The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-09-11
Farm and Home.
AND USEFUL INFORMATION.
An Agricultural Revival.

have been depressed. Capital and
labor have alike suffered. Agricul'
ture, lying at the foundation of all
industries, supplying the raw mate
rial of manufacturers and the food
by which the life of both man and
beast is sustained, is always
the last to feel the shock oil
the blow by which business is
Frustrated, and tie last to recover
from its effects. We hear farmers
com planning this summer as never
before. Butter and cheese, the
leading dairy products, are lower
than they ever have been in the
memory of young dair! men. Milk
is drug In the market grains Of
all kinds stand at low figures. pork
does not pay for raising, eggs were
never so cheap before. We shall
see light soon. We need more
faith in our calling. The signs OF
the coming good time are unmis.
taxable, and to stimulate farmers
to renewed courage and enterprise
we will briefly call their attention
to some of them. The foreign de
mand for our agricultural products
has been for some years an encour-
aging CLEAN In our otherwise dark
prospect. This demand has in
creased lately TO such an extent IN
England as to cause panic in that
country. American farmers have
bearded the English hon in his den.
Even in his boosted products OF
beef and mutton John Bull finds a
competitor in his Cousin Johna
than. The idea that England
could be dependent upon America
for fresh meat would have been
scorned by English statesmen and
farmers a score of years ago.
They might ask us for cotton and
corn, and possibly a little wheat,
but for roast of beef or a leg OF
mutton, never. Thanks to rail
roads, steamships and Yankee en-
terprise, Illinois beef is put down
in the London markets of so high a
quality and so low a rate that Eng
lish farmers ask in establishment,
''What shall we do" A writer in
one of the English reviews for June
complains that agriculture has not
kept pace with other industries in
that country. and endeavors to
arouse his countrymen to an agri-
cultural reform. He says: 1.-THE
enormous increase in our importa
tons of foreign food is sufficient of
itself to cause alarm. In 1858 with
population of 2S,0Oo,000, we i'm
ported of this food to the value of
f25,0O0,00O; in 1868, with a popu-
lation of 100000, the amount
was E55,oOO,O0O; and in 1873 it
was f101, 100000. Foreign agri-
cultural food which, in 1910, cost
the nation less than IS. Cd. per
head. in 1878 cost f3 per head"
The importations of foreign food
into England, therefore, as shown
by their own statistics, have about
doubled in each of the last decades,
and as most of it came from Amer
lea, our farmers may well take
courage and double their efforts.
To feed our own increasing popula-
ton, and at the same time supply
this enormous foreign demand,
calls for an increased faith in Agri-
culture among American farmers
generally, and young farmers par
ticularly.
This demand promises to come
not only FROM foreign countries.
but with a revival of manufactures
and kindred industries in our own
country we look for the great mar
ket for farm products. That such
a revival has commenced the most
Thomas will acknowledge,
and as all industries are intimately
agriculture will soon
feel the effects of the new life in
other pursuits. Great as has been
and still is the benefit to the Amer
lean farmer from the foreign de-
mand for his products, a good home
markets is still greater blessing.
The nearer the producer and con-
sumner can be brought the better
for both. There is a great saving
in transportation and commissions. |
1t is great thing that we can ship |
a Durham steer from the prairies of
Illinois to the wharves of Liver
pool, but the transportation, com
missions. and more especially the |
ear and fret of the animal on the
Jar and boat, make big discount
IN the farmers profits. We, there
ore, look to the revival of manu-
actures as the great stimulus to
mechanical and agricultural indus
r1es. One industry cannot arise
putting new life into 9th
RS. They are all bound together
ike the members of one body, and
make one complete whole. The
ealousy sometimes manifested be-
ween them is as unnatural and det-
mental as family quarrel.
Again, the experience of the last
Iecade has convinced farmers sons,
nd not few sons of manufacture
RS, mechanics, and professional
men, that there is no occupation
hat is so free from vicisiLudes and
so sure living as agri-
culture. During the long contin-
led depression in business from
which we are just emerging the
lumber of merchants and manufac-
ureIs THAT nave failed is legion,
nut bankrupt farmers are few and
ar between, and the failures Of
hese few Can generally be traced to
peculation in fancy stock, tobacco
II some other outside speculation.
70 instance of failure has come I'M
Ter our personal observation where
farmer has steadily pursued his
legitimate calling. Many a boy,
githin the last ten yeas, has left
he farm and gone behind the coun-
err to measure laces and ribbons,
oping to make living more east
Y and attain a higher social posi-
ion, but when the price OF dry
.oods fell fifty per cent. and his
mployer failed, he has been glad
o return to the old homestead, and
7ill make all the better farmer from
is short experience as merchant.
already there is a demand for
arms by mechanics and merchants,
nd real estate is no longer such a