Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-07-11
The Americans Advantage.

farmer seems to lie in the cheapness
with which he obtains his crop. 1t is
somewhat surprising to find that wheat
grown in the far West still pays as
much freight before it can be placed in
the English market as the rent
charge amounts to at home. The aver
age yield of an acre of land in England
is 80 bushels against ID in the West
ern States. The American farmer must
therefore cultivate two and half acres
before he can sell as much produce as
is grown on single acre in England.
This, however, he does at an incredibly
small outlay. The difference in tillage
is most striking. An English farmer,
accustomed to drive three or four
horses painfully over stiff clay, can
scarcely imagine the ease with which O
light pillow runs through the rich loan
of Western State. In Northern
Minnesota the Red River settlement is
just being opened up. A furrow may
be drawn for fifty miles across this al
luvial prairie without meeting hill, a
tree, or a stone. Various estimates OF
the cost of labor for tillage and har
vesting have been published. II these
are correct, an acre of wheat in Ameri
ca can be cultivated for about one-half
the expense in labor of cultivating an
acre in England. We do not, however,
place implicit reliance on such esti-
mates. The American farmer, as a
rule, does his own work, or the greater
part of it. The amount of wages paid
in actual money is comparatively small.
If he cultivates 50 acres of wheat, and
has growing sons, he may manage with
out any help except at harvest time,
when he hires an extra hand for
month. If he has no family to assist
him, he will probably hire hand for
the year at $12 or SIS month. In all
cases board and wages are included,
the hired men sitting down to meals
with the farmer and his family. We
may fairly estimate, then, the capital
of 912 required by an English farmer
to cultivate properly single acre of
land will not more than suffice to pur-
chase and cultivate the two and half
acres which will yield the same amount
of wheat in America. Up to this point
neither competitor has a decided ad-
vantage, and, if anything, the differ
ence is, in our opinion, on the side of
the home agriculturist. But the heavy
yield in England is only obtained by
the application of costly manures, and
this outlay is spared the American
grower. At present only the richest
lands are cultivated, and the earth
yields her increase without any assist
ance at his hands. OF course, this
will not last forever. In twenty years
time all the more fertile lands will be
taken up, and even these will be ex-
hausted by successive crops. In Cali
fornia the average has alreadys fallen
from 20 to IA bushels. In the Atlantic
States it has long been necessary to re-
vert to a rotation of crops and the APP
plication of fertilizers. But until this
stage of exhaustion is reached in the
Western States, the English farmer
will require something more than the
set.off of freight against rent charge.
This protection the Americans them
selves gave him until recently. The
Morrill, tariff imposed an excessive
duty on iron, and the construction and
maintenance of railways was thereby
rendered so costly that it was necessary
to mulct the producer in freight. Also,
the cost of living was artifcially raised
by duties imposed on every article of
manufacture. Prior to the war COM
paratively free trade policy existed in
the United States. Had this been
continued agriculture in the Missis-
sippi valley would years ago have
achieved the prosperous position it has
at length reached by the collapse of
the manufacturing Industries in the
Eastern States. The prostration of
every branch of manufactures has been
so great that practically the tariff has
been in allegiance for the last few years.
Should these revive the cost of living
will again be raised, and to that extent
the former protection restored to the
English producer. But this contin-
gency is too remote to arrest the i'm
pending fall in rents. It lies entirely
at the option of the landlords whether
this shall be wholly given in abate-
ment of rent, OR partly take the form
of security of tenure and protection to
the occupier's capital. For the sake of
the country at large, it is to be hoped
they will choose the latter alternative.
London Economist.