The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1882-10-27


supercede the macadamized road just as the
latter did the old dirt roads. Railroads and
telegraphs ought to be brought into common
use for farm purposes just as thrcshers and
reapers have come in.
There is no reason why telegraphy should
not be taught in our public schools as a
branch of common education. 1t is easy and
would he good substitute for some of solo
9tes,' Some fundamental conditions of Mary
land farming are worth reconsdering.
The cost of fences in Frederick county
used to be n dollar panel and average ten
dollars an acre. am told it will now cost
fifteen dollars an acre. This is fully from
twenty to twenty-five per cent of the cost of
the land. The greater part of it is dead capt.
tai 1t is absolutely useless. The hedges of
England occupy 100000 acres Of the very
best land. These three million acres, says
the writer in the British Encyclopedia, would
produce enough to pay county and poor rates
and probably the malt tax.
This great supply of human force is APP
piled ut once to the undeveloped and meal
culablc resources of an unknown empire
Along with it go the railroads which pene-
tratc the savage wilds and plant the emigrant
along their lines. During the present year
10000 miles of railroad will be Completed
They bring the emgrant and the West and
South to our doors. Chicago is now send
ing butchers meat to Baltimore and has re.
duced the price five cents per pound in New
York. Texas sends her cattle TO 'icago-
So Hartford county is brought size by side
with Texas beef, raised on land costing 25
cents an acre, and Minnesota and Dakotah
wheat from land costing $l.25 per acre. At
present the cost of transportion tends to
cqualize prices, for the railroad companies
generally take all the product will bear. 1t
costs, so | am told, as much to transport
ton ofFrederick county hay to Baltimore as it
does to carry ton of Missouri hay to the
same place. These freights and charges,
however, are merely temporary. They will
be corrected and made equitable, and we in
Maryland may as well make up our minds to
face the inevitable and to meet and beat the
competition of new land and new labor. We
have not done it heretofore. We have re-
fused to acknowledge it. We have ignored
it, and we have been greatly injured by it.
1t touches the heart of Maryland man
when he contemplatcs the present condition
of some parts of this beautiful State and re-
members what it has been. The lower pc
ninsula was settled by our ancestors two
hundred and fifty years ago. The blood of
some Of you here present flows directly from
those pilgrim pioneers. 1t is so blest that |
know no country in the world which sur
passes it. The Chesapeake, the Potomac, the
Patapsco, temper the climate, supply sources
of never-failing energy to the soil and con-
tribute to the evolution of race characters
tics inferior to none anywhere. The valley
of the Arno never showed greater loneliness
of sky, earth, air and water; nor did Flor
cncc ever produce more beautiful women and
drawer, purer, more intellectual men. 1t is the
birthplace and nursery of all those institu
tions which have formed Maryland character
and implanted in it that manlness, indepen-
dcnce and love of country, which supports
and adorns it. There were planted the prin-
ciples of liberty of thought and equality of
rights of all freemen. From these came the
courage, the genius the practical statesman
ship and business capacity, which led and di-
rectcd the Revolution Of 1915. Yet under
the operation Of these causes which l have
indicated, for II century, that garden of Mary
land has become desolate and depopulated-
ST. Mary's, Charles and Calvert contain fewer
people now than they did in 1880 Their
homcstcads are wasted. Their farms are
desert. Their affairs are overthrown. This
very mornings paper contains an account of
one of the Oldest chapcls in the State blown
down in Calvert in the late storm. The same
condition exists in some of the lower coun,
ties of the Eastern Shore. 1t is universally
true in Eastern Virginia and the Carolinas.
The cause everywhere is the same, and is
irresistible. Agriculture does not present
the advantages nor the profits that may be
found in the outside world, and the conse-
quence is that all the energy, intellect and
ambition produced in these old communities,
seek fields for enterprise elsewhere.
While these causes have not operated so
nnpprol1N in tho nrf Of tlo at
have operated to an appreciate degree The
profits of agriculture have steadily declined
and the attraction Of the pursuit as steadily
diminished. There isa steadily drift of the
young to other pursuits and to the cities.
These effects will continue until you remove
the cause and the ultimate result willbe that
while land may become owned by large pro-
prietors and operated by large capital, the
land tiller will become more and more the
refuse from the other pursuits of life. When
that takes place and the farmer no longer
occupies his place as an Independent and
patriotic citizen then we will have reached
our meridian as State and will steadily de-
cline III power as in liberty.
believe these causes may be removed, and
| know that agriculture may be made to take
its place in Maryland as the pursuit secur-
ing great happiness guaranteeing great perso-
nal independence and requiring and reward
ing the highest intellectual effort and accom-
plishmcnt.
Agriculture does not attract ambition and
ability, because it opens no field where these
qualities alone can achieve success. The
dull routine of the farm, the simple processes
of industry and thrift offer no prospects of
of future or reputation
Ambition, ability, courage honesty rule
4 "a world Snipnna nd trl,t npn hai
landmarks. So in every pursuit of man in
which great results are achieved by these quail
ties science is used as its most powerful as
sistant. Steam, electricity, sound, light are
all made subservicnt to the convenience and
use of men,
Therefore commerce is pressed forward as
it never has been pressed before. Patient in
vestigation has marked on the map of the
globe the unseen currents of water and the
invisible flow of the winds, and trade marches
with assured step in the darkness as well as
the light over the widest wastes of the ocean.
Manufactures create their products with
the markets Of the world before them, in
which they see from day to day where their
goods arc wanted and what kind are required.
Finance, the machinery by which all the
operations of civilization move, holds its fin.
ger on the pulse of commerce aud trade and
manufactures ana keeps before It's eyes Il per-
petual and close view and inspection of all
their movements.
If you will so into any brokers' office in
Baltimore you will see u little instrument
which records minute by minute the financial
operations of New York and London and
Paris
II you will go into any great merchants
counting room, he will show you daily re-
port Of the condition of the market and he
will give you intelligent reasons for the facts
as reported.
Now the farmer is not so directly interest
ed in the price of money or the supply of
cotton cloths. He is interested in the con-
ditions of the weather and the probable sup
ply of agricultural products in the world at
large. Meteorology or the observation of the
phenomena of nature in relation to the wea-
tier is just in Its infancy.
The observer at Washington, with his eye