Litchfield enquirer., 1880-01-29
1860 1870
6O6 12S6

6Os 12s6 ITS 2ls In the Northwestern States, between 1860 and 1870, the number had more that doubled, and in the northeastern section, the very old est portion of the agricultural region of our country, the increase had been nineteen per cent.
 Of the movement in the present decade enough has been shown to demonstrate that within the last twenty years we have taken immense strides in placing our country in the position in which Europe is found after a thousand years of feudal robbery and tyranny of wealth, with the lands concentrated in large tracts in the hands of the few, and culti- vated by people who are dependent upon the rich.
 Under the operations of capitallstic econo- mist declare to be '' benefcent competition" and the present great division of labor. the small farmer can not successfully compete with his gigantic neighbor who commands un- limited resources of capital and cheap labor. Before the present great division of labor, the farmer and his family when not employed in planting and reaplng, were engaged in spin ming and weaving, and the other manufactur- ing operations of the household which provid- ed the family with the food, clothing, and shelter necessary for 8 comfortable and often luxurious subsistence. But now, through tn, changes that have been wrought by machinery and new forces, the domestic manufacturing industries have been irretrievably destroyed, or developed under other forms and conditions in the towns and cities, leaving to the farm on- ly the work of producing the raw products of bread and meat. Even these raw products must go into the market for manufacture, un- der the conditions described in the milling op- eratons in Kansas, before the farmer can use any portion of them for his own food, as must the raw products of cotton and wool before their growers can use them for clothing. But bread and meat do not form more than one fourth part of the subsistence of society, nor of any of the members of society,-no even of the farmers. Therefore the farmer must have such market for his raw food products as will supply him with all the necessaries of life, or he will starve as surely as the manu- lecturers of cloth. or the makers of boots and shoes But the imperative laws of the sea- Sons have limited the time for the effective industry of the farmer to about one fourth part of the year. during which time the small farmer must make provision for all his force for the full year, and from the fruit of the labor of himself and his own family solely, during seed time and harvest, must provide for all their wants and comforts until the re- turn of those seasons.
 But with the captalistic farmer it is very different. The facts that 1 have gathered that upon the Grandin farm, for example, dur ing the four weeks of seed time, from April st to May 1st, there were 150 men employed; and for the six weeks of harvest from August 1st to September 18th, there were 250 men, at wages that would barely support the work CTS during the time they worked; for the five months from November 1st to April 1st, there would De only ten men, as estimated, but in fact only five were employed during that peri cd of the past season, with neither woman nor ot1i of il,, fhs.c su compelled to feed, clothe, shelter, and alto gether provide for the same number of persons for the whole year, the capitalist feeds, cloth e: and shelters only about one fourth of the number, in proportion to the amount of work done, and that for less than one fourth of the year. In doing this the capitalist brings to his assistance the most improved and highly developed machinery such as small farmers can utilize to but a comparatively slight degree.
 Against the unlimited use of this combina- tion of capital, machinery, and cheap labor the individual farmer, either singly or in com munities, cannot successfully contend, and must go under. It is d combination of the most powerful social and economic forces known to man, and all efforts for competition must and will fail so long as the three remain united.
 The development of the large farm interest has the direct and immediate effect of impov- erishing the sections in which the farms exist, and skinning lands without cOmpensative benefits. Not one dollar of the gross amount or net profit received from the products of the soil is retuned and placed upon the land from which it is taken. except in the construction of the fewest buildings necessary to shelter and protect the laborers in the working season and for the care of the work, stock, and tools.
 On the whole 530 cultivated acres of the Grandin farm there was not one family find ing permant home by virtue of title in the soil, where there should have been at least one to ever fifty acres of blow land, or 106 families. This would give 106 houses in place of the five there at present, and 106 barns in 'pIace ot three, with other buildings in like proportion and population of at least 300, where there is not now one fixed inhabitant, with all the accessories of household comforts and home Improvements that do not now exist in the smallest degree.
 The large developments of the tenant sys- tenn of farming is an evil of the greatest mag nitude The effects of the system have been too apparent in Europe to require any discus sion in these pages. But with us it has fea- lures worse than any ever known in Europe The tenants in England hold leases and oc- cupation that practically run for life, and often are kept in families for generations, which give encouragement for great improvements and the farms are practically hOmesteads
 But with us the leases are uniformly for short terms, with no encouragement for inn provements, and the farms are never homes.
 h England the rent has rarely reached. and never exceeded, oneq quarter the gross product; but in the United States it is commonly one half. Under the English tenant system the land is thoroughly cultivated and improved, with us it is impoverished. There not one re- deemng feature in the whole system in Amer ica, and it is in every way worse than in Eur