-kept acres is the most independent man of all. » :i!r^:i'^f ^■■■i-.:^ ^'>^L/i '-"^ p^'^.mn ^., wi 14 A Read throukrh Uic Wuuds. The Grc'cii Moiiiitiuii State. 6i Horticulture Tlie golden apples that grew in the (jarden of the Hesperides were myths ; the JDrecious apples that grow in the garden spot of Xew England known as \'ermont are all very real. So \'emiont goes antiquity and the classics and even the fahles of the gods one better in this, as in everything else. The apples that grow in \'ermont are golden, indeed, in the sense that they make up one of the most profitable crops that can reward the labors of the husbandman. Scientific horticulture is fast supplanting the old haphazard way that simply trusted to Xature and took chances. To-day all \'ermont"s new orchards are carefully selected and tended, individual trees are methodically cared for root and branch as a plant should be, the fruit is so gathered as to be most at- tractively presentable for the metropolitan and European market, and, even at that, the work has only fairly begun. Some farmers, especially in Grand Isle county, make several thousand dollars every year in clean profit from their apple orchards, and thus demonstrate how intensive farming along specialized lines can be made to pay in X'ermont. The quality of the fruit is un- excelled anywhere on earth, the north temperate latitude of the state and its peculiar climatic conditions being especially favorable for its growth and ripening. Pears, plums, and cherries are grown successfully and are unsurpassed in all market points of excellence, but thus far have not commanded the attention given to apples. Quinces and peaches can be raised in some parts of the state but, as a general proposition, not profitably. \'ermont raises the small fruits, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants. etc. Grapes are also grown, but, for the most part, only in a small way for private domestic uses. s ^ C^g _ '' "' 'r'a 1 1 I -in I ■ I r I I I i«?^T^^S^S ^ ,^\.-»r'-«r«iTe- Sltamers Na\i>iating Lake Champlain. Tlic Green Mountain State. 63 Food and Accessories Butter. — Vermont ranks seventh among the states in the quantity of butter manufactured but takes second place for none of them in point of its quaHty. As can readily be understood, the state's limited area is alone responsible for the quantity of butter made, for nowhere in the Union do conditions combine to produce more favorable conditions for the dairy than in the green pastures and beside the still waters of old Vermont, and "prime Vermont butter" has a reputation in the markets that superior capacity of production cannot overcome. The far-famed "blue grass" of Kentucky is simply the common pasture grass of Ver- mont, but, while Kentucky has been posing hers in romantic literature and poetry, Vermont has been quietly turning hers into rich cream and golden butter that appeal both to the palate and the imagination. The old time home dairy methods have given wa}- to the creamery system and the manufacture of butter in X'ermont to- day is a great organized industn' in which the farmer's part is to furnish the raw material to the factory. In recent years, with the awakening of a higher conception of possibilities in all farming interests, the farmers of Vermont have come more than ever before to realize the importance of conducting their dairies along the most advanced lines of practical scientific methods in the selection and breeding of cows, their feeding and care, the elimination of bovine tuberculosis from the herds, and the observ- ance of approved suggestions of hygiene in the construction of stables, regulation of milking, care of the milk, etc. The result is, of course, that not only is dairying coming to be immensely more profitable under the new system than it ever was even under the palmiest days of old methods, but many farmers are making it the principal feature of their farms and are steadily increasing their herds, while it is more and more coming to be seen that Vermont still has vast undeveloped resources in the dairy that the progressive spirit of the generation is bound to bring out. 64 The Green Moitiitaiii State. Already the special census of 1905 shows that Vermont increased her butter product over that of 1900 nearly 25 per cent., 21.4 per cent, to be exact. In 1905 the state had 179 butter factories and annually produced 27,256,874 pounds of butter valued at $6,416,437, and the figures are still o-rowino^ in the same ratio. Vermont had within her borders for many ^■ears the lar.q-est butter factory in the world and it has only recently been eclipsed in size by a Western creamery. .t.F-,$*^.^., A A (jraiid Isle County Apple Orchard in Blossom. Cheese. — Comparatively little attention is paid to the manu- facture of cheese and its by-products, the total value of the manu- factured product in a year being only $433,679 according to the last special census. There are only 48 cheese factories in the state, none of them very important, but the quality of the product is excellent and there are great possibilities of profit in the development of this business. TJie Green Mountain State. 65 Condensed Milk. — There are now several condensed milk factories in the state, two of them very large institutions owned by great concerns of national repute, and doing a flourishing business. The indications are that this line of dairy products will be even more extensively developed within the next few years. A String of Fish Caught in One Day by Hook and Line. In addition to all this, Vermonters are sending great quanti- ties of fresh cream and milk daily by express cars to the Atlantic coast cities and other points in the East, and this profitable traffic has already begun to cut a considerable figure in the economics of the progressive farmer. 66 The Green Mountain State. Maple Sugar. — Even in the days when the red men alone knew this region, the maple sugar product of the Green Mountain forests was esteemed a rare delicacy by the savages who risked safety and even life to gather the delicious maple honey every season. Vermont's territory was the disputed hunting grounds lying between the haunts of the Iroquois and the Algonquin A Maple Sugar Bubh and House. Indians and these great warlike families and hereditary foes were each jealous of the encroachments of the other upon the preserve. So in the spring time, when the sap began to run, little bands of Indians would make their way stealthily down from Canada or across from the home of the Iroquois in New York and revel in the luxury of stolen sweets in momentary peril of murderous The Green Moioitaiii State. 67 onslaught from their deadly enemies the while. The Indians in those days gashed the bark of the maple tree with their toma- hawks and gathered the sap in troughs rudely scooped out of logs. The squaws then plunged redhot stones into the sap con- tinuously until the hissing, steaming liquid was thus clumsily "boiled down" to a thick syrup and could be stirred until it "grained" and was sugar. A Vermont Morgan Horse. To-day maple sugar making in \"ermont is conducted by the most advanced methods and by the use of most ingenious tools and apparatus, the product is refined and absolutely pure, and the manufacture of this great world delicacy is one of the abundant sources of profit open to the farmers of the state. 08 The Green Mountain State. Vermont's maple sugar and syrup are famous the country over and Vermont leads the states of the Union in the quantity and quality of this product. This year 20,000,000 pounds of maple sweets were made in Vermont, representing a market value of about $3,500,000. Now that the Pure Food Law has come at last, Vermont maple sugar and maple syrup, the finest in the land, will have some chance in competition with the vile concoctions that have been passed oflf under its name for so many years. It has been estimated that one city outside of Vermont has annually put upon the market more alleged "new Vermont maple sugar" than could be produced by the maple orchards of the state in their sweetest mood. Canneries.— In an unostentatious but none the less thorough manner, Vermont is beginning to make her industry felt in the canning trade and the prestige gained for the prepara- tion of high grades of canned vegetables and vegetable products by regions long associated in the popular mind with the making of the very best in this line is already threatened by the equal and in some respects superior products now being put on the market by Vermont factories. For instance, no sweet corn in the land is better and very few products arc as good as that grown upon Vermont soil in that proximity to the frost line that for some strange reason appears to bring out the latent flavor of this vege- table as it is not possible by all the arts of cultivation to do in warmer climes. Consequently the canned product, gathered from the best fruits of selected seed, sown, cultivated, ripened, and prepared under the experienced oversight of men that are special- izing in this branch, is the very last word in such food prepara- tions. The same thing may be said of the canning of beans, apples, tomatoes, pickles, and small fruits. There is a growing disposition on the part of the farmers to more and more each year improve the business opportunities offered by the canning factories in various parts of the state and this already indicates what is going to be one of the most profitable lines of the intensive farming now making its way here. The Green Mountain State. 69 Forestry In • the past few years, Vermont has awakened to a more serious realization of the great possibilities in scientific forest cul- ture and is already beginning to experience profitable results from such a progressve policy. Fully three-fourths of Vermont soil is not agricultural land in the sense that it is neither meadow nor pasture, and of this nearly 2,000 square miles, or almost one- fifth of the state's total area, is covered with forests. Very little of the virgin forest is left to-day, but the second growth is mainly spruce, while pine is making its appearance rapidly, especially in the valleys of the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain. The soil of Vermont's hillsides is especially adapted to the growth of this valuable timber while the situation of the state with reference to rainfall is also abundantly favorable. Prevailing winds blow the Atlantic coast rain clouds directly over the territory while the mountain and hill-chain formations are such as to induce plentiful precipitation the whole length of the state throughout the year. This peculiarity of geography and topography is the real cause of the remarkable and world-famed verdure of Vermont's mountains and hills which long ago at- tracted such attention as to give the commonwealth the popular name of the Green Mountain State, in meaningful distinction from the bald, barren hill-tops of the White Mountains to the east of her borders. Vermont ranks fourth among the states in the production of spruce lumber, the annual cut being 125 million feet. So promising is the prospect for profitable investment under the latter-day methods of scientific forestry that the waste lands are fast being bought and planted to forest trees, the state lending its aid to such enterprise by a law that exempts from taxation for ten years such land planted to forest trees at the rate of 600 to the acre. Another law makes an annual appropria- tion for the maintenance of a nursery for forest seedlings of use- ful varieties at the state agricultural experiment station and pro- 70 The Green Mountain State. vides for the distribution to all applicants who are residents of or land owners in Vermont material for forest planting at actual cost, and also provides that suitable directions for planting, and skilled assistance or supervision for such work shall be furnished upon payment of the actual expense thereof. Winooski River and Camel's Hump in the Distance. Thrifty Vermonters are beginning to understand that for- tunes are to be made by restoring to timber so-called "abandoned farms", or parts of farms found not suitable for tillage, and the work of reforesting these tracts is beginning. Any man desiring to make a handsome investment for his children may do so to-day by simply buying some of this waste land and planting it with timber seedlings. Nature will do the rest. The Green Mountain State. yi Transportation X'ermont's industrial, trade, and social development is aided by an extent and character of railroad facilities that in many respects are unusual in a region of such comparatively sparse population. Indeed, it is not too much to say that some of the far more populous and wealthy commonwealths have not the same proportionate railroad mileage as Vermont and that many of them have far more towns isolated in a density of rural seclu- sion than Vermont. And there is a rural isolation in this country, too, that begets the apparent hopelessness of a backwoods prim- itiveness of thought and living that Vermont knows nothing about. \^ermont has a total steam railroad mileage of 1,062.55 operated by nineteen railroad companies, and a total of over 105 miles operated by 10 electric railways. Three great systems, the Central Vermont, Rutland, and Boston & Maine, operate over 800 miles of road intersecting the state from north to south, furnishing with their connections direct trunk line passenger and freight transportation between New York and Boston and Mont- real and the West. In addition, each operates various branch lines running from the east or west to the main line, and short lines are operated by the Canadian Pacific, Grand Trunk, Del- aware & Hudson, Montpelier & Wells River, and other corpora- tions. Beside furnishing outlets for the trunk line traffic between the east and west already indicated, these lines furnish direct transportation through the White Mountains to Portland, Me., on the one hand, and to the Hudson River and Albany on the other. There are also quarry railroads built for the purpose of transporting marble and granite from the quarries to the sheds and for delivering rough stone or the finished product to the through lines. The electric railways are steadily growing in traffic im- portance and it is only a question of a short time when such lines will be very generally extended throughout <"he state. The Champlain Transportation Co. operates a fleet of new and handsome passenger and freight steamers on Lake Cham- plain, plying between Vermont and New York state ports, and doing a general excursion business. Canal connection between Lake Champlain and the Hudson river and the St. Lawrence river also provide facilities for an extensive all-water traffic. 72 The Green Mountain State. Fish and Game Not the least of the manifold attractions of Vermont as a vacation outing resort is the abundance of fish and game to tempt the ardent sportsman that loves to devote whole days in succession to the fascinations of the chase and the rod or to offer occasional charming variety to the less devoted pleasure-seeker. The very same conditions .of climate, field and forest verdure, and plentiful waterways that make the rural parts of Vermont such rare delights of picturesque scenic beauty also favor the propagation and preservation of a multitude of furred, feathered, and finny creatures, while wise public statutes founded upon the careful observation and experience of years tend to protect all these to the best purposes of legitimate sport. Beside the great expanses of field and thicket and forest-clad hillside where the hunter may find pastime to his liking, Vermont contains 368 lakes and ponds beside noble old Lake Champlain and beautiful Lake Memphremagog, to say nothing of hundreds of rivers and smaller streams practically all abounding in fish. Deer Hunting. — Of course, the royal sport in Vermont, as elsewhere, is deer hunting. Although in the pioneering days this was a great natural abiding place for all the deer kind, in- cluding elk. caribou, and moose, yet the encroachments of civil- ization practically made these animals extinct so that thirty years ago the common deer was a rarity in the state and the occasional appearance of a stray solitary buck was an incident to be heralded in the newspapers. In 1878, a few deer were brought into the state by a company of public spirited Vermonters and set at lib- erty, while a stringent law was passed protecting them from the hunter. In eighteen years they had so multiplied in this favoring environment that the legislature of 1896 provided for an open season for deer hunting and it has been an annual sporting season of great attractions ever since. The deer are now very numerous throughout the state, being found in every county, and whole herds, sometimes numbering between thirty and forty, are occasionally seen at one time. It is no infrequent experience to see groups of deer from the carriage roads or to come upon a solitary creature in little walks in the country side, and this has The Green Mountain State. j^ come to be one of the novel charms of a summer's outing in rural Vermont. Game- — The hunter may now and then get a shot at a bear in some sections of the state where these animals are still some- what numerous, while foxes, rabbits, squirrels, and coons abound everywhere in the forests. Although protected by the game law, otter and beaver still survive to some extent in Vermont, and caribou and moose have occasionally been reported. Fish. — Of course. Lake Champlain, particularly that part known as the Great Back Bay, is a paradise for fishermen. Its waters abound in gamey food fish, while its picturesque and easily accessible islands, points, bays, and inlets provide the most charm- ing temptations of Nature for convenience and variety in the sport without any of the monotonous loneliness or danger of deep-sea fishing. The principal fish in Lake Champlain are the lake sturgeon, pike-perch or wall-eyed pike, yellow perch, muskal- longe, great northern pike, large and small-mouth bass, rock bass, mullet, sun fish, pickerel, common or yellow catfish, shad, white fish, smelt, lake or Mackinaw trout, and many varieties of eels and bull-heads. The interior lakes and ponds offer such prizes to fishermen as land-lock salmon, muskallonge, great northern pike, pickerel, Mackinaw trout, and common brook trout, and in some instances wall-eyed pike, steelhead and rainbow trout, and sabling and golden trout. Common brook trout are found in the mountain streams, and trout and bass and the coarser varieties of fish in the rivers. The United States government operates fish hatcheries at S wanton, St. Johnsbury, and Arlington, and a rearing station at Pittsford, and is annually planting millions of fish in Vermont waters. Beside this the state fish hatchery at Roxbury contrib- utes largely to the supply of trout. Game Birds. — Game birds are plentiful in Vermont. Along the shores of Lake Champlain and the inland lakes good duck hunting is to be enjoyed, while in the timbered lands part- ridge, woodcock, English snipe, plover, sandpiper, and a great variety of ducks abound. English pheasant and quail are being introduced with gratifying success in some counties, but are now protected by law. 74 I'hc Green Mountain State. Vermont's Great " Out-doors " VERMONT offers to the summer home builder or the vaca- tion-seeker a remarkable combination of opportunities for rest and recreation in the repose of pastoral charm with sufficient nearness to the busier world outside to conveniently provide all the creature or social comforts that the habits of the generation demand. Her countryside, picturesquely rural and wonderfully diversified in scenic panorama, retains all the fresh- ness of its virgin loveliness without the primitive privations or depressing isolation of the wilderness, and lies in smiling enticement of green fields, fragrant flowers, sweet song birds, forest glens, babbling brooks, laughing waterfalls, mirrored ponds, romantic lakes, noble mountains, and God's own life- giving fresh air, literally next door to snug little communities of prosperous homes that enjoy the best of wholesome conveniences and luxuries of living. Vermont is a little state of short distances and has no well- nigh impenetrable interior area of solitude. Summer homes in this state may be situated amid all the quiet beauty of rural scenes and still be conveniently accessible from the great cities. This means, also, that the telegraph, telephone, mail, express, and similar facilities are easily available and that the busy man of affairs may dwell in restful vacation out of the city's rush and roar and still keep in communication with his business interests or find convenient and expeditious means of travel between his recreation and his cares. Vermont railroads and their connec- tions provide ample transportation facilities in up-to-date through passenger train service on schedules designed with special view to the accommodation of summer visitors to the state, and the journey between the large cities of the East and Vermont may comfortably be made any day between supper time and breakfast. Scenery. — To attempt faithfully to portray the beauties of Vermont scenery by means of cold and unsympathetic printers* ink would be rashly to rush in where poets' songs have failed The Green Mountain State. 75 and artists' brushes faltered. Even the camera's sensitive vision, while it may reproduce in piecemeal tantalizing sugges- . tions of sublime symmetry and enchanting vistas, cannot reveal the wider scope and prospect of unfolding beauties that greet the admiring eye on every side or the infinite variety of exquisite loveliness that lies in color and shade in a land where the velvet verdure of the fields vies with forest foliage, beautiful flowers, and heaven's own vaulted blue. The scenery of Vermont is not of magnificent, awe-inspiring grandeur such as is characteristic of some regions in this country where the Titanic upheavals of ages gone have reared colossal snow-crowned domes or rived gigantic gorges in the impassive rock. Nature was in her gentler mood when she fashioned her handiwork here and even sported with design in tumbling a profusion of ever changeful pictures over the smiling landscape. The scenery is all of the restful, pastoral kind, an undulating country of wonderfully verdant fields and hillsides, dimpled with tiny ponds or noble lakes, threaded by tinkling brooks or busy rivers, and crowned with the glory of the mountains. There is in it all such a charm of unspeakable harmony, such a wonderful blending of moods grave and gay, with such an appealing suggestion of subdued grandeur and mighty reserve of power throughout, that the thoughts of care- less man who dwells in the midst of it are inspired to a loftier and truer beauty sense and a more reverential uplift than he dares attempt to express. Climate. — The climate of Vermont is not excelled any- where in the land in the elements that go to build up strong and healthy bodies or that minister to the every-day delights of an active or rest-seeking out-door life. There are no climatic diseases in Vermont, no regions infested with malaria, and its drinking water is pure and plentiful. As has been said before, the winters are by no means as severe as has long been repre- sented by the misinformed. There is an abundance of snow and at times an intensity of cold, but travel is never seriously snowbound for any length of time even in the heaviest snowfalls, the cold is never a menace to the life of human beings or of cattle, and pitiless blizzards and other furious windstorms are never experienced, all of which cannot be said for many a part of the country popularly supposed to have a far milder climate than y() The Green Mountain State. this. Vermont winters, in the language of old Adam in "As You Like It", are "frosty, but kindly." On the other hand, spring in Vermont is a season of marvellous charm when Old Sol and the soft airs are wooing the wild flowers from their winter's nap, coaxing the song birds back to their familiar haunts, and helping Dame Nature weave the wonderful verdure that has made the Green Mountain state's hillside and valley famous the wide world over. The summers are luxuriant in sunshine and genial warmth, but the scorching heat, the suffocating humidity of this season so often responsible for a lamentable death list in great cities are unknown in this land where even on the hottest days and nights gentle breezes bear the balmy breath of forest shade over the cooling waters of ponds and streams and rippling in wavelets over the tall grasses of the intervening meadows to the grateful dwellers in the near-by villages. For here Mother Nature, though sometimes stern, is never unkind to her children, and the mellow radiance of a genial summer's day blends at twilight into cool and comfortable nights that conauce to restful slumber. Then comes the autumn, the sweet, dreamy, hazy days when the garnered stores of summer's sunshine are reflected in a marvel- lously spectacular blaze of tinted foliage on every hillside, when the luscious fruits are dropping, the husbandman's crops are gathered, and the sumptuous glory of the ripening year revels for a season in the indescribable beauty of Indian summer ere King Winter sends his frost messengers to herald his chaste dominion over the land till spring shall come again. So blends one delightful season into another in this snug little commonwealth where Nature rewards the simple life with healthful joys that all the wealth of the metropolis cannot command. As a Winter Resort. — Summer pastimes for the visitor to Vermont's green hills are numerous and varied and are too obvious to be itemized here. But the winter has its attractions for the vacation seeker, too, although the fact has not become so generally advertised. To the weary people of the crowded cities that would like the experience of sleigh-rides, coasting, toboggan- ing, snowshoeing, skating, ice-boating, in the snappy bracing air of a genuine Vermont winter, a week-end visit to some com- fortable village in the state will afford rare delights that maybe have only been read of in story books. But they are very real 7 he Grcoi Mountain State. 77 to Vermonters, nevertheless, and very exhilarating and heakh- giving and inspiring as httle stops for breath amid the gayeties of the social season in fashion's capitals or the daily rush and grind and routine of the place of business. Not a Worn-out Resort.— It is only within compara- tively recent }ears that the picturesque beauties of X'ermont scenery and the manifold attractions of the state as a sunnner home or all-the-\ ear-round outiu"- resort have bcijun to be known iP^'-^lT "^&^ ^^^^-^^ilS ■p/ ^ .' '^M^^KL- :*" ."■.■. . .••^■.» -4-; Une vt .Many heauiitul Country Roads. to the world outside. For decades the great streams of pleasure- seekers have made their way to the sea-shore or to widely advertised and exploited points in the interior of the country where tourist attractions and accommodations have gradually fallen under the control of professional purveyors who have created an atmosphere of theatric display or amusement and have literally submerged what might once have been the possibilities of restful enjoyment of natural charms in the noisy publicity of mighty throngs of idlers at a veritable Vanity Fair. To-day. age has withered and custom staled the variety of many, if not most, of ^8 The Green Mountain State. these places to the great multitude of sober-minded people. But, above and beyond all that, the intelligent vacation-seeker has come to realize the better understanding of what rest and recrea- tion actually mean and no longer looks for them in the bustle of great crowds in an environment of artificial and clamorous pastimes. To such people, rural Vermont is a paradise of rest and health, of wholesome relaxation and recreation, a dream- land of revel in the true luxury of purposeful idling. It should be borne in mind that the summer vacation or outing business in Vermont has happily not become professional- ized in the disagreeable sense already alluded to. The state offers abundant opportunity for rest and pleasure-seekers to con- sult a wide range of taste and every limitation of purse with the assurance that the purely commercialized aspect of the bargain has not bred the deceits and snares prevalent in far too many other places of resort. There are no great fashionable summer hotels in Vermont and no centers thronged with a miscellaneous assemblage of floating pleasure chasers. Ways to Pass the Summer.— There are many good hotels in the state, however, and there are some opportunities, by the way, for hotel men of capital and experience to make invest- ments in modern hostelries for the accommodation of the fast increasing summer business as well as the growing necessities of commercial trade incidental to the development of the state's industrial life. The man of means who seeks to build or buy for his family a permanent summer home in the country wih find in Vermont an unlimited variety of locations, each with its peculiar charm, and all at prices that have not been boosted into an absurdly prohibitive figure by the manipulations of speculators or the pressure of demand. There are to be found here and there small farms more adapted to make a picturesque summer-home estate than to profitable tillage and these are being bought up one by one by summer visitors, who sometimes reconstruct the old farm-house to suit their fancy or build a new house in its stead. Then again in the villages and small cities there are occasional mansions delightfully situated for summer-homes that for various reasons have been offered for sale and may be obtained at a reasonable fisfure. The Green Mountain State. 79 Vacation-seekers will find ample accommodations in com- modious and comfortable farm-houses amid a social environment of wholesome self-respect, substantial intelligence, and unpre- tentious culture, or they will find opportunities in private residences or hotels to enjoy the more varied every-day life of cosy little villag^es or thrifty little cities all within a few moments' walk of the green fields. Others that may desire to improve their season of recreation by a more genuine outing, will find comfortable cottages by the shores of beautiful lakes and rivers or may pitch their tents in the mountain solitudes and enjoy all the delightful experiences of "roughing it" within convenient reach of supplies. To each and to all of these, the people of Vermont every- where extend a most cordial and hearty welcome and deem it a privilege to make all such pleasure-seeking visitors at home with them in their own social life whenever they are disposed to participate in it. The summer visitor is not a target for mer- cenary profit hunters in Vermont, but is regarded by the people as a guest who brings the novel spirit of the outside world among them and who should be hospitably refreshed by the joys of rural life in generous return. Vermont people all understand with the poet that "To those who have been long in city pent, 'Tis very sweet to look into the fair and open face of heaven." 8o The Green Mountain State. Tercentennial Celebration of the Discovery of Lake Champlain The three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain will be celebrated in 1909 by the States of Vermont and New York and the Dominion of Canada. It was on the morning of July 4, 1609, that Samuel de Chsmplain discovered this beautiful water. It was an event that has had great influence in shaping the history of this country. The legislature of Vermont at its biennial session created a commission to arrange a fitting celebration. This commission was instructed to confer with New York and Canada and secure the co-operation of that state and country. New York State has appointed a commission and the Dominion of Canada has promised to fulfill its part. The three commissions will work together for a common purpose — to arrange a celebration that will attract the peoi)le of the United States and Canada. The celebration will begin July 4, 1909, and it is expected will continue over a period of two weeks. The Vermont commission is composed of Governor Fletcher D. Proctor, chairman. Proctor. Walter E. Howard, chairman pro tem, Middlebury. Horace W. Bailey, Newbury. R. VV. McCuen, Vergennes. Lvnn M. Hays, secretary, Essex Junction. VValter H. Crockett, St. Albans. M. D. McMahon, Burlington. The New York commission is made up as follows : Governor Charles E. Hughes, chairman. New York City. Lieut.-Gov. Lewis Stuvvesant Chanier, Tarrytown. Henry Wavland Hill, Buffalo. John C. N. Taylor, Middletown. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., Mt. Morris. Alanson T. Dominy, Beekmantown. James A. Foley, New York City. Frank S. Witherbee, Port Henry. Tohn H. Booth, Plattsburg. The Canadian commission will be named by Sir Wilfrid Laurier. the prime minister. France, which country gave to the world the great explorer, Samuel de Champlain, will be invited to assist in the celebration. Persons and organizations desiring to take part in the cele- bration should address the secretary of the Vermont commission. w 98 f^^^ .^^^v s. ♦ .*^'^^. ,/* ''v^^V* "\**'fl^V* *V^^\o''* \/'^!^ 4» -^ ■*-./ **'% *w* O -J "*./ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 042 947 8*