Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-11-13
The Road TO Ruin.

tural interest has no organ" The agricul-
tural newspapers, however good as educa-
tional media, ignore agriculture as bust
ness interest having governmental rela-
tions. The educated and literary classes are
generally under the impression that farmers
do not think 1t is supposed that they take
their opinions ready-made from press di-
rected and animated by the politicians, and
guided by the interests in whose behalf the
politicians are retained.
1t is not true that the farmers do not
think. No man who is familiar with the
better class of agriculturists, who has joined
in the conversation about their firesides,
and has met with them in the agricultural
assemblages, clubs and oranges, but knows
that farmers think deeply upon all great
public questions; and, strange as it may
seem, all the great public movements that
have been decisive in our history have found
their strength and often their direct origin
in the slow thought and solid conviction of
the farmer. As an illustration take the re.
cent declaration of leading daily newspa-
per, that the dominant commercial policy
of the time is to cut out the middleman and
give his profit to the consumer in the reduc-
ton of prices" This may be commercial
policy, but it originated in the minds OF,
and was first introduced to practice by, the
farmers.
The editor of this department has been
one of very few writers, in the East at
least, who have perseveringly endeavored to
put the farmers view of public questions
into print. lie has met with some obsta-
cles, but not more than he expected. He
feels that the views he advocates are getting
a hearing, and more and more impress them
selves upon the reading public Even the
politicians Gas class the most stupid, as
they are the most selfish and venal of men),
begin to see something worth attending to
in the attitude OF the thinking farmers.
We propose to give voice, in this article,
alone) regarding the great expectation of
breadstuffs and other farm products which
has been going on the past two or three
years, and upon which large hopes are
founded for solid revival of business pros
perity.
When farmer habitually sells off the
grain, the root crops and the hay from his
farm, his neighbors are able to say with
surety that such man is spelling his estate.
If he is spending the price received for his
products outside his own boundaries, they
know that he is ON the road to ruin. If he
is a man of any sense and knowledge, he will
not himself boast of prosperity because of
the money that has come to his hands as
the price of crops, in which We're carried
away the fertility, the productive power, of
his land. Is it any different with a nation
We hear it said, on every side, that the i'm
mense shipments of agricultural products
from this country to Europe are making us
rich. But are we not selling more than the
corn and the wheat, the butter, the cheese,
the cotton and the tobacco What is the
recorded history of that section of our coun-
try that in years past exported the bulk off its
agricultural productions Are we not
now transporting over sea not alone the pro.
ducts but the productive power, of our corn
and wheat and grass lands, as in former days
the productive power of Virginia's tobacco
fields and of Cardinals cotton fields went to
Europe along with the crops themselves
Are we not engaged in the diffusion OF bar
renness and of leanness over the country fol
little money in hand,-a little balance OF
trade,-that will not make our farmers rich
though it will leave their farms poor
And of the money that Europe pays fol
these products, how great is the proportion
that comes at last to- and remains in, the
hands that grew them Does not the lion,
share fall to the transporters and exchang
ers 1t is easy TO ascertain the facts on thi,
point by simple reference to statistics
Take the market price of exported product,
before they leave the farm, and deduct from
that the actual cost of production, and w
have at once the real net advantage which
accrues to the producer--his share in the
prosperity" we are realizing from our ag
ricultural expectations. In the last analysis
the money thus received is divided some
thing as follows. Take five hundred mil
lions of dollars worth, at the price received
for the goods delivered on board ship, anc
let us see how it will divide up
To the farm-laborers, the buyers and
the transporters ...............,. $500 90
To the capital invested in the ship
ping and railroads that carry and
the banks that furnish the money
10 handle the goods. ......... 100000
To the farmers. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 125,O00,0O
In the first item is included all that i
paid to farm-help, the gains of the men en-
gagged in buying from the farmers, and tn
cost of transportation. In the second iten
is included the profits of capital invested il
the means of handling and transporting thi
produce-of the elevators, the shipping ager
cies, the railway stock and bondholders, tn
banks and insurance companies In tn
third item we place the net cash left in tn
hands of the farmers.
Now any intelligent agricultural exper
would not hesitate to aver that if the land
that grew these crops were of inexhaustibl
fertility like the valley Of the Nile, tn
granary of the ancient world, never needn
artificial fertilization to the end of time, ye
the mortgaged farmers of the West coul
never lift their mortgages from such net r.
ceipts. But the fact is, that from one-thir
to one-half of the land upon which thes
crops grow is already SO lowered in fertilt
that manure is required in order to max
them produce sufficient to pay the cost c
cultivation. The remainder is rapidly goin
the same way, and if we except the owe
plowed lands of the river banks, (whic
will grow corn but not wheat) fifteen yea
will not pass away before all the grail
growing land of the great West will be
the same condition. We may with truth g
much further than this, and say that if IL
farmers got into their own hands the entil
gross proceeds Of their crops, at the prc,
thav nnx. lrinU 1aliyaraI M, Ioo,l Al