New-York tribune., 1871-06-28
THE FACTORY AND THE FIRM

THE FACTORY AND THE FARM
Buy at once all the land you are likely to
"want for the moment your factory is estab-
"lished, real estate will rise in price all around
"you from 25 to 80 per cent" Such is the ad-
vice given by the Virginia State Agent of I'm
migration to a gentleman proposing to under
take the culture and manufacture of Silk in
that State. That such advance of price is not
altogether speculative, but is based on actual
enhancement of value, is matter well under
stood and one that has been plainly illus
trated by political economists from Adam
Smith to the best authorities of our own day
The introduction of manufactures into agricul-
tural communities brings together the essen
tial elements of wealth-producing enterprise,
establishing the shortest circuit of communl-
cation. This is in accordance not only with
the laws of political economy but OF that
higher order whereby Nature conducts the
commerce of the material world. The farmer
and manufacturer each have needs which
the other supplies and to bring the two into
such close connection that exchanges can be
made with the least possible cost, is saving
that must commend itself to the dullest mind.
If our grain can be bartered for cloth made
within sight of the field where it grew, that
is plainly better deal than sending the same
grain to Liverpool to pay for fabrics woven In
Yorkshire.
The factory adds value to the farm by af-
fordng a home market. home market saves
the charges, risks, and waste of long carriage,
the profits of intervening traders, and interest
on delayed returns, and gives merchantable
worth to products that will not pay such
charges. Better STILL home market is sure
market, little subject to the fluctuations incl
dent to foreign demand. Regular home con-
sumption steadies prices, drives out specula-
ton, and gives to intelligent forethougnt
basis for reasonable calculation.
When on the right side of the road, advan
tage favors us at every turn. We go with the
current and all movement is in our direction; I;
| every incident of the way is help; so the
! progress of manufactures, side by side with
| agriculture, beside the gain we have cited,
| brings diversity of pursuits, stimulates indus
| trv and invention raises the standard of intel
| ligence, attracts desirable immigration, and
promotes in many ways the welfare of the
community. We consider the prospect of the
immediate future most hopeful in that it prom
ises the cotemporaneous development of these
|
Our Pacific Railroads, penetrating the wilder
ness in advance of immigration, make it pos
sible to occupy the new lands with all the arts
of civilization, in simultaneous movement. The
| scream of the locomotive is death-slgnal to the
pioneer of the Misunderstanding type, more
fateful than the war-whoOp of the savage. The
| simple virtues and rough chivalry of COOpers
| hero are passing away forever, and the class
| of grain-f farmers who followed the pioneer, we
assume, must follow him still. Our movement
westward has been characterized by rude
society struggling with the hardships of semi
barbarous life at first deprived of every COM
fort-ater, obtaining even some luxuries, but
shipping off, to pay for them, the very cream
of the SOIL leaving State after State ex-
hausted of their corn and wheat-prOducing
elements. The South, too, under Slavery was
subjected to wasteful system of agriculture,
and was stripped of fertility by the export OF
few staple products. We can now hope to
do better than all this The South, as well as
the West, has still vast areas of virgin soil.
Thanks mainly to facilities of transportation
afforded by our rapidly extending railroads,
the settlement of these new lands will be made
under more benefcent order. Organized colo
nization, opening farms with one hand, build
ing factories with the other; planting pro-
ducer and consumer, the farmer and the man
ufacturer, side by side-this is the potent
agent now inaugurating the better plan of inn
migration, and developing, we trust, higher
form of civilization.
at will cost you bushel of wheat to send
d" "another bushel to New-York market was
the observation lately made to a Minnesota
colonist. 1--WE dom propose to send our
wheat to New-York," was the confident re-
ply; eve are putting up mills to grind our
"wheat for home consumption" In that sem
tence we hear the keynote of American pro-