Wisconsin herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1846-1849, 1848-09-09
western Farmers and their Markets.

WpSteru eshN sAi~Ae
We find in some of the papers, very
r,;6cent account of agricultural opera
~. us and prospects of the Wabash Valley
" I,diana--as in the case of the farm OF
ne Hon. Fl. l.. Ellsworth, formerly Com
Missioner of Patents, who appears To have
nice little field of corn, of one thousand
- with an estimated crop in II OF sixty
a.L.onsand bushels This is doing business
~ pretty large large scale; but that seems
=" 10 The scale on which rural matters are
mayed there; for the same writer VINO
IL an account of Mr.. Ellsworth's corn,
saoks Of the myriads of hogs raised to
sppnsmme this grain IN all the neighborhood,
~ we'll as the immense herds OF cattle
% - i one of ten thousand head on the
Grand Praire-which is 6 fed for the East
e'I IN, perhaps, this show of agricultural
,,rosnerity in the West, is, after all, an IL
"s;on: perhaps Western farmers are not
nnv he richer for it; and there is one little
f,ct in the statement, OF very great interest
81 farmers in our own part OF the country.
Al these vast henis of cattle that pasture
ON the Western prairies are fed "for the
Eastern Market" and that Is the case WITH
the swine which consume the crops raised
on these rich. thoasand-acre corr Fields
Are Eastern farmers any better on Tor ms
competition at the hands of their Western
brethren, whose surplus products rule and
qlut the Eastern market! Are our west
srn farmers any the richer for being COM
peed to seek these markets. across rivers
and mountains, on the seaside, eight hum
,Ired or A thousand miles from the Wabash,
instead of selling all at their doors! Why
hs, left N
nIy the Eastern markets; the Western far
pers building UP for themselves markets of
their own, at which they could obtain Eas-
tern prices, without any deduction for the
expense of transportation!
This is question, which, if Eastern and
Western farmers would only agitate it suffi-
GENTLY among themselves, would bring up
the merits of the protective system as one on
which their interests depended more COM
nletely s. Immediately than those of any 9TH
er class in the U. S. Farmers never can be
prosperous-that is, they never can enjoy the
FIRST prices for their products, nor get the
wares they consume at the lowest prices
until they have good and sufficient markets
for purchase and sale at their own doors; and
those they never have until the encourage
ment of manufacturers and the mechanic
arts brings about an equitable division OF
en,ployment--p off the consumer with
the producer-covers the country with towns
and cities-and makes every district hum
with the activity of its own local trade.
All countries, purely agricultural ones,
tependipg on distant or foreign markets tor
The sale of their products, are, and always
have been, poor ones--and, in former tunes,
in Europe at least, they have been depend
ent and epsjaved. This was the case with
Africa, Egypt, and other grain-bearins
countries which ancient Rome preserved as
her gamers: and this is the case. To the full
extent. with Poland, and other exclusively
agricultural countries OF our day. II 1t I'M
possible. in fact, that any community can
flourish which has but one trade to engage
its industry. In such a country, industry
must pine, energy must die, intelligence
ami the pride of Independence must vanish
Ii is the encouragement of all arts, of all
forms, methods, and products OF industry
which gives animation, prosperity, uDivcr-
sal happiness to a community.
With all the mighty crops of corn raised
in the West, what does it profit the farmer
there-since he cannot sell it, or transport
it to our distant market? 1t will not beai
the cost of transportation. 1t can only he
fed to cattle and swine, in the form of flesh
to be brought to the Eastern market-wirf
the final result, after depreciatng the value
of Eastern produce, of selling for price
of which large proportion has been sunk
IN the cost of transportation. Western far
mers, in truth, for Their own sake, to say
nothing of the benz ut of their Eastern ri
vals-ought to provide home consumption
for grain aud meat, raising for distant mar
kets only such products of higher price
such as wool, hemp, flax, silk, madden, &c.
as will bear the cost of distant carriage.-
But TO do this, they must encourage and
protect American industry of all kinds
and if they can solicit it TO their own doors,
so much the better: every thing sold there,
Is so much put into their own pockets, in
stead of those of transporters. To make
money-or grow rich--at farming, in the
West, under the present state of things, il
Is necessary to farm on n large scale: the
small farmer may be independent, but he
cannot grow wealthy. With workshops
and factories, and manufacturing towns,
once growing, or grown, up in all quarters,
OF the West, we should hear no longer OF
thousand acre fields, and herds of ten thou
sand head of cattle. Small farms would
then appear, and small farmers he prosper
Gus. And what would he of no less moment,
Eastern farmers would not always be made
painfully to feel-as they do now-how
completely prices, in their markets, depend
upon the agricultural vicissitudes of the
West.-Phita. North american.
WONDERS OF THE TELEGRAPH.-lt IS a
old hohi and