The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-04-08
True Economyi. FARMING.

The lesson of the times that saving isessen.
ual to thrift, cannot well escape any class of
producers. Farmers have always understood
the Importance of economy, and now that
others are learning it, will pretty surely be
more strongly impressed with Its necessity.
Yet 1t is true, that all who seek to practice
economy will not succeed, and the just infer.
ence follows that they do not properly under
stand In what economy consists.
10 very many farmers, everything paid out
IS insilnctively regarded as so much taken
from their profits. Excepting the seed sown.
which they can see spriDging up and perfect
ing its fruits, there is nothing in farm opera
lions which they regard as an investment.
The labor employed in cultivatipg aud bar.
vesting the crop, in bui ding fences to protect
1t, and barns to store it the manure used to
enrich the soil, aud the labor aud money
needed 10 dram it, all seem to them tC be
merely expenses to be deducted from the'crop
after selling, and therefore to be every where
diminished TO the smallest possible margin. II
is TINS view which IN some sections OF the
country, and among old fogy farmers, makes
the agricultural population the most prtiu.
diced oppouents OF progress and improvement
in tarm methods aud operations.
The true view OF farm economy seems TO
me to be to regard the farm as so much CAPT.
tai, and all the improvements that can be
~~<>~~0
made ad is to its profits. In this light, the
more freely the farmer uses his money, the
faster it will return to him. 1t is true of 9th
er things besides seed-sOwing, what Solomon
wrote: There is that scattereth and vet in
oreaseth, aud there is that wlthholdeth more
than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty" 1t
is to this last evil that men of these times are
especially exposed. Money is so hard to get,
that any use OF it except to hoard it, seems
like tempting loss.
But the very fact that money is hard to'get,
is exactly the reason why it may safely be
used for anything really necessary to conduct.
ing ones business. Everything is down to its
lowest point What change .here may be,
must therefore be an advance. Heretofore
the market has been constantly falling.
Hence whatever was bought nas necessarily
sold at loss. This is the reason that men 10
all kinds of business have been constantly los
ing money. The farmer is no exception. He
has been for years raising crops az one rate OF
prices, and selling them at lower rate. In
almost every grain, the price each year has
been decline from that of the wear before.
he has each year paid higher rate of wages
than the market for his crops would warrant.
because wages are fixed by the price of prod
ucis the previous year.
1t is pretty safe to say now that the bottom
has been reached, and if so that natural cnn-
ditlon OF tulngs IN wnlch toere is a profit in
every form Of well-dlrected labor returns,
Farmers and producers OF all kinds are ex-
hausted and disheartened by continued lower
prices year by year, and are consequently pre-
pairing to SOW and pillow and produce less than
ever before. The very reasons that have pro-
duced This result are the ones which should
have Influenced farmers in the opposite di.
rection. 1t is pretty certain it will cost less
to make crop in 1878 than it has before
since 1860. and this TACT is the best possible
guarantee OF profit to the producer.