Arizona citizen., 1874-06-13
THE. FARMING INTEREST.

We have frequently referred to the fact, that no country can be prosperous unless the producers prosper; and the scarcity of money in Arizona, the low price of labor and the difficulty of obtaining employ ment is attributable mainly to the low price of grain. For years, efforts have been made to induce contractors not to offer bids for supplying government at such low rates as would prove ruinous to our farming interests, and each year the con- tracts have gone lower and lower until the drst cost cannot possibly be realized for raising the grain The condition of trade and our location irresistibly drive the contracting system into this situation. The merchants give accommodations to the farmers, depending upon the grain to get return for their goods, and the only market the former have where they can realize money is from the government. Hence every merchant who does not ob- tain contract from the government for the sale of his grain runs the risk of not only lying out of the use of his money, z which he needs to pay for his goods, but is liable to meet with great loss by insects and animals destroying his grain. It is said that our merchants might combine and by unity of action do much to keep up the price of grain and thereby help their own trade and materially assist the farming interest. We believe that very much might be done in this way, but the evil would not be cured for the reason that New Mexico is and has'been celebrat- ed for furnishing grain at low rates, and many of our military posts are conven- iently located to that Territory. The merchants and contractors of New MeXi- co have impoverished their farmers and the laboring classes in that Territory, &<(63 their influence is doing much to H{
 about the same state of affairs ill Afi66
 In view of these facts some practical 4t<Z should be taken to open mp better niAfZA ct and secure better prices. T here Is,1 use longer to complain to the contrsa
 and merchants; it has done no good
 will E so long as the same compet{
 and rivalry exist. The first suggeStid would make Is for the farmers to orSa<{< for self protection and establish Gel
 point to send information from
 farming settlement ill the TerritOfX
 that before the crop is harvested 6x
 be Known Just the num Der of acree
 had been planted. As soon aS thes are harvested information should
 once sent Of the exact yield. In tn iS ., the farmer could make a closer cit{< tlon Of the amount of grain ill the I< tory than the contractor. If it IS 4 tained that there is d scarcity, then&8X bine to hold the grain until d fair pi
 offered. If there IS found to be Sr then let each settlement hold back it portion of the surplus and compel
 prIce to be given before sales are nj X From the best information we can ot1f 5 there will be no surplus this year; n less grain has been planted than he{I fore and in many localities the y i& not as good. There is not great dc< old grain on hand The citizen conSQ<5of< f< uon will be four times as much as H W last year, and the army will conS{1<1* probably double the amount. SeF< hundred horses are now being purci>x # tn California for the army and tho pect Of the horses being kept abOur posts and being fed instead of scoutIz the mountains is very good.
 If the time for letting the contracts 1 s be changed, say to Decem Der, it wotI<f |14 much to raise the price of grain, fot tractors would not dare to bid so lo grain before it has been planted as af has advanced and bids fair to maS good crop. If the farmers would Orgs and ask this change in the time of Iet7 contracts, we have no doubt it worl@ <r&1fed, for it is Rot the policy of tho 1 '<tH<1Fnt to ruin any of it's citiZenS 6 {z9<t<>h larly the producers.
 <<4H is the time for the farmers to 1IlI Ii dnd eet for their own interest. Grumb and complaining will do no good; & has been tried already too long. E should they put their interests in, , hands of men who neither SOW nor but who put hay seed in their hair 2 play farmer for the occasion. Let theh 5 listed laboring men take hold of tho 8[1 Ject and work unselfiShly for the goo<<z all, and we venture the predictlon they will soon remedy the evil.