White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1858-04-15
WESTERN spEcuLAr1oN.

dated at Keokuk, We find q more truthful vie,
ofthe state of affairs and prospects, at the West
than is observed BY many Of our eastern exchan
ges, most Of which seem to think that becaus
We are draining their region Of capital and en-
terprising men, We must therefore be going 3,
destruction by the lightning Iue.-Des Moiae
Valley Wing. 800
4 My observations have certainly been hasty
they NAV have been superficial; but such as the,
have been, thsy lead me irresistibly to the con
ciusion that commercial writer's at the east arr
wrong in ascrising to speculations in western
lands the present stringency in the money mar.
kst' and furthermore warning eastern farmers
not to emigrate to the west. For nv part, |
believe that il many who still cling to the east,
were to come out to the fertile valleys of this
great west, it would be greatly to their advan-
tage. Where they now are, they can hope for
but little more than they already possess. Here
there is nothing reasonable or desirable for
which they may not justly hope. Now it seems,
and is a very plain proposition, when the best
prairie lands Of Iowa, than which the sun never
shone on lands more beautiful, can be purchased
for from 81 ,25 to $1,000 per acre, and when one
acre Of that land will produce from forty to one
hundred bushels of corn, and when corn is worth
as it is now and will be for years at least, fifty
cents bushel, that farming in the west must be
profitable to an extent never before known
Here, upon the same extent of ground, three
fold can be produced above that in New Eng
land, with scarcely one third the labor. There
are many other acts, Of course, which should
enter into a correct calculation of the relative
advantages OF farming at the east and the west,
such as the price of land, and the notorious fact
that for two-thirds Of what is produced on a
farm there is a better market here than in New
England. The advantages are all on one side,
and will be so long as immigration continues.
An old lady residing about twenty miles from
this city, informed me the other day, that for
she last year the income from her poultry yard
was some So per week, during nearly the whole
year, and that during the same season her COWS
paid for themselves in a few weeks, and well
they might-with butter ranging at from 25 to
eggs from - to 40 cents a dozen, &c. Many
farmers who had not the means to purchase farms
are getting rich in renting land, paying from
two to padollars per acre annually Cor farms
under cultivation, and with the necessary i'm
provements. Lands within fifteen miles Of the
city can be purchased now for from Eve to TWEEN
ty dollars per acre, and that too of the very best
kind of land, having the advantage of market
for every kind Of produce better than even the
New England railroad towns possess.
1t seems to me apparent that it is not the
speculation but the short crops which have
caused the stagnation in business that now ex-
lists almost universally. When money is inves-
ted in land, it remains in the country, and can
money is invested in tilling the soil, and the
crops fail, that amount of capital is thrown away,
is destroyed, and it is this which conduces to
in the money market and consequent
stagnation in business. Now it is a notorious
fact that two out of the last three crops have
been, as to some important articles of produce,
almost universal failures. There have been two
very cold successive winters, late springs and
dry summers, which have so affected the crops
that in the midst Of the richest corn growing
country in the world, corn has sold at even five
dollars bushel, potatoes at two dollars, and ev-
erything else required for consumption at the
same rates.
Now any one must see that whether or not
1alY al =. L.
than was actually cultivated. the present condi-
ton Of things would be the natural and newt
able result of such crops. tits to my mind equal
ly apparent that If the crops had been universal
good and abundant, it would be impossible for
the present state Of things to exist.
II Is simply folly for papers like the New Ysrk
Herald and other croakers to compare the pres
ent with the times Of sc and 81, and to draw
any conclusions from the one to apply to the
other We have no United States Bank, nor
any othermonied monopoly, about which Jack
son and Biddle may quarrel, and which expi-
ring, unpCepared for death, shall again shake to
their foundation, the finances Of the country,
and engulf in ruin the business and property of
now, as then, flooded with worse than worth
less currency, created by AM lily digested system
Of legislation, to supply the place Of a defunct
National Bank.
Then the country was full Of produce, for
which there was no market, 50 that farming, !
which must always be one great resource, and
the means Of our national wealth, was
4 ruinous investment, even in the midst Of the |
most bountiful crops. Now our aggregate cur
rency Is Of a healthy and reliable character, al |
most as safe as could be reasonably expected or
desired, while every article Of produce is in the
greatest demand, and farming has become the
most surely lucrative employment Itseems ev-
ident, therefore, that all We need to relieve the
present stringencY in the money market is
good and universal crop the coming fall. and for |
Ihatshe prospect, 30 far as have observed and
inquired, is good.
ABOLITION or rHE DEcLNE.-Frsd. Douglass
bitterly that the friends Of the sboli-