Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-09-29
Diversified Farm Products.

That class of farmers who depend
upon a single crop for their revenue,
do SO at a serious risk to continued
prosperity.
Why?
Gamblers who risk their all on d
throw of the dice, sooner or later
must come to grief. So the farmer,
who risks all upon a single crop, is
in degree left through the recur-
renee of bad seasons, not only with
out money, but often in debt for the
cultivation of the crop. This is es-
pecially true Of corn-the great sta
pie of the West-and also that from
which most money can be made in
good and bad seasons, if properly
managed.
How managed?
BY converting the crop into beef
and pork, mutton, poultry, butter and
cheese. These ara the true export
crops of the West; for, as we have
repeatedly stated, and it will bear re-
iterating: car will carry from ten
to twenty times the value in finished
products, that it will of the crude
material, and with the added advan-
tage that but molety of the heart
Of the soil is carried away.
1t costs but little more to trans
port the finished product than the
raw product. A depreciation of
from one-half to one cent per pound
in eastern markets in the price of
meat, stimulates consumption to a
large degree, while depreciation
then of from ten to twenty cents
does not especially stimulate con-
sumption; but it does entirely de-
stroy the profits of of the crop at
home. In fact the history of those
farmers ofthe West who have depend
ed upon the export Of grain, either
OF corn, oats, or wheat, for series of
years, is history of disaster; from
such crops no profit can be perma-
nently obtained, and but for the
fact that the soil is a bank which
may be drawn on for years, without
serious deterioration, the outcome
would inevitably be complete bank
ruptcy.
The great evil of Western farm
ers has always been an over-produc-
Of the coarse grams for export. In
the settlement of new country,
wheat, if the soil will permit it must
necessarily be the case to a great OK
tent, since it requires time to stock
the farm with animals. The great
difficulty is individuals put off the
rearing OF stock too long, and often
wait until the low price of the cereal
grains entirely prevent this. Then
the farm is mortgaged, and the
struggle commences. If the farmer
is persistent in economy; if he lay
out the last dollar in stock and the
necessary fixtures for caring for
them; if he struggle manfully, and
disease and death do not decimate
the stock, ultimate success may
come. If he borrow money, and en-
deavors to pay his interest and debt
by continuing to sell only the raw
product, the case is hopeless. Go to
any neighborhood, and the history
of individuals will show fully nine
failures to recuperate, from the ex-
port of single products, as corn, oats
OF wheat, to one success. And the
more distant the individual be from
the principal markets, the more
marked the failure.
We do not raise too much corn in
the West; there is still room fol
more. Great and increasing rs is
the export or beef, pork, butter and
cheese from the prairie regions, these
may be largely increased, and with
profit. Last season corn was not
generally sound in the West. Fol
export much of it was worthless. II
will undoubtedly be the same this
year. The crop was large last year
1t will probably be so this year, un
less with very remarkable fall
which there is no reason to expect
Nevertheless, last years crop was
fairly adapted to feeding, and prob
ably will be this.
Whenever crop, whether of corn,
oats or wheat, is unsound, the price is
so low as to prevent its Transports
ton to the seaboard, or to those
States where the demand is constant
ly greater than the supply. There
is always margin IN feeding it tc
stock. When the crop is large, the
feeder makes money fast in conse
quence of the low price of corn; for
whenever the price of corn drops
eight cents per bushel, the feeder
can afford to sell beef one cent pei
pound cheaper than before, even un
der what Eastern farmers are pleased
to term the slovenly manner of feed
ing West; but which practice has
demonstrated to be the most eco
nomical tor use.
We have before stated, if farmers
in the West would cease trying to
get rich by sending great quantities
of corn and other coarse grains East
and beyond the sea, to be made into
meat there, would manufacture it al
home, it would go long ways to-
ward solving the problem of protita
BILE farming in the West. Then
again, if farmers would carefully
study the nature of the particular
soil with view to introducing such
diversity of crops as might be war
ranted, the problem would come
still nearer 4 solution. We are slow.
ly coming to learn our necessities.
The WESTERN FARM JOURNAL has
constantly made these topics promi-
nent. AS in the past SO shall we
continue in the future Western
Farm Journal
Women in the Grange.