Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-04
AGRICULTURAL.
MATTER PREPARED SPECIALLY PoR
TIE RECORD UNION"
The Independent Farmer-Bone Dust for
Wheat Land Influence of
Graft Stock

pe6S anu OraeoTS Oh the uays VI anSiSh'
Greece and Rome were won't to picture the
farmers life as tho most independent and
harry of all other classes. There is come
inclination to take the same view of the
case at the present time by impractical and
imaginative people. Because the farmer
nroduces from the soil in its original OIL
raw shape the largest share of the food
that mankind consumes, and produces the
raw material mostly with which mankind
are clothed, these imaginative people as.
sumo that he is independent of all other
people; that he lives within a circum.
scribed sphere, and that within that sphere
he is a sort OF independent sovereign and
ruler that in fact he can eat, drink and
wear all his own productions and no thanks
TO his neighbor or anyone else. Now, in
this sense, the savage who lives by the
chase, eating the meat Of the wild beasts
he shoots or captures, and covering his
nakedness with their hides, and knows nc
yrants beyond the present, is even more
independent and happy man than the
farmer living in civilized community OF
the nineteenth century. Tho day is past
when any man or class of men is or can be
independent of his neighbors, or Of the
community generally IN which he lives.
The trnth is that the farmer is no more
independent than the mechanic, the manu-
facturer, The merchant or the professional
man. Civilization renders all CLASSES of
people and every individual of COM
munity dependent on every other class or
individual of the community in one sense
or another and the farmer is no exception
to the general community rule. 1t Is true
all peopls IN modern civilized communities
eat bread. and The farmer produces the
wheat Of which the bread is made, and that
if no farmer produced eny wheat, or grain
of any kind. no bread could be made. 1t is
also true that if the farmer kept and sheared
10 sheep nor planted and gathered no cot
ton, the usual articles of clothing worn
mostly in civilized countries could
not be had but it is equally. true that
If the mechanic made no plows, har
rows. reapers and thrashing machines, and
no cotton gins and spinning and weaving
machines, there could be no production OF
wheat to any considerable extent by the
farmer. and the cotton he could raise would
be verv limited. Without the aid of the
WOODEN manufacturer the wool grown by
the farmer would be of but little value.
TIE eaysr &c is in q measure independent, be-
cause his wants are few and easily supplied.
Reduce the farmer or any other class to
the condition of the savage, limit his wants
simply TO something TO eat. and something
with which to cover III measure his
nakedness, and you make a comparatively
independent being of him. Go still further,
and inquire into the condition OF the Wild
animals OF the forest, and to the extent
that their wants are few and easily sup
piled, to that extent they are independent,
and therefore happy Pat tie farmers or
anv other class of individuals outside OF
the pale of civilization and its accompany
ING wants, and lac is in q measure rendered
independent but place him in civilized
community, make him q civilized being,
ard be becomes dependent Oh the other
members OF that community for nearly all
that renders HIM comfortable and happy.
None but poets without brains or informa-
tion OF practical character, and dema-
gogues, would at the present day Halter
the farmer by calling him independent OF
all. The very fact that the farmer, as
rule, is isolated, and lives away from those
on whom he is dependent, puts him to
disadvantage, aud his dependence is brought
more into prominence than that OF any
otker class. While he is blowing his land
and sowing his seed and harvesting and
preparing his grain for the market. or hard
ing, caring for and shearing has sheep, or
preparing other crops TO sell, all other
classes are meeting each other III social
and business interests, and becoming sym
path;zers with each other, and in meas
ure pledged 10 mutual protection. never
thinhias in the meantime Of the farmer
and his demands FOR sympathy and unity
OF interests.
In shis very natural way it comes about
that il business rings are formed or corners
are made II prices of produce, or lnfoTms-
ton a. 20 demand and supply for any par
ticulaZ product is made public, all these
thipqs are made in the interest of dealers,
manufacturers. commission merchants and
Fniddlemen generally, aud against the IN
teres: Of the farmer. Ii anybody Is to get
hurt bv any of these transactions the
farmer. who is on the outside, rather than
any one II the ring, must be the man hurt.
If the farmer had all his produce to cell,
and had to buy nothing il he always
could do all his work within himself or his
family or if he always had money enough,
or what would he the equivalent, If he
never needed any money, then the farmer
would be independent OF al these maehi-
nations but as it Ia, he is not only
the most dependent Of all other classes,
but he Is at the same time the most
HELPLESS and powerless of all other classes.
OF late years the farmers nave grown TO
realizing sense Of their real situation. They
have seen in what position the business
exipencies of the civilized world have
placed them from occupying the inde-
pendent and commanding position that
ancient poets and orators gave them, they
have. IN fact, become g hewers OF wood
and carriers of water for all other classes.
Tnev have arisen to that degree OF intelli.
eence that enables them to see that intel
heence IL the real thing necessary to en-
able them TO emanclpate themselves
from the thraldom that other in
tsrests have placed them in. It
is this conviction that has given rise to
the many efforts of farmers at organization
for self culture and self protection. Hence
the formation of agricultural societies. Tho
real original object Of these societies was
improvement Of the agricultural classes in
general intelligence and iA the modes of
culture of multitudes OF crops of the farmer.
TIE agricultural fairs were intended to
bring the farmers together with samples of
their products for exhibition to each other,
no. as general advertisements, but as OBJ
iacts illustrative OF the different modes of
cultivation nud the degree of success capa-
BILE of being attained by these different
modes OF cultivation and treatment. The
original idea was that farmers would each
explain to the other, and thus the improve
ments OF the few would become the prop
erty of the many, and thus general advance
ment would result. But even here the
combinations of the classes have gotten the
better of the farmer Bankers, merchants,
grain-dealers, owners end trainers of fast
horses and fancy stock cav their advantages
IL these agricultural fairs. and they became
exhibitors and took an interest
in their management for mu.
tual improvement in Intelligence
or for improvement in cultivation and