Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1873-07-04
For tho VERMONT FARMER.
MONoPOLIES--CHEAP TRANSP0R-
TATION ETC.

The West, or many portions OF 1t, seems
violently agitating the subject of monopoies,
and calling loudly for cheaper transportation
to the seaboard, claiming that upon tho rail-
roads falls the blame for the hard times that
have ovortaken the farming communities.
As result new parties arc being formed
and aggressive measures instituted to reduce
the freight tariffs, and bring the railroad
kings into subsection. There is ne doubt
that we, as nation, are yearly paying inn
mense tribute to the monopolized railroad
lines leading westward, and the people have
a right to enact laws, (it they can get egis-
lature to do it before il is seen y that shall
keep railroad managers within proper bounds
in regard to tho transportation of heavy
freights, but it should bo borne in mind that
the prosperity or non-prosperitY Of state
dependsless upon railroads than agreat many
imagine, and practical life of four years
in one Of the grain-grOwing western states
warrants seme decided opinion on this point.
The wheat-growing state ofMinnesOta finds
its income depleted to-day, not so much by
the railroad managers as by the short.sighted
system pursued by those who till the soil.
The one idea of WhOat-growing has largely
rooted out everything else and farmer after
farmer finds himself, at the end Of the year
with an empty pocket after supporting his
iamilyand paying the expenses Of harvest
ing his grain, and that too when wheat CON-
mands from 80 cents TO Sl.00 for No. l.
The trouble is everybody is engaged in the
same business, and Of course in harvesting
help gets anything it asks.
Another thing. Minnesota, to-day, owes
her hard times, more than to any other one
thing, to the immense debt her citizens are
paying to the agricultural implement dealers.
The sellers of thrashers, seeders and reapers
are iDpovcrishing the West rather than the
railroads that carry the grain she furnishes,
An inspection Of the notes in the hands Of
collecting agents would show that trsmen-
dous per cent. ofthem are for agricultural
implements, and when tho farmer finds him.
sell staggering under the load, he ignores the
fact Of personal miscaleulation and heaps it
upon the " monopolies."
In state where grazing facilities are un-
surpassed, never passed winter but but
ter brought fifty cents pound from about
the lst Of January until spring and this was
shipped from Chicago markets. In state
where beans would grow as we'll as in Ver-
mont, they brought from $3.50 to $3.50 per
bushe as to quality. 1t was an exception
for merchants to Gil their pork barrels from
pork grown in the State. These are some OF
the items. And all this time almost every
farmer was tOiling and struggling to keep
above water by wheat-raising, butting his
brains out against the wall of impossibiities.
Occasionally a man was found who catered
to the wants OF the home markets, and in al.
most every instance such an one was indie,
pendent.
The great want Of the West, it seems tc
me, is moro discrimination in what they raise
Why cannot Minnesota and Iowa raise their
own butter, cheese, beans, and make their own
cloth and grind their own grain, thus intro
ducing host Of consumers just as well as to
ship abroad SO much bulky freight2 These
States must learn, sooner or later, to depend
more upon mixed husbandry, to stop grow
ing, as the sole reliance, those crops that de-
mand such an outlay Of capital for machin
cry to raise them. II never has paid anC
it never will pay.
Another thing 1t is often stated that
one Of the Western States has spent nearly
half million dollars instituting " Oranges
Would it not be as wise to have employed
this sum as nucleus for the establishment
Of water communication with the East? Th,
great lakes and navagable streams cannot b.
controlled by monopolies, and, it seems to me
that the next generation, or this perhaps
must fight the railroads with boats as vel
as by resolutions aud supreme courts "ShiI
canals should be the battle cry of Western
farmers. w. W. HIdBEE.
| Charlotte, June Ia.