Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-08-11
2fsric,alfural Department
Z. d. r. COLLINS, Editor.
HOW TO START MANUFACTURES
IN A FARMING DISTRICT.

IN A FARMING DISTRICT.
The want of market, which lies at
the bottom of the farmers fight with
the railroads in Illinois, is serious
trouble in many parts of the East. The
farmers who are near large cities and
villages do well enough, but there are
still large districts remote from rail
roads where there is little variety of la
Dor, and the farmers have nobody to
feed except the blacksmith, the shoe
maker, the merchant, and two or three
professional 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 very serious
drawback to the profits of husbandry in
such districts SO serious, that it dis
courages effort and sends multitudes to
more favored regions. The farms are
running 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 ruin,
and the land sold for song to the next
neighbor. And this happens, too, in
places where there is good water power
waiting to turn wheels, and abundance
of wood and other raw material for man
ufactures. The best remedy for these
unthrifty regions, in the East certainly,
is the introduction Of manufacturing in
dustry. Some kinds of manufactures,
no doubt, are best carried on in cities,
Notwithstanding high rents, costly steam
power, and expensive labor. But other
kinds can be more proftably pursued in
the country, where there is plenty Of
room, cheap raw material, and cheap
food and labor. An agricultural town
does not always see that it is much
cheaper for them to create a home mar
ket in their midst than it is to carry all
their products twenty miles to market.
They would not positively make war up
on man who should propose to invest
| 100000 in manufacturing 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
power, and they would get all the taxes
they could out Of such an investment
from the start, without any reference t.
the productiveness of the capital. A
proposition in town meeting to remit
taxes to manufacturing company fol
five or ten years as an inducement fol-
them to start new enterprise, would b.
voted down by a large majority. Ye
this kind Of inducement is often tn
thing that determines the minds of mel
of large capital, who are looking 70
new localities to start manufactures
The advantage of such a diversity 0
t industry to the fortunes of farmers i
not likely to be overestimated. Tn
l fruits of such investments are visible il
) all the SOUTHERN pvrvivn. vc -n-e
land, and in many other places. TIL
changes wrought by them, even within
the memory Of middle.aged persons,
wonderful. From the window where W
write we look out upon valley with
population of over four thousand, wher
8 but few years ago there were hardly
! dozen families, all engaged in the GU
ture of the soil. There was no HON
q market Grain was shipped to the di
. tant city, and butter and cheese to tt
j South. So small were the profits th;
] not much was raised, and there was NJ
much capital beside the land, the stool
j and the buildings. The scene is muc
+ changed now, and it is all owing to IL
), business enterprise of few individual
who studied the natural resources of Il
q valley and developed them. Every far
q within ten miles of the village feels I'll
.. effects of this large increase of wealt
! and population. There is not only
+ home market for everything the neigl
4 boring farms can produce, at remuner
tive prices, but supplies are drawn vel
largely from the West. The price
- the farming lands has been double
! and in many cases quadrupled. 1t h
70 made good many families prospero,
= by. the rise in the price of lands, al
> the whole business of agriculture is ell
! waited to higher plane by the presen
- of this home market 1t is in the DO,
N er Of almost any agricultural townsh
. in the more thickly settled portions
the country to vary its industry, al
create a home market, by holding 0
IS special inducements for manufacturers
ce start new enterprises among them. T
es power and the raw material are the
MS unused. Let the new industries
I'D warmly welcomed Agrsc,
it tmist
e, -.-s-.---
IF CANNING FRUITs.-In reply to c,
- respondent who wishes to know viii
,;r we recommend, metal or glass jars,
"a keep canned fruits or vegetables, t
nj New York San replies that its edi
= uses glass jars or cans in his own far
! ~, and it quotes the following extr