Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1873-04-29
NUMBER 80.
The Farmers Their Troubles and the
Remedy.

4 4uo E xIUUUlS8 anu LQ6
| Remedy.
The Department of Agriculture, at Wash
lngton, is In correspondence with persons in
most of the counties of each State in the Union.
and according to its last monthly report there
seems to be q growing discomfort with the brsi-
ness Of farming throughout the United States.
ihls widespread dissatisfaction is due partly
to local. but chiefly to general causes, opera
| ting against the farmers as class. and loudly
complained or in their correspondence with the
Department. The most important obstacle in
their way, is the unrelisbility of labor, and the
difficulty of employing it. This is by no means
confined to the Southern States. There is a
similar complaint from the North aud West.
The requirements of the manufacturing and
mining industries, and the demands of traffic,
draw OFT the laborers from the farms Those
that remain are unskilled and Inefficient, and
yet demand higher wages than ruled before
the war, and obtain them on account of the
| scarcity of labor Besides this, there is an in
creasing aversion on the part of native Ameri-
cans to the drudgery of farm work. I'm the
more popuious States, native laborer is a rar-
ity. young man, who thinks of engaging
IN farming. refuses to work another mans land.
he seeks some lighter and more profitable en-
ployment, and when he has laid up little cap
ital, he either rents in the East or ''goes West
to buy farm" and grows up with the coun-
try With the foreign laborer, the possession
| of piece Of land, which he can call his own.
is the height of his ambition, and just in pro-
portion to his energy, industry, and value as
lsborer, will be his unwingneas to remain
through life another mans servant on wages
The result is that the farm work is not done
by men who look upon that employment as
their business and who fit themselves for it ac-
cordingly 1t is understood, both by employ
er and employee, that it is merely temporary
shift until the laborer can find something better
| TO do. The universal complaint is that farm
| laborers are nothing more than unwilling ap-
| prentices to business that they mean to quit
as soon as possible.
Besides this cause Of discoursgement, the
farmers everywhere complain bitterly of the
difficulties of transportations The feeling
generally, 10 all the agricultural communities of
the Union, is one of indignation against the
high and discriminating rates of railway and
water freight As single illustration, accord
ing to the Report. bushsl of wheat can be
sent to an eastern market as cheaply from
Western Ohio as from Frederick county in the
Valley. Letters received by the Department
from all sections of the country indicate that
there will be universal demand among the
farmers for legislation to prohibit discrimina-
tion between rates of local and through freights.
They complain also everywhere of the imposi-
tion practised upon them by middle mem
the grain rings. tobacco rings and commission
merchants. Judging from their letters, they
regard these non-producers as a ouisance-ma-
king their living by the advance in price which
they make between the producer and the con-
Sumer.
According to statistics in possession of the
Commissioner, the present discomfort and
discouIsgement Of the farming class is due,
10 part, to the almost universal disregard
heretofore of the .rus theory Of farming-that
improved soil is increased capital. The aim
has always been to realize the largest possible
present income, regardless of future conseouen-
ces to the soil. Statistics show that this reck-
less mode Of cultivation ia already telling even
against the rich lands of The West, but its evil
effects are most felt in the oldest settled States
and especially 10 the South. Since 1860, there
has been an immense decrease in the value Of
lands in the Southern States 1t is less in Vir-
ginia than elsewhere, but it amounts here to an
average of 27 per cent of the assessment of
1860. This is due, in great part, to the war,
but its ravages would be much more easily re.
paired if We did not have among our other Ca
lamities, that of an impoverished soil. Even
with their deteriorated lands, the farmers, in
the Eastern and Southern States, might do
we'll enough with efficient and reliable labor
| But between the two things, poor land and poor
labor, they can hardly hope for more than q
| bare competence. And this will satisfy but
| few men, at time when restless, feverish de-
| sire to get up in the world is the national
| spirit The Department hopes that remedy
may be found for this state of things, but does
| not venture upon any suggestion in that 6irec-
| tion.
The remedy is in educating tie agricultural
class to higher and more elevated standard
of farming, and bringing up the youth of tho
| country to look upon agricultural labor as
equally honorable with selling tape and ribbons.
1t IS the fewer acres and better cultivation and
a sense of the truth that it is more profitable to
work good lands and keep them good, than to
work poor lands to death. When the farming
class learn to manage the farm, stock raising,
the dairy: the truck patch and poultry yard,
as railroad companies or good merchants con-
troll their business it will pay all, as it does the
few good manages now. Work, order, indus
try aud enterprise, will be as successful in farm
ing as in any other business
| West Virginia Items.
Huntington boasts of 40 900 rats and antici-
pates fine sausage season......The Allegheny
Bell Ringers and Robertson's Circus will be at
Huntington on % h on tha;r voy bere