Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1873-09-11

The want OF q market which lies at
the bottom of the farmers fight with
railroads in Illinois. is q serious trou-
BILE in many parts of the East. The
farmers who are near large cities and
villages do well enough. Away from
railroads where there is little variety of
labor, and the farmers have nobody TO i
feed except the blacksmith, the shoe
maker, the merchant and two or three
professional men, they have to drive
irom twelve to twenty miles to mar
ket every load of wood, every pound
OF animal or vegetable food that is
SOLO from the farm. This is very
serious drawback to the profits of hns-
Dandry IN such districts, so serious
that II dlscourages effort. and sends
muititudes to more favored regions.
The farms are running down. tho
houses are going to decay, and the
price Of land is even less than IL was
fifty years ago. In many cases the old
homestead is in ruins, and the land
sold for song To the next neighbor.
And this happens in many places
where there is water power waiting 10
turn wheels, and abundance of wood
and other raw material for manufae-
lures. The best remedy for these un-
thrifty regions, in the East especially,
is the introduction of manufacturing
industry. Some kind OF manufacto.
ries are no doubt, best carried on in the
cities, notwithstanding high rents,
costly steam power and expensive la
Dor. But other kinds can be more
profitably pursued in the country,
where there is plenty of room, cheap
material, and cheap food and labor.
An agricultural town does not ALWAYS
see that it is much cheaper for them to
create home market in their midst.
than it is to carry all their products
twenty miles to market. They would
not positively make war upon man
who should propose to invest a hum
dred thousand dollars in manufactur-
ing industry i'll their midst, but thev
would expect to get an extra price far
the lands watered by the stream that
was to furnish the power. and they
would get oil the taxes they could ont !.
of such an investment from the start.
without any reference to the product.
iveness of the capital. A proposition
in town meetings to remit taxes to
manufacturing companies for five to
ten years as an inducement for them
to start a new enterprise would be
voted down by large majority. Yet
this kind of an inducement is often the
thing that determines the minds of
men of large capital who are looking
for new localities to start manufacto-
ries. The advantage of such divers
ity of industry to the fortunes OF
farmers is not likely to be
over-estimated. The fruits of such in
vsstments are visible in all portions
of New England, and many ether l,la
ces. 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 a popula-
ton of over four thousand, where but
a few years ago there was hardly
dozen families, all engaged in the cul-
tivation of the soil. Grain was shin
ped to the distant city, and butter and
cheese to the south. So small were
the profits that not much was raised
and there was not much capital beside
the land, the stock and buildings. The
scene is much changed, and It is ali
owing TO the business enterprise of n
few individuals who studied iI,a
natural resources of the valley and de-
veloped them. Every farm within tei,
miles feels the increase OF wealth and
population. There is not only mar
ket for everything the nefghbor-
hood farms can produce. but supplies
are drawn very largely from the West.
The price of farming lands has been
doubled and in many cases quadrn-
Piled. 1t has made good many fami
lies prosperous by the rise iii the price
of land, and the whole business Of ay-
riculture is elevated to a higher plane
by the presence of this home market.
1t is within the power of almost any
agricultural township in the more
thickly settled portions of country 10
vary its industry, and create home
market, by holding out special induce
ments for manufacturers to start new
enterprises among them. The power
and material are there unused. Let
new industries be warmly welcomed
American Agricult,ral.