The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-09-01
The Railways and the Farmers.

The Railways and the Farmers.
The July number of the Fortnightly Re
view contains an extremely thoughtful and
well-written article by Mr.. Edward Akin
son, of Boston, entitled The Railroads of
the United States: Their Effects on Farm
ing and Production in That Country and in
Great Britain" The proposition which Mr..
Atkinson sets out to demonstrate is, that
the great changes in methods and products
of the farm which have been brought about
in the Eastern United States by the conStruc-
ton of railways to the West will, in time,
through the facilities supplied for cheap
steam transportation, extend 10 En-
gland and that these changes will nece-
ssitate complete change in the system OF
land tenure AT present existing in that coun-
Try; or, as Mr.. Atkinson himself puts 1t,
''that in place of the present division OF az
ricultural produce, or its value, among three
cIasses-laborers tenants and landlOrds-in
the proportion of the minimum needed for
subsistence to the first, an uncertain, and at
present negative quantity TO the second, and
a maximum TO the third, new division, of
an increased, varied and more valuable
product will occur between two classes
laborers and freehold farmers
The changes which have been produced In
farming in the Eastern States as the results
of railway facilities with the far West
ern States and Territories, have
more than once been alluded to
in these columns during the discussions
which took place in connection with pro-
ceedings of the Hepburn Committee. In
repIr 10 the complaints made in behalf of
the New York farmers on the ground OF
their unfair discrimination in freight rates
in favor of the Western States, it was shown
that despite the inability OF the former TO
compete with the latter in the staple pro-
ducts of meat and grain the value OF New
York farms and farm products had
actually increased We endeayOr to
show that the farmers of New York,
instead of wasting time and energy in
opposing the great changes resulting
from cheap transportation and the appllca
ton of machinery to agriculture on the great
virgin plains of the West, had better accom-
modate themselves to the changed condition
of things by applying themselves 10 the cul-
tivatiOn of the less bulky and more perish
able products of the farm.
The changes resulting from the same
causes in the State of Massachusetts are
even more marked, yet there, too, have
farming lands and the agricultural products
of the State greatly increased in value. Says
Mr.. Atkinson:
'Yet. despite all this giving up of farm
land formerly cultivated and this change of
ownership, the more fertile lands of Massa-
chusetts are now worth more, because more
productive than they were when we were
much more dependent upon our own labor
for grain and meat of home production than
we now are. The aggregate value OF the
farm products of Massachusetts, increases an
nually. Between 1866 and 1915 the cost of
moving Western farm products to Massachu-
sets was reduced in greater ratio than at
any previous period, yet the value OF the
agricultural products of the State was nesrly
SSOOO,OO0 more in the latter than in the
former year, Notwithstanding the very great
reduction in prices which accompanied the
appreciation of the paper dollar, from an
average discount OF So per cent. IN 1850 TO
only 10 per cere. in 1875. There are, within
twenty miles of Boston, hundreds of acres
of land which, half a century since, would
of necessity have been devoted to the pro-
duction of grain and potatoes. OF which.the
gross product per acre Is now worth 500 or
81. 600 year.
1T must not be accepted as evidence of the
decay of agriculture in the East that the
cultivation of the great staple products has
passed to the Western farmer. A mere divis-
ion of labor has taken place, and the Eastern
farmer has applied himself TO the cultivation
of crops involving less drudgery and labor
and of a more remuneratiye character, by
which he is enabled to enjoy more OF the
comforts and luXuries OF life That the
proftableness of Eastern farming has been
greatly augmented by the transfer of the
production of the great staples OF Subslst-
-ence TO the West is remarkably illustrated in
thecase of five Eastern Counties selected by
Mr.. Atkinson, namely; Lancaster, Iennsyl-
vania; st. Lawrence, New York; Worcester,
Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut, and
Burlington New Jersey. The value of the
farms in these five Counties in 1870 was
1882 1861 and the value of the produce
.$35, S04- 24O. The value of all the improved
lands in the great State OF illinois was only
five times as great; heyalue OF all the farms
in the great wheat State OF Minnesota a little
more than one-half as much; and in the
great cotton State OF Mississippi less than
one-half.' .BtE E.
1.-THE secret says Mr. Atkinson, ''of these
changes in the source of our agricultural
supplies is that the railroad has eliminated
distance. 4 barrel of -four and barrel OF
pork or its equivalent, constitute the sub
stance of Western farm products needed by
each adult in the East" and ''the movement
of one years subsistence of grain and meat
for an adult workingman distance of 1000
miles is SIPS" Thus
tone days pay places the mechanic of Mas
sachusetts next door to the Western prairies,
1000 miles away"