The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-11-10
INGERSOLL'S ADVICE TO FARMERS.

You see before you to-day an old and
experienced tiller of the soil, one of the
hard-handed sons of labor, one who i'm
AGNES he knows something of the art of
cultivating the soil and extracting hap
piness from labor. l suppose everybody
understands something about farming
except editors of agricultural papers and
magazines. | know enough to know that
agriculture is the base of all wealth and
all prosperity, and that, in a country
where the agricultural laborer is free,
everybody is free and ought to be pros
porous.
know that the old style of farming
was mistake. When was farmer,
in the olden time in Illinois, they used to
fence 100 acres of land with two dogs
When l was farmer they used to haul
wheat 200 miles in wagon and sell it
for thirty-five cents bushel and bring
back about 300 feet of lumber, punches
of shingles, barrel of salt and cook
stove that never would draw. When |
was farmer they feasted on corn and
bacon and didn't know very well how to
cook even that. We had poor houses
and no barns. The horses were put in
straw sheds, and long before spring
most of the straw would be eaten away;
and it took all the oats and all the corn
we could stuff into those horses to keep
them from actual starvation. In those
DAYS most farmers thought the best place
for pig-pen was Immediately in front
of the house, and the wood-pile, as a
general thing, consisted of one log upon
oh hoA hoor nj
in the fruitless effort to make kindling.
Everything about the farm was inf
nitely disagreeable. There was no leisure
and no comfort. 1t was all labor and
WEAKNESS and "veXation of spirit"
Every farmers boy took thousand oaths
that he would never cultivate the soil.
The moment they arrived at the age of
twenty-one they left the farms; they
rushed to the towns and cities; they
wanted to be bankres, railroad men, doc
tors, lawyers, merchants, anything to
avoid the drudgery of farming. Every
boy acquainted with the three r's-read
ing, 'riting and acknowledgement he
had altogether more education than ought
to be wasted in cultivating soil, and made
haste to go into some other business.
Those who stayed upon the farm envied
those who went away. When times are
prosperous the young men leave the
farm to engage In something that prom
Uses great and quick returns. They build
railroads; they establish banks and in
surance companies; they speculate in
stocks in Wall street, or they gamble in
grain in Chicago. They become rich;
they live in palaces, and their brothers,
left upon the farms, are little envious.
But time has brought its revenge.
The farmer has seen the railroad Pres
ident bankrupt and the road in the
hands of a receiver. He has seen the
bank President abscond and the insur-
ance company a wrecked and ruined
fraud. And to day the only solvent class,
the only Independent class, are the till
ers of the soil. The shrinkage in prop
erty has been in the great cities. The
farm will produce as much as ever. The
prosperous times have gone; the cities
are bankrupt; the country is still filled
with wealth. And now, when the hard
times are upon us, the people see that
after all there is more real prosperity,
more real pleasure, in agriculture than
IN any -otner ouslness. Anu Ihe SALIVA
ton of our country to-day depends upon
the tlllers of the soil.
No farmer can afford to sell his wheat
and corn and oats. He should sell
horses, not oats; sheep, cattle and pork
not corn. He should make every profit
possible out of what he produces. Sc
long as you ship your corn and oats and
wheat, so long will you be poor; just sc
long will your farm be mortgaged to the
insurance companies and capitalists OF
the East; just so long all the profit Of
the industries in this glorious State will
be given to pay the capitalists of othel
States. When our farmers ship theil
products in the form of stock, then ,