The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-01-23
;Mhk Earntt
Is Farming Profitable in Cecil County
If not, Why. II So, Why.
BY C. Ii. EVANS


my immediate friends and neighbors |
cannot refrain.
l know You, friend Ewing, to be alive
to every question connected with the
material prosperity of our county, but
how Is this prosperity to be secured
We ask ourselves this question each
day, yet after many and varied expert
ments, after many an anxious confer
ence, we find ourselves still repeating
it, and back the echo comes to our I'M
willing ear" How ?"
Limiting our views to our own coun-
ty, We can ask, Are we improving in
wealth? This question is SO far reach
ing that 'twere best we could but blush
and hide our knowledge Some might
think it a sordid motive that prompted
1t, still, as no such idea prompted us,
We Will not stop to argue it, but ven
ture to affirm, that there is an intimate
and a necessary dependence of every
other interest upon the wealth and wei
fare of community
"Woe to the land to numerous ills prev,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay"
may be, and doubtless is, very true
saying; but is equally true, that pros
perlty IN community is the basis of
all advancement, social, moral, intel
lectual and religious Unless honest,
earnest and we'll applied labor is re-
warded with success, the people will, in
the long run, either emigrate or sink
into stolid apathy, ignorance and vice
The question of profit and loss is ordi-
narily capable of an easy solution. The
balance sheet, if It's fairly drawn, will
decide. But the sad and unfortunate
case with US is that we have no balance
sheet before US. The case of every
single person, or Of mercantile firm is
different; he or they have on V to offset
the debts against the credits to sec how
they stand. Can we apply the same
test to our farming community? Let
us try, at least.
This county produces no single art-
Gle in sufficient quantities for its own
wants, except bread stuffs, vegetables,
and forage for its stock We buy a
greater amount by far than we sell; we
can sit at our breakfast table and emu
merate our bought products; first of
all, we eat off table bought some
where out of the county, the chairs on
which we sit, the cloth, plates, spoons,
knives and forks, cups and saucers, cas-
tors, salt, pepper, and condiments, the
tea, coffee, sugar, perhaps the salt fish
we eat for a relish, the pork we have,
and very often the lard we use is of
Western manufacture. Our breakfast
finished and not the more relished after
this unpleasant retrospect, we proceed
on our way to the barn in a meChtatiye
mood In the kitchen we see the stove,
tinware, kettles, ovens, pals, buckets,
tubs, &c; in the pantry the cheese, rice
and molasses, only to increase our med
itations. In the barn, the horses and
mules stare US in the face, and in each
wnnowing voice say ~ we, too, were
bong ht,' while the cows echo the same
refrain. We finish our feeding, the
while only thinking that our carriage
and harness have been bought, the sad
die on which we ride. the clothes we
wear, the boots we walk in, all, all, are
bought. Then add to this the taxes we
pay, insurance premiums, &c. They
are all Indispensable Some have to
add the prices of tobacco, wines, bran
dies, Whistles and many other articles
Of luxury or vicious indulgences.
Now let us see how small our credit
side is. We export no single product in
any considerable quantity, but peaches,
corn and wheat. We have no exhaus-
tive statistics which will enable us to
set the bulk of sales against the aggre-
gate of the purchases, but we have the
-ad impression that the balance of trade
Is against us. For the last four years
wheat has hardly paid the cost of pro-
duction, in fact, has hardly paid six
bushels for one planted, and this has
surely been means of depression on
the producer rather than one Of eleva-
ton.
The only deductions from our retro
spect, then, obviously are: that we are
not increasing in wealth, but our pow
erty is each day becoming more oppres-
sive. True favored few may be doing
well, but the masses sell nothing to
meet their aggregate necessities, or
bought supplies The consequent re-
suit of all this is increased indebted
ness. If we go below the surface and
examine into the workings of the credit
system that has been working 50 much
ruin for the past years, we would find
that many men have owed hundreds,
perhaps thousands of dollars for wears,
and their creditors have KINDLY ~
taken out mortgages at ruinous rates Of
interest, only to keep the giver in ter
ror lest be should not be able, yearly,
to meet the interest, or be sold out bv
the sheriff. This has had very strong
tendency to prevent the improvement
Of property, and we notice it only too
plainly in the dilapidation Of houses
and barns, in stables, the appearance of
stock, IN wagons, as well as in the fenc-
ing, and general cultivation and appIi-
cation OF home or commercial manures
Thus we notice that capital,-t bone,
the sinew, the animus Of agriculture
IS lacking. True, every farmer has not
mortgaged his farm, some being renters
have none to mortgage yet look at
their stock pens, their bills for manure
and see if they, in order to make both
cnds meet" have not sold of more cat
tie than they could spare, or have bought
less manure than they really needed to
keep up the fertility of their SOIL and
thus have entrenched upon THEIR cAPI-
TAI.
'Tis as true of communities as of in
dividuals, that if their expenses exceed
their income, ruin is the result; true,
the evil day may be put off in ore way
and another, but after all, IT WILL COME.
We have nothing with which to meet
our liabilities but land, and our land
consequently must be sacrificed at ruin
Gus rates. The CREDIT system MUST
BE CRUSHED; and if we do not, each
one of Us, lend hand in its ostracism,
inevitable desolation will be our lot, our
churches, schools, and business enter
prises of every kind must either perish
l., cb nd