The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-07-19
Reconciliation of Expenses.
How to Start Manufactures i'm a Farm
ing District.

american HgricnHnraa.I
The want of a market, which lies at the
bottom of the farmers fight with the rail-
roads 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 are still large districts
remote from railroads where there is little
variety of labor, and the farmers have no
body to feed except the blacksmith, the
shoemaker, 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 discour-
ages effort and sends multirndes to more
favored regions. The farms are running
down, the buildings are going to decay,
and the price of land is even LEGS than it
was fifty years ago. In many cases the
old homestead is a ruin, and the land sold
for song to the next neighbor. And this
happens, too, in places where there is good
waterpower is waiting to turn wheels, and
abundance of wood and other raw material
for manufactures. The best remedy for
these unthrifty regions, in the East, GER
tainly is the Introduction of manufacture
ing industry. Some kinds of manufact-
ures, no doubt, are best carried on in
cities, Notwithstanding high rents, costly
steam-power, and expensive labor. But
other kinds can be more profitably 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 home market in their
midst than it is to carry all their products
twenty miles to market. They would not
positively make war upon a man who
should propose to invest a hundred thous-
and dollars 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 to the productive
ness of the capital. A proposition in
town meeting to remit taxes to 4 manufat:t-
uring company for five or ten years as an
inducement for them to start new enter
prise would be voted down by a large
majority. Yet this kind of inducement
is often the thing that determines the
minds of men of large capital who are
looking for new localities to start manu-
factories. The advantage of such diver
sity of industry to the fortunes of farmers
is not likely to be overestimated. The
fruits of such investments are visible in all
the southern portion of Now England, 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 a population of
over four thousand, where but few years
ago there were hardly dozen families all
engaged in the cultivation of the SOIL
There was NO homo market Grain was
shipped 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 the buildings. The scene is
much changed now, and it is all owing to
the business enterprise of few individuals
who studied the natural resources of the
valley and developed them. Every farm
within ten miles of the village feels the
effects of this large increase of wealth and
population. There is not only a home
market for everything the neighboring
farms can produce, at remunerative prices,
but supplies are drawn very largely from
the West. The price Of the farming lands
has been doubled, and in many cases quad
rupled. 1t has made good many families
prosperous by the rise in the price of lands,
and the whole business of agriculture is
elevated to higher plane by the the pres
ence of this home market. 1t is in the
power of almost any agricultural town.
ship in the more thickly settled portions
of the country to vary its industry, and
create a home market, by holding out
special inducements for manufacturers to
start new enterprises among them. The
power and the raw material are there
unused. Let the new industries be warm
| ly welcomed.
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