The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-12-27
DAILY PRESS.
Monday Morning, December 27, 1869.
Ae''er from the Northwesf.-No. XIV.
CORTLAND .

great staple of our productions, commands
only from sixty to sixty-fve cents per bushel,
and in some portions of the State the price
is far below even this runous figure. Strange
as 1t may seem, one bushel of potatoes will
purchase one and a half of wheat. Oats are
worth nearly as much as wheat, and corn more
than oats. or the latter articles enough is
not produced in the State for home consump-
ton, and this fact accounts for their high
price as compared with wheat, which is rails
ed In great abundance, and is in fact the only
| product affording surplus for expectation:
Farmers who can do so are holding back their
wheat crop, unwilling to sell for prices that
will scarcely pay the cost of production; and
yet it seems impossible that they should hold
back long, because, unfortunately, a large pro-
portion Of them are in debt, having improvi-
IDENTIFY purchased on time large amounts of
farm machinery, that they would have con-
trived to get along without could they have
looked more clearly into the future.
| To an outsider it may look as though there
| could be little suffering in land where bread
stufis are so low, and. yet, when the fifty or
sixty cents to pay for a bushel of wheat can
not be commanded, the low price is no more
available for the satisfaction of hunger than
if bread were doubled in value. 1t is safe to
say that, since the terrible revulsion following
| '57, general business has not been so much
| depressed in Minnesota, nor has money been
| SO stringent, nor labor in so little demand as
| at the present time. IL misery finds satisac-
tion in having plenty of company, however, i
think even Minnesotians need not feel entire
ly comfortless; for if newspaper reports may
be be ieved, there is plenty ofhald times and Of
stringency of money, in nearly all parts of the
land; and this State " i'll outride the storm
and survive with the rest of the country.
In this State, at present, property is very
uneyenly distributed. We have many rich
men; great many who are independent, so
that with your means of providing for the
poor and penniless there would be less suffer-
ing than fear is likely to be felt here before
spring opens. In all new countries charity Is
one of the last things to become organized,
and even in this State, which in moral tone
will compare favorably with almost any other,
the institutions of benevolence are of infan-
| tile proportions, charity has few organizations,
and "tbe poor"-who are always with us-are
not so well cared for as in many of the older
States.
1t is very common remark Of newspaper
writers-and as fippant as common-that the
strong armed, hard-fsted poor men in the large
Eastern cities, who toll from dawn till dark
to exc out poorly fed life for themselves and
families, and sleep in badly ventilated, poorly
warmed and uninviting lofts to save eXpen-
siye rents which their stinted means forbid
them TO pay, are entitled to little sympathy,
because they should strike out into the broad,
fertile prairies of the Northwest, and create
firms for themselves, and thus become indie
pendent. Even the philosopher" of the
n. Y. Tribune often scolds the poor laborers
of that great city for lounging around in pow
erty, begging chance to earn few dollars
by hard effort, and exhorts them to put out
for the West, where broad, productive acnes
lie waiting their invitation to blossom with
the richest of harvests!
Il Now all this is decidedly cheering to poor
men who, to secure their souls salvation can
not save from their most pressing necessities
asufiicient surplus to preserve life in their fami
lies for two weeks should disease lay its paralyz-
ing hand upon their own frames and incapacl-
tate them for labor. Suppose the exhorta-
tion addressed to man with family of four
or five, and he has desire to act upon 1t, how
will he find the real stubborn facts of actual
life develop before him? To so where cheap
lands invite his efforts, will require an outlay
even should his wife and babes submit tc
the hard fare OF the second class"-of a
least twenty-five dollars for each adult for pas
sage, to say nothing of the cost of food on the
road, which is no small item. But suppose
him safely arrived at this point, in close prox-
unity to the most favorable localities for set
tlement, how does he then find himself stu
ated? Allowing his ambition to be confined
within the lowest range, he needs at leas
| forty acres of land for a beginning
: This he can find totally etnim proved, eithe
prairie or woodland, for about S400, or teI
dollars per acre. To find it at a less price b
. must go long distance, away from rail
roads or even decent common roads, and IN
can go there only by purchasing a team o
. hiring conveyance at large expense, trans
porting with him his cookstove, beds and 9th
er furniture, so it is doubtful if the cheape
: priced land will be found actually cheaper il
: the end. -
Suppose him located on his forty acres, 70
which he has agreed ito pay S4C0, fifteen pc
cent of which and years interest on tn
J. balance, he must pay down, if purchased o
! the railroad company, who have the most an,
the best lands for sale, and offer them on tn
= easiest terms of payment. How does he thel
stand, after having made this first payment Q
eighty three dollars and eighty cents? Lega
: interest here, be it rendered, is seven pc
cent.
Having secured his land and made the frs
= payment, our settler finds himself on a piec
ofunbroken, perhaps hearily ttmbered lant
without house, fence, tools, stock, seed 70
planting, or even provisions for a days sui
sistence, and yet many months must elaps
= before he can raise thing to live upon.
he has taken tmberla3d, he must make
clearing before he can put in the plow or plar
hill of corn or potatoes. II prarie land,
must purchase the material OF which to bull
hLS SetuiLi, his lSilSSs, VI even lO UuIu us uTs
fire to cook his food. In either case he
s. helpless without tools and a team. Horses G
oxen are necessity, and with family
needs a cow, a pig and poultry, and yet h
had only his naked hands when he left Ne
$. York weeks before, with perhaps few do
lars realized from the forced sale of his scant
- furniture; and yet such are the men who
Mr.. Greeley and the philosophers" of h
school are constantly exhorting to leave the
= poverty and hard lot in the big cities, and b
n come free holders and independent farme
in the great West.
1t is quite possible that many poor ma
= in New York, possessed OF strong arm an
willing heart. would find farming-of whic
st. he has no knowledge-no more lucrative tha
some of those employments which turn u
in the city, with which he is familiar. 1t
- all nonsense to expect every man, irrespectiv
5! of taste or fitness, to make q successful fal
mer. The earth is not to be cheated, and
will yield profit TO those only who approae
- her hidden treasures with some show of til
proper intelligence. Many of your good me
:. chanics, successful shifmasters, fortunat
bankers and prineely merchants, would max
= "poor fist" at farming in new country, an
place the best Of them on forty acres of Min