Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-05-15
PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY.

Now all kinds Of business will be put IN
fighting trim for the season; 1t is the time
when plans are matured for active opera
tons in nearly every department oil INDUS
try; the joyful seed-time, when the hus-
bandman goes forth bearing precious seed'
that, under the promise. shall yield sure
harvest. Buildings arise and show their
fair proportions, the products of the arehl-
tect's brain and the carpenters skill. Inc
saw mills that have been inactive through
the long months of winter, having re-
ceived their complement of logs, are again
set in motion; the keel of the ship is
stretched and the music of hammer and
axe is heard in long deserted yards. IN
deed the whole atmosphere is surcharged
with the sound of busy industry.
This may be voted by common consent
a poor year for business throughout the
country, but certainly it "opens WELL" as
the traders say, in Maine. Farming and
manufacturing are the principal branches
of business in the State, and who ever
knew the time when these were more pros
porous? Not farm in Maine that is pa
tiently cultivated, but yields good return
for the labor bestowed but few farmers
that are not considered entirely "inde-
pendent" A gentleman remarked to US
the other day that he liked to trade with a
farmer. for his pocket book was sure to be
filled with greenbacks. The prosperity OF
this class has increased as they have ad-
vanced in general intelligence. They do
not now follow in the footprints of their
estimable fathers and grandfathers,
planting the same old acre with corn. and
the same old corner lot or heater piece
with potatoes, and spending half the time
in repairing old stake and board fence, and
keeping down the weeds; letting the cat
tie roam at will in the fields after the hay
crop is off, and turning the whole farm
into sheep pasture. They have found
by the readings of the winter evenings
and the experience of recurring seasons
that it is Improbable to devote the whole
energies to hoed crops; that it is unprofit-
able to raise large quantity of corn when
bushel of potatoes will buy two bushels
of corn, as has been the the case during
the past two seasons. The dairy has beer
enlarged to furnish supplies for the scores
of cheese factories, or butter for the mar
ket ut fifty cents pound. The large
crop Of hay. fed to the stock, returns te
enrich the farm, and keeps up its produc
tive value. Fancy breeds of cattle and
horses are reared. to bring fancy prices
and the money from the purses of fancier'
Of these qualities outside the State. Sc
the public lecturer who said few year,
ago that half the farms in Maine were no
worth the stone walls that surround them
would be laughed to scern were he to re
peat the remark to-day.
Turning from this to the cotton factories
we find all running upon full time. with
large crews Of men and women and will
ready sale for their goods. True, sew
eral of the shoe factories have had to sus
pend for a season. and oil-cloth factories
lessen their force, because goods are pilet
up awaiting sale; but the jam is sure to b.
broken, and these factories will soon b,
running their usual time. 1t is because
goods can be manufactured cheaper in
Maine than elsewhere that VIC see its future
prosperity centering mainly in that drec
ton. Consumers and traders everywhere
are not slow in copying the characteristic.
that has been considered the peculiar birth
right Of the New England Yankee, o
driving sharp bargain. So they will buy
their goods where. all things considered
they can get them the cheapest; and cottor
and wooden goods, and other staple arti
Giles, requiring power and labor to produce
can undoubtedly be manufactured at less
cost in Maine than in any other State in the
Union. This holds true of the construc
ton Of ships. Many of our shipbuilder.
have already large contracts to build YES
sells for parties in New York, Philadelphia,
and Boston. Why do these parties CONF
here for their work if it can be don,
cheaper elsewhere
So the present cry of hard time,
cannot apply very we'll to Maine. lie
those who eat the bread of idleness or ar,
seeking those chances of speculation where
they may make money without work, tax,
up farm. and cultivate it. or enter some o
our manufacturing establishments, ship
yards, stone or granite quarries, and vari
rious other branches of productive indus
try, and thus add something to the wealt
Of the State and the world.
A strike of considerable extent and OF
stinacy is in progress among the cooper
employed in the petroleum trade. Its oh
ject is not, an advance in wages. or resist
ance to reduction of wages, but the en-
forcement OF rule of the lrades-uniol
that none but society men shall be en-
ployed. The motive of such q strike is Il