VOA双语新闻 Dairy Farming is Dwindling in New England（在线收听）

Dairy farming has long been one the largest sectors of the New England region's rural economy and one of the nation's most highly subsidized industries. Still, many small family-run dairy farms have failed in recent years. Those that have managed to survive - sometimes just barely - have done so with a mix of technology and determination.

长期以来，乳品业一直是美国新英格兰地区农业经济中最大的组成部份之一，也是美国获得补贴程度最高的产业之一。尽管如此，近年来还是有很多家庭经营的小型牛奶场破产倒闭。那些想方设法生存下来的牛奶公司，往往是通过科技和决心这两者的结合，才得以勉强闯出一条生路。

"Kuh Bahs! Kuh Bahs!" As Jacob Mills, 10, calls the family cows in from the meadows for their twilight milking, he knows that that call, or something very much like it, has been heard on this 161 hectare farm ever since his ancestor bought the Vermont land in 1839. While Jacob guides the cows into their stalls, he explains that he may want to become a farmer himself. "I like to be out in nature more than in a house. You get to do a lot of stuff, like clean the barn, bale the hay, stack hay."

10岁的雅各布.米尔斯在呼唤牧场草地上的奶牛回来，开始黎明时分的挤奶。自从他的祖先1839年买下这座161公顷的牧场以来，这片土地上就时常可以听到这样的呼唤声。在引导奶牛回到畜栏的时候，雅各布说，他本人也许希望将来当一名牧场主：“我有点想当牧场主。我喜欢到外面和大自然在一起，而不是呆在房子里。你要干很多活儿，象清洁畜棚，捆扎乾草，码放乾草等等。”

And, of course, you've got to know cows. With a sure and gentle hand, Jacob attaches the cows' teats to metal suction devices that convey their milk through a pipeline and into a shiny steel tank in one of the side rooms.

当然，你还得熟悉了解奶牛。雅各布的双手熟练稳当地把金属挤奶装置和奶牛乳房轻轻的连在一起。这种装置通过一条管子，把挤出的牛奶输送到隔壁房间一个闪闪发光的钢制储存罐里。

Meanwhile, in the sprawling white farmhouse next door, Catherine Beatty, 84, Jacob's grandmother and the matriarch of this clan, is setting out a huge homemade meal of ham, corn, milk, biscuits, macaroni, fresh fruit pie and coffee. Ms. Beatty notes that there have been mouths to feed on this farm ever since it opened, but that almost everything else has changed.

与此同时，在隔壁随意搭建的白色农舍里，雅各布84岁的祖母凯瑟琳.贝蒂正在把自己烹制的丰盛餐点摆放到餐桌上。这顿饭包括火腿、玉米、牛奶、点心、通心面条、新鲜的水果馅饼以及咖啡。贝蒂老奶奶说道，这座牧场自从建成以来，就一直有很多张嘴要吃饭，除此之外，其它的几乎一切都变了。

"Just technology and advancement and better breeding, better cattle," she says. "When they first came on this farm they probably made butter. I know they did. And then we started shipping milk and then it was in cans, and now it's the bulk tank. And that's the way things change." Ms. Beatty says that, nostalgia aside; today's milk products are better. "It's cooled quicker, and it isn't exposed to the air, because it goes directly into the pipeline."

贝蒂说：“科技和进步，更先进的饲养方法，品种更优的奶牛等等。当先人们刚刚来到这座牧场的时候，他们可能是生产制作奶油。我知道当时他们是生产奶油。之后，我们开始装运奶牛到其它地方销售，再后来是制作成罐装牛奶，现在则是巨大的储奶桶。事情就是这样在发生变化。产品的质量也比过去好得多，这和过去相比有了很大的不同。牛奶的冷却更快，也不和空气接触，直接就进到管子里。”

Beatty's extended family is seated at the dinner table. Beatty's daughter Gilly passes some corn, and says that she feels strongly about the farming life. "I think it's something in your blood. Agriculture is very important for our world. If you don't have good agriculture, how are we going to feed our people?"

贝蒂的女儿吉莉说：“我对农牧业这一行确实有很深的感受。我觉得这种感受浸透到你的血液之中。农牧业对我们的世界来说非常重要。如果没有良好的农牧业，我们将如何养活自己呢？”

Gilly remembers what a close-knit farming community this once was. She especially recalls the annual acorn roast with a bonfire every year on Diamond Hill behind the house.

她记得这个牧场的人们曾经是怎样的亲密无间。她特别回忆起这座房子背后的钻石山每年举办的橡树果烧烤篝火晚会。

"Sometimes we've had like 30 people, and sometimes we've had as many as a couple of hundred, one time. Just anyone who wants to come can come." She motions to the west. "There used to be on the next hill over an old elm tree that you used to see from all over town. My grandfather would say if you could see the elm tree then you'd never be lost. But that died with the Dutch Elm disease that I guess struck all the elm trees."

“有些时候我们有差不多30个人，还有些时候多达数百人。谁想来参加都可以。过去在旁边的那座小山上有棵老榆树，在那里你可以看到整个镇子的全貌。我的祖父、我的父亲会说，‘如果你能看到那棵榆树，你就永远不会迷路。’但是那棵榆树最后死于荷兰榆树菌，我想当时所有的榆树都曾经因为这种病菌而遭殃。”

Most of the dairy farms that once lay in the valleys below that elm mostly disappeared as well. Back in 1950, there were 40 or 50 in the township. Today, there are eight.

那棵老榆树下的山谷中，绝大多数当年一片兴旺景象的奶牛牧场现在也已经没有了踪影。在上个世纪50年代的时候，小镇有大约40到50座牧场，到今天，仅仅剩下8座。

There are several reasons for this. First, it is hard for a small dairy farmer to compete with the larger factory farms. Also, the once abundant farmland of Vermont is being sold off - mostly to development for housing, and that's dramatically raising taxes for the farmers who want to stay. Both Catherine Beatty and her sister Alice Hafner regret those trends.

这自然有其中的原因。首先，一个小乳业牧场主很难在效益方面和大型的工厂化奶牛饲养场竞争。其次，佛蒙特州曾几何时非常充足的牧场土地资源正在纷纷被出售，绝大部份都卖给了住宅开发行业。而这种趋势正在大幅度地增加希望继续留下来的牧场主的税赋负担。贝蒂和她的姊妹盖夫纳都对这种趋势感到遗憾和惋惜。

"It'll be all houses. Instead of cattle in the field, it'll be houses," warns Ms. Beatty. "I hate to see what is happening to Vermont because we are losing a lot of the beauty of this state," adds Ms. Hafner, "the land, the fields, the forest, the animals! That to me is what made Vermont." Both women acknowledge that people have to have a place to live, the population must grow. "And they have to make a decision if they want to keep it unique or if it wants it to be all developed," says Ms Beatty.

贝蒂说：“那些地方将到处都是房子。那些土地上不再有奶牛和其它家畜，取而代之的是一栋栋房屋。” 盖夫纳说：“我讨厌看到佛蒙特州正在发生的这一切。因为我们将失去这个州的很多美丽景色。大地、田野、森林和动物！对我而言，正是这些东西造就了佛蒙特。我不是对现实不了解，我知道人口正在增长，人们得有地方居住 。” 贝蒂说：“是让佛蒙特州保持独特风貌，还是让土地都被开发，他们必须在其中做出抉择。”

Ms. Hafner has a faraway look in her eyes, and I ask her if she's sad. "No I'm not sad," she says. "I'm just very happy I was born and brought up on a farm because I always felt that I learned good values. I was taught to work. But you had a good time doing it. Because you worked together." She adds that farm life also taught people how to get along well with their neighbors, and to share. "If there was a need you tried to fill it as best as you could. It was just a good basis for an adult life."

盖夫纳对这个现状和发展似乎有些伤感，但她自己并不这样看，她说：“不，我不觉得伤感。我恰恰感到非常高兴自己在牧场出生长大，因为我始终觉得，我学习领会到良好的价值观。我从小受长辈的教育，要勤勉劳作。曾经有过勤奋努力的美好时光。因为大家一起劳动，同甘共苦。我们学到的另外一种美德就是要与邻居和睦相处。如果别人有需要，你就应该全力相助。这是一个成年生活的美好准则！”

For now, there continues to be a niche for some small farms like the Beatty's. Their farm is all paid for, and their milk goes directly to a dairy cooperative, where it is mixed with the produce of other small farms and marketed right alongside milk from the bigger factory farms.

目前，对一些象贝蒂老奶奶家的小型牧场来说，仍然有些发展的空间。 他们的农场所有的产品都出售，他们的牛奶直接送到乳品合作社中，在那这些牛奶会与来自其它小农场的牛奶混合在一起，然后同来自较大的工厂化农场的牛奶一道在市场上出售。

Yet despite their success, the economic pressures on Vermont's small dairy producers continue to grow. It is an open question whether the deep connection these New England farmers have traditionally had with their animals and their land can be sustained.

尽管他们取得了成功，但是针对佛蒙特州小型乳品生产者的经济压力却有增无减。这些新英格兰地区的牧场主和他们的牲畜以及土地之间传统上的深深联系能否继续保持，的确是一个有待回答的问题。