Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1858-06-22
THE GAZETTE.
FARMING AS A QUESTION OF PROFIT.
TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 70, 1858

In a late article We spoke of the need OF q
class of small farmers, principally IN regard
TO relieving The cities Of their over-crcwded
population We now propose to sbow how a
small farm, as source OF profit, compares
with the less productive pursuits in cities
and towns We will suppose small farmer
to hold the same relative position to large
agricu!turist that clerk does to his employer.
Aud we will take as the supposed rate Of the
clerks salary, one Thousand dollars For
SOME Of our facts and data We draw up, an
article communicated by Mr.. Wilson Flagg
TO the New Eoglapd Farmer. There is a
difference In advantages between New Eng
land and Pennsylvania farm, which 10
some regards is IN favor Of New England,
in others in favor Of our own latitude. Ii
our farmers have more productive laud, they
are less careful in Outstanding It's proceeds,
and converting them 10 money. What
New Eugland farmer can do, even on Capo
Cod, prcmontory which is a proverb tor
steriiity, is shown in statement made by the
Provincetown Banner, Mr.. Thomas T Small
raised, on seven acres, articles which sold for
S375. These cash products were milk, bcets,
potatoes, tarnips, aud cabbases, and, of course
in addition to tie cash, he had ali that was
necessary Of the same articles for his own
consumption. Besides these were the follow
ing crops used for his own household ard
for his stock: corn, one Lruircd bushels,
SlC0; beaDs, ten bu shells, go 90 carrots, two
hundred bushels, $50; pump kins, so; eggs
and fowls. SIS: pork $50. Here is 40 aggre,
gate OF about 500 which can be counted.--
Add to this, rent and the thousand adVaGta-
ses which cannot be computed, but in the
CITY would have required the actual outlay
OF money, and we may assume the products
of Mr.. SmalPs seven acres at $500. The
whole labor, with the exception OF about one
DAYS work at dollar and quarter, was
done by Mr. Small and lad twelve years of
age Of course, his women worked ia door,
and perhaps, gave turn at the garden. No
debts, 10 duns, no bauk notices. and no pro-
tests disturb Mr.. Small. The value of bis
farm on Cape Cod Cannot exceed $1,000, and
interest and taxes deducted, his yearly earn
Jugs are still about Thousand dollars.
Now take the Boston merchants clerk
with Mr.. Flagg's figures House rent is sta
ted, ten miles from town, at SljO--traVeiiing
expenses $50. This, by the way, is an ad-
vantage of residence which Boston business
men understand better than We, though horse
railroads will soon make it attanab!e and
appreciated here. Boston has always made
more use of her steam roads than we have
done, and her business population cover
an area the radius of which may be stated at
twenty miles. We may, however, assume
that one huDdred and fifty dollars, at the
least, is expended in travelling and excur
sions to get sniff at the free air. which the
farmer has for nothing. Three hundred d.
lars out, leave the thousand dollar clerk,
Office holder, or other salaried man, seven
hundred dollars. only for all expenses. City
rent can, however, not be obtained now Tor
one hundred and fifty dollars. One hundred
more at least must be taken from the seven.
The absolute and inevitable necessaries do
not include physicians bills, or any unfor-
seen demand. The city clerk, or other sal
aried man, forced to maintain decent APP
pearance on one thousand dollars per annum
is one of the poorest men among Us. If out
of health. or out Of employment, he is reduced
to absolute want danger from which the far
mer, with the same income, is comparatively
secure.
Double the salary, and the clerk is really
not so independent as Mr.. Small, o! Prov
ipcetown. decrease Mr. Smal's farm. still
keeping in reasonable limits, or put him in
better location, and he becomes millionaire
compared with the struggling dweller 10 the
city. 10 truth, farming In our country Is
nearly the only business that is not Oyerdone.
With the prospects Of falling prices before
them, we are aware that our farmers Will
smile at this assertion. Speculative farming
with moving and reaping machines, aud
heavy OUTLAWS for chemical aGd imported fer
ti!izers, is subject to fluctuations. A good
season and abundant crops are almost as dis
astrous TO some large operators as bad sea
son. The crops, by the reduction Of price,
do not pay the the culture and profit. The
earth instead Of being cherished as mother
is tasked like slave. We need a radical
change in our living and habits; for 81 partial
alteration would Only increase the difficulty.
The first thing needed is greater popula-
ton in the agricultural districts, TO consume,
on the spot, what at present docs not bring
its value. The waste and decay OF vegetable
matter in the country because 1t Will not pay
to transport it to distant market, Is an an
rual loss which it were difficult to compute:
We can only guess that it Is enormous II
our agricultural districts were In the hands
OF small holders, receiving liberal wages
from Datures profuslOn, IN fresh alr' lfesh
food and health. none of which 20 into sta
tistical tables, the city would be renewed
from the struggling genteel poor, and from
the youthful indigent population growing up
10 idleness and vagrancy. Our agricultural
districts do not support people enough. Ana
they cannot be expected to do 1t while iabjr-
ers demand enormous wages, or 10 default
fall back coolly and impucently upon the
public charities, or rob the humane on the
Japanese plan OF compassion. Your oriental
threatens, if you do not humor aim, to dis.
emb vel himself Your beggar Gays, ~
you don't feed ne for nothing I'll starve,
and as neither catastrophe is pleasant, the
Japanese has his way, and the beggar his
also. Farmers who occupy large tracts
cannot afford to pay extIavagaht or even
moderate wages to large plumbers OF people:
But double the number Of proprietOrs, and
the increased production will feed augment
ed human furce. Each farmer can fod bis
one or two men without difficulty, or he will
do what is better, take boys rs servants ana
raise them. The troop of mendicants and
c;tv besears would diminish under demand
suficiently steady to absorb the iaooriog
populstion, bat not urgent enough to put me
interests of the employers at the mercy OF the
laborers. Men of moderate means are not
wssteful in charity to idlers. Our large aims
housaa in the cities and counties of9r pre-