Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-07-18


at the bottom of the farmers fight
with the railroads in Illinois, is a
serious trouble in many parts of the
East. The farmers who are near
large cities and villages, do well
enough, but there arc still large dis.
tricts remote from railroads where
there is little variety of labor, and
farmers have nobody to feed except
the blacksmith, the shoemaker, the
merchant and two or three profes.
sional gentlemen. They have to
drive from twelve to twenty miles
to market every load of wood, every
pound Of animal or vegetable food
that is sold from the farm. This is
q very serious drawback to the pro-
fits of husbandry in such districts;
so serious that it discourages effort
and sends multitudes to more ia
vored regions. The farms are run
ming down, the buildings are going
to decay, and the price OF land is
even less than it was fifty years ago.
In many cases the old homestead is
a ruin, and the land sold for a song,
to the next neighbor. And this hap
pens, too, in places where there is
good water-powcr waiting to turn
wheels, and abundance of wood and
other raw material for manufac-
lures. The best remedy for these
unthrifty regions, in the East GER
tainly, is the introduction of man
utacturing industry. Some kinds Of
manufactures, no doubt, are best
carried on in cities, notwithstand-
ing high rents, costly steam-power,
and expensive labor. But other
kinds can be more profitably pur-
sued in the country, where there is
plenty of room, cheap raw material,
and cheap food and labor. An az
ricultural town does not always see
that it is cheaper for them to create
a home market in their midst than
it is to carry all their produce TWEEN.
ty miles to market. They would
not positively make war upon a mar
who should propose to invest Il hun
dred thousand dollars in manufac.
turing industry in their midst, but
they would expect to get an. extra
price for the lands watered by the
stream that was to furnish the pow.
CIR, and they would get all the taxes
they could out Of such an invest
ment from the start, without any
reference to the productivcness of
the capital. A proposition in town
meeting to remit taxes to a man.
ufacturing company for or 10 yrs.
as an inducement for them to start
new enterprise, would be voted
down by n largo majority. Yet
this kind of inducement is often the
thing that determines the minds OF
men of large capital who are look
ing for new localities to start man
ufactories. The advantages Of such
a diversifcation Of industry to the
fortunes of farmers is not likely to
be over-cstimated. The fruits of
such investments arc visible in all
the southern portion of New Eng
land, and in many other places. The
changes wrought by them even
within the memory OF middle aged
persons, is wonderful. From the
window where we write we look out
upon valley with population of
over four thousand, where but a few
years ago were hardly dozen fam
lilies all engaged in the cultivation
of the soil. There was no home
market. Grain was shipped to the
distant city, and butter and cheese
to tho South. So small were the
profits that not much was raised,
and there was not much capital be
sides the land, the stock and the
buildings. The scene is much
changed now, and is all owing to
tho business enterprise of few in
dividuals who studied the natural
resources of the valley and dcvcl-
opcd them. Every farm within ten
miles of the village feels the effect
of this large increase Of wealth and
population. There is not only a
home market for everything in the
ncighborbood farms can produce,
at remunerative prices, but supplies
are drawn very largely from the
west. The price Of farming lands
has been doubled and in many
cases quadrupled. 1t has made a
good many families prosperous by
the rise in the price of lands, and the
whole business of agriculture is ell
cvated to higher plane by the
presence of a home market. 1t is in
the power of almost any agricul-
tural township in the moro thickly
settled portions of the country to
vary its industry, and create a home
market, by holding out special in.
ducemcnts for manufacturers to
start new enterprises among them.
The power and the raw material
are there unused. Let the new in
dustrics be warmly Welcomed