Jamestown alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1878-1882, 1880-10-19

sOMETHING FOR FARMERs.
Pioneer Press, Oct. 18th.
1 The French are nation Of small farm.
ers, and strikingly illustrate the econom-
ic truth that it is not the aggregate wealth
of nation that make people rich. but
the general diffusion of wealth. There
are more land owners 10 that country than
Ia all the vast extent OF tile United Stu.es.
Thousands nf faems are under ten acres.
and the majority are under twenty, and
the cultivators Of, these little platsare free
from debts and have plenty Of ready
money. In their possession of money
wealth, The small farmers of eastern coun-
ties Of Pennsylvania compare we'll with
| the French. In that district the density
of population and the extent of manu-
factories furnishes market ct their doors.
| They fatttn u few head Of beef cattle, a
score or two Of hogs, or flock Of sheep
every winter, to supply the continually in-
creasing consumption Of meat, while their
lands become rich and high priced be-
cause of the large quantity Of manure
made in feeding stock. Besids his profits
from bis stock, the small farmer gets
handsome returns from his frnits and veg
etsbles, poultry. butter, milk and eggs
aud the result is, that while no one is so
wealthy that he can afford to disregard the
small economies of life, almost every
farmer has his little holrd invested IN
some form yielding annual div
idends. Such is. or should be the ideal
farming community.
Human contiguity gives value TO land,
only subdivisions into small holdings can
insure continued fertility Of the soil and
permanent prosperity. The great bonan-
za wheat farms OF Dakota and California
have attracted peculiar interest on ac-
count Of their vast extent, their novelty,
and the application Of strict business
methods to agriculture, but apart from
tue result Of demonstrating the fertility
of the soil, and the ease aud certainty
with which crops can be grown and har.
vested on those treeless plains, they are
not a desirable feature in any country, un.
less i. can bc shown what those immense
cultivated tracts will shortly and inevita
bly, yield to some economic law tending
to secure subdivision and settlement by
small. proprietors, their further increase
cannot be regarded with complacency by
those whose pccuniary interests are not
Immediately involved in bouauzA larm
ing. Rallroad corporations are now fully
alive to the fact that the permanent loca.
ton of large inhabitable tracts 0. land
along these lines of roads will soon be-
gin to react disastrously upon their own
interests. Country merchants in iuchoate
cities and towns already detect maline
influence in the presence of these big
farms. A five Thousand acre farmer does
not directly benefit the country trades
men as much as . struggling settler on
quarter section; while indirectly the pres
ence of the former is of incalculable injury
to his business, by crowdiDg out fifty or
more small farmers whose patronage be
would be able to secure. The large farm
er is practically his own storc.keeper.
His supplies are all purchased at whole.
eale .ates aud shipped IN car lots, ard he
patronlzes tile local tradesman only to the
extent of All occasional paper of tacks or
other triflts overlooked in making up his
order for his seasons supplies.
To make any thing like society utterly
impossible. nothing more effective can be
devised than these vast wheat plantatiors.
On these farms Of 1000 and 5000 acres
five hands do all the work i've months
in the year, while as many as three hun.
dred are employed during midsummer;
there are no human habitations on the
place except residence tor the superin-
,endent and boarding house for the men:
women, children, neighborhood interests
and all the associations that cluster about
the idea of farm, are conspicuously ab.
sent. Such agricultural communities
have many Of the features of lonely min
ing camps, while they have in the season
Of active in the season cf active operations
many OF the sterner fea ures of manufac
turing communicable order, the ma
ebinery, the minimum Of expense and the
maximum OF prodrct--without those
pleasantcr features, the school house, the
little workingmcu's library, the sewing
circle, the cooking class, tue line Of pro
motion. the rise Of the bright boy, and
the steady workmsn-sll the gentler man
ners which spring up about any spot where
industry has permanent abiding place
On the big farm there is no abiding
place: life does not gather around winter
fresides 10 settle and clarity through the
disciplines Of home: when the harvest
il zarnered the army Of laborers are dis
charged. to become an army Of tramps or
what t.not.- and solitude reasserts its do.
minion over the vast stretches of pni.
rie.
Bismarck Tribune; Bismarck could
not we'll take the part of either faction
in the jamestown trouble. 1t was SIM
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