The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1881-09-16

And yet I am told farmers are not happy.
They ought to be. l am told they are not
prosperous. They ought to be. They ought
to be both prosperous and happy. Some Of
them are, to my knowledge. But some of
thcm-pcrhaps the majority of thcm-arc
not
A CERTAIN DECLINE In LIFE.
am Obliged 10 admit-and II In with pro-
regret that I have seen the evidence Of
farming IL considered a less attrac-
tive and desirable employment than It was
fifteen or twenty Gears ago. While country
life ought to he gaining In attractivcness, II
Is actually losing. There has been n peculiar
tendency among us for many years AWAY
from country life to village and city life.
Evidences of this Gun be found In nearly all
parts OF the Union, but the most marked H.
lustration of II Is seen In New England.
There villages and cities have increased and
multiplied at the expense of country dis
tricts. In some parts farms have been aban-
doncd, and are going back Ia the wilderness
state. In many other places agriculture has
fallen into tho hands of MI ignorant and UNI
enterprising class of foreigners. Country |
society is In some places wholly, and IN other
places largely changed. Intelligence has
given place to Ignorance. ambition FOR cul-
ture, and the graces of life to a sclf-satisticd
and unaspiring stolldity that cares nothing
for ideas. and Is content with the small gains
that afford u mere subsistence.
Not only In New England, where II poor and
scanty soil might be given III both the cause
and excuse for the change, but In the richest
portions OF the Empire State are seen indf
cations of the same degcneracy. In the coun-
ty that IL my own fatherland, one of the rich
est and most beautiful of the 'Lakc Region"
Of central New York, agriculture Is falling
from larger native to smaller foreign proprie-
tors. There, too, I'm consequence, Is seen II
loss Of refinement and intelligence In country
life.
Not In New England and New York only,
but In these newer States of the West, we sec
evidences of an increasing dissatisfaction
With country and agricultural life. Many
farmers have an inclination to move into the
village and engage In what they suppose to
| DO the more agreeable and rcmnnerativc pur-
suity of trade and speculation. : Farmers
sons and daughters, especially the more In
t~clligent. arc unwilling to regard agriculture
as their life work. The boys look through
business colleges to what they fancy to he
easier, more profitable and honorable places
in stores. In railroad, In telegraph and other
offices; or some, with still more exalted am
bltion, aim to enter the over-crowded ranks
- aa---e-l ltr.p rrt,, ...l. .l,.
'hating' farm life, prefer to marry those In
more genteel employments, and enjoy the
attractive society Of village or city.
Is this change to go OH until the agricultu-
ral class shall have been drained of its intclli-
6ence-until America shall have become, like
the Roman Empire, an aggregation of cities,
fed by mental farmers-slayes to ignorance
and superstition and hopeless toll?
CAUSES OF THE CHANGE.
The remedies for these tendencies to agri-
cultural dcgeneracy can be more easily found
and applied after we know the causes of the
change. Some Of the Causes, I think, are
not difficult to soc.
DIMINISHED PROFITS.
I mention first the fact that the profits of
agriculture have been diminished, II result in
turn flowing from two causes-dimished fer
tility and over-production.
DIMINISHED FERTILITY.
Owing to a general system of treatment o.
s%entially bad, there has been "A great depen-
eracy I'm the fertility of American soil. This
general system, SO far, has been to get all we
could from the soil, and return nothing to II,
In its present Impoverished condition, agri.
culture IL far less profitable than it once was
The same labor that formerly produced two
bushels of wheat will now scarcely produce
one, while amid the multitude of insect enc
mics our course has invited, II is often qucs-
tionable whether 1t will produce anything,
The large profits in agriculture once a~ccruing
from an abundant yield, with little cost OF
production, are never more to be known IN
the occupied States. Diminished profits
then, have largely and naturally taken from
agriculture its attractiveness. But diminish
cd profits are not wholly due to Il diminished
fertility. They are partly due in the West t.
A GENERAL OvER.PRODUCTION,
Notwithstanding diminished fertility. Toe
many farmers have been engaged I'm growing
too much grain at too great Il cost Of produc'
ton. 1. O., the West Is too exclusively agricul
tural. The bulk of Its products no longer
dnds a home arket-production Is immense
ly In excess Of home demand, and the excess
must find q market u thousand miles and
moro away.
i NEW INDUSTRIES.
mention, secondly, the rise and growth OF
new industries. Railroads and tolegraphs
In particular, offer attractive employment
with definite and comparatively liberal re-
Enumeration, to thousands of our more intclli
gent and cntcrprising young men. The bust
ness colleges are filled with farmers sons
who are seeking a hasty preparation for posi-
lions in the gift of these corporations, and IN
insurance offices, banks, counting rooms, etc.
Thus country homes and the profession of
agriculture are deprived of their most prom
ising youth. Unless this Is checked, the ulti
mate result is what ! have described In New
England ana New YOrk-the falling of agri-
culture, as a mental employment, into the
hands of an inferior class Of foreigners, who
live more cheaply, and are content with
smaller returns than the original proprietors
they succeed.
SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF RAILROADS.
mention. thirdly, the influence of railroads
in another direction than the one already re-
ferred to. Railroads have made village and
| city life more attractive than formerly. To
live upon a line OF railroad is to live in close
relationship to the wonderfully active and
diversified life Of the modern world. The
continued sense Of this relationship, the daily
knowledge Of what is TRANSPORTING in all quar-
tiers Of the globe, the ease with which one
can travel, the sense of vigorous and nvigor
ating life which one feels In that perpetual
miracle Of mighty but yet inanimate force
moving the trains Of cOmmunicatiOn-these
things give town life moro attraction and ex-
element than formerly, and thereby end to
make country life duller and more repellant.
The advent Of a railroad I'm a country village
will increase the value of real estate in both
village and adjacent country, but 1t will prob
ably lower the tone of society I'm the latter.
The most enterprising mcn will go to the
town, and that will he built up largely ut the
expense Of It's surroundings. This is the
common tendency.
Other causes OF a certain decline in coun- |
try life might be mentioned, did time permit,
u i w uhbtcn W tuf ulsCusslOn vi soHlt
remedies for this decline, which, II seems To
me-, should DO employed.
THE FARMERS MOVEMENT COMMENDED.
Here allow me to express my unmixed graft
fcation at tho recent great uprising of the
agriculturists Of tho country. ] can SEQ In II
little or no evil, but on the contrary great
and Astounding good. Something has been
felt to be wrong. Something is wrong. Yes,
many things are wrong--and this organized
uprising Of the farmers will inevitably result
I'm u clearer apprehension Of the wrong, and
an honest effort to right 1t. l understand the
chief object Of the Grange organization Is
mutual Improvement, the promotion of gen.
eral and technical intelligence, and social In
tercOurse among its members. II this be its