Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1879-01-01

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each; hero they cost Is Cd. There eggs
can be bought for sd hundred; here the
! iaborer will pay > a dozen. There the
n2uilk will consider watermelons dear
! II they cost him more than Mrthing.
and sheep can be often had for shil-
ling; here the iiborer scarcely knows
what n watermelon is, and. if he ever
thought OF buying sheep. it would cost
him IS or f4. II the Russians cows
die, he can replace them ut los apiece,
and he can purchase the best horse in
the market for I'll. If the widest
dreams of the English laborer ever went
SO tar rs the possession of COW or "A
horse, he would require to have in his
pocket az least EGO for the former and
as much for the latter. The Russian
hborers living is not luxurious, but he
has plenty of food, coarse though it be;
while the English moujik in many
cases crawls through existence.
But the iarm-laborers are not the
only sufferers in the present case. The
tenant-tarmers have much To complain
Of The present difficulty has struck at
quarters never before effected. and the
farmer says rents must be lowered or
wages must fall. He saws he cannot
pay the present rentals, arranged when
wheat was Cos n quarter, now that it has
fallen to Sis. The baker saws he cannot
sell bread cheap because he gave such
high prices during the late war,
and he must now make it up. Then
the lahorer comes 70 the ground be-
tween the two stools: and the poor farm
er Is not better off, because he is called
upon to pay his old rent. Everything
else rises and falls with commercial
tides, but the price of land never does.
Land III Kent, on an average, is worth
tloO per acre, taking the fertile and
the barren, To an American there is
no reason foi the fancy prices; but so
cWiously has been mixed up the pos
session of land with the possession of
political power and social prestige, that
It has obtained a fabulous value through
genteel people who cannot afford to
buy, but VINO hope to get into country
society by becoming gentlemen farm
erS; and thus the real farmer has to pay
an artificial rate of rental, which he
can only do by screwiug down his la-
borers' wages. Daring the last year or
two, his chief difficulties have been the
enormous quantities of cheap corn and
the large quantities OF beef coming into
the country. OF course, on the other
hand, he has mad the benefit of the inn
ports Of cheap feeding stulls
and fertlizing agencies. Anoth-
or drawback TO the farmer is
the fact that he is tied down by ancient
covenant Us 10 the way in which he
shall cultivate his land. He is not al
lowed to make the most OF everything.
He must SOW, for example, wheat
this year, barley the next, rye
the year after. and-so-forth. Al
though his fields may be overrun with
rabbits and his crops are being destroyed
under his nose, he dare not, with few
exceptions, lift a gun. He cannot sell
his straw, or hay, or roots, but must
feed it all himself and return it to the
soil. These are few Of the farmers
grieNa lccs.
Some of the tenants of the DuKe Of
Newcastle, see, have refused to re-
new their holdings, and the duke will
thus he driven to farm his own land, or
let II ut lower rents than he has hitherto
done. The duke---who 10y the way, was
not long ago bankrupt, and was sold
off for the benefit Of his credtors--must
live like duke. He must have all
the Injuries Of life, and, rs he has the
advantage of being the tenant OF m en-
tailed estate, he is able to do SO, provided
he can get adequate rentals from his
tenants. He is one OF those who pro-
pose to further reduce the laborer. In
Kent and Sussex, among the large pro-
prictors who have descended to reduce
the wages Of the laborcrs Cd day, are
Lord Darnley, with an annual rental Of
t63, 900; Sir William Hart Dyke, who
draws from his rents ElSOOO annually,
and Lord Soudes, with an estate netting
him E26,0 900 every twelve months,
! You understand that the purchase OF
land is almost an lmpossibility IN Eng
land. The present trouble has renewed
the discussion of the laws of primogen-
iture and entail, and it IL not unlikely
| that before long another attempt may
be made in parliament to upset the stat
utes upon the subject, and substitute
others which will be the means Of divid-
ing up this little island, now owned, one
might say, by very small federation OF
landlords.
THE total number Of paupers in Lou
Al L