Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-29
AGRICULTURAL.
BATTER PREPARED SPECIALLY FOR
THE RECORD UNION"
Punctuation in Production-savi-g Seeds
OF egetables-THcrease Of Acre
age Of Potatoes.


reliable prosperity among agricultural classes
is the frequent huctuation OF production and
consequent imitation and depression Of pricas.
Every country, Of course, has its favorable
and unfavorabie seasons seasons in Which
nature seems 70 be IA accord with Itself end
with the best hopes aud wishes Ct man
seasons in which all that grows from
the earth seems to germjca.e and grow
in the greatest abund. nee and psrfec
ton. Such seasons the farm Is the
happy man among all his fe.ow-msH.
Sometimes q Is favorable condition seems 10
be quite general over the face Of tie earth,
and the Inhabitants thereof, in .h9 enjoy
ment of their great abundance, forget that
there has been, and rnay be again, an oppo-
site extreme. Sometimes one half Of the
earth seems favored By nature, while the
other half is a. the same time, by the sane
great cause, suffering from sesrning neglect.
Then one half the people enjoy plenty and
prosperity and grow rich upon she necessities
of the other half, and while they would not
exactly like TO admit that they are glad that
nybodyis suffering from want and privstion,
still they are glad that the situation is not
reversed, and embrace the opportunity TO
advance their own interests and improve their
condition to the best Of their abilities. But
this is kind Of Auctuation in production
over which man thinks he has comparatively
but little control, and does not, in his opinion
at least, come from his neglect, and cannot
be fully provided against by his prudence and
forsthought Nevertheless, we have records
of instances where whole nations have
been saved from extreme suffering and
destruction by the forecast and sagacity of
single individual. Commerce is the modern
equalizer and distributor Of the products of
the earth. Commerce Eeeks out the places
Of scarcity aud the places Of plenty and draws
from the latter 70 supply the former. Com
merce to q certain extent ,quslizss the prod
ucts OF the earth among the natl )ns and pee
pie thereof. Commerce, however, cannot
equalizs production or prevent h1ctustions in
'he same, whsther these fluctuations be caused
by the smiles or frowns II nature OF the pru-
dsucs or Ignorance Of man. Nature il no re-
sDector Of nations or parts Of the earth. Ma
tute smiles and Browns on tina Just sUd unjust
siike Nature is the same on the Eastern
and Vest n contireats. Nature Is governed
by the same universal laws, whether 10 the
African desert or the dense forests OF Amer
ics Nature is ever ready to come to
the assistance of man IN Increasing the
products of the earth, and with the same
readiness aud certainty. Nature seems to
second and assist the eff lrts OF man in rem
dering the earth barren and unproductive.
Nature does not fuctuate, but is the same in
ali times and III all Countries. Inc same cir
cumstances that produce plenty ia one c0uu-
try this year AMI scarcity IN another, will,
wnen the circumstances are reversed, produce
exactly the opposite condition of things.
Man, after all, has much, and We may say
almost everything, to do 1ith the face Of the
earth. Man makes toe desert places, and
man makes the rich and pro6u51Ive couI-
tries. Man makes the S4hara,, auG Inau
makes the gardens of Eden. Nature plants
the trees aud the forests, aud rae dews ana
the rains mo:sssn the earth, aud tbs springs
flow from the m3untSln sides, and tie
rivers carry the waters TO tie ses.
And the countTi. through which sEese rivers
run become the favored spots Of earCh.
Their people grow Ia numbers and rejoice IN
prosperity, and the nations advance IN civil
izatiOn and in power. and commerce covers
the sess in transporting their products to less
prosperous people everywhere. But mar,
blinded by avarice, becomes forgetful Of the
causes that has made his the favored spot OF
earth, and cuts down the tree that nature
planted and lays waste the forest that nature
had nursed and produced, aud anon the
springs cease to flow from the mountain sides
aud the river beds become deserts OF sand.
Then the naions, once the glory and the
honored Of earth, 10 turn begin to grow less
prosperous and less powerful, and as the
csuntry's productive capacity lessons, so the
glory and power Of the nation grows less, and
the decline of the one follows rapidly the de-
cay Of the other. Thus man, in his collect
i've capacity, makes and destroys whole Sec
tons of the earth, and produces fluctuations
.snd changes which he, in his ignorance, Is
pleased to charge nature with.
But we intended to call attention to fiuctu-
atoms in production on a smaller scale fiuc.
tuations produced none the less by mans
ignorance and avarice, and which affect IN no
small degree the prosperity Of the producing
classes. This year, for instance, In Califor-
MIA, beef and all kinds of meat are scarce and
high. So are potatoes, and many other OF
the necessary foods Of man and beast. A
few years ago beef was very plentiful aud
low so was pork and mutton. Because
plentiful and low farmers at once ceased pro-
duction, and began to sell off all tie cattle
and hcgs and sheep they could spare. La
fact they felt burdened with any more than
barely enough COWS on their farms to supply
their families with milk, and hogs enough to
consume the slops from the kitchen. When
farmers begin to sell it seems as though the
desire is contagious, and one bids down lower
than his neighbor, and the next goes lower
still. and the result is all sell out. And while
they are desiring to sell no production goes
on. The same way with pork and all other
domestic animals. Hence by sheer ignorance
farmers produce scarcity, selling at
the lowest figures. Then when no
one is producing cattle, or swine,
or sheep, consumption keeping right along,
the market is soon found bare of supply, and
all at once prices go up to the highest notch.
Then farmers begin to see there is money In
cattle, hogs and sheep, and they begin to in
a Iire of each other for cows and breeding
hogs and sheep, and the fact flashes into their
minds that there is but few in the country,
and the butchers are looking after these. So
each farmer resolves to be ahead of his neigh
Dor In getting into stock-he will give any
price for lust few to start with-and his
next neighbor is actuated with the same mo-
tive, and each vies with the other in getting
3 good start in stock again at any cost. Thus
production iuctuates, and prices follow a
plenty or scarcity 10 the supply. For two or
three years back potatoes, for instance, were
plentiful, and as q consequence prices were
low, and farmers all over the country ceased
production to certain extent. And produc'
ton got down so low that it was found that
there were not potatoes enough In the couu-
try to supply the demand for actual consump-
ton. AS a consequence America has been
drawing on Europe for Pc atoes for whole
year past And we have had scant supply
of very small potatoes at very large prices.
This fact has become generally known,
and farmers are now rushing into potatoes
again at any cost. Merchants and lawyers
and doctors are buying land and planting po-
tatoes. Italians, Portuguese and Chinese
have caught the mania. and all the low moist
land in the country is being occupied and
planted to potatoes. The result Will be I'll over
production. and fat, unremunerstive prices.
And this is but an example of the Mariner in
which farmers. through Ignorance of the de-
mand and supply of any product of the farm,
are constantly iniuring themselves and ipjur-
ing the business of farming by alternating be-
tween non-production and over production.
IF we had thorough system of collection of
statistics of acreage annually planted or sown
to any product, and system of returns by
which the condition of the crops could be col