Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1883-01-11
THE AMERICAN FARMER.
CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE.

imum Of prices and buys at the mini
mnm. His products are the dearest
products in the market, because, unlike
all other products, everybody is forced
a consumer of them. There is no option
In the matter The Subdivisions and
rami6cations of mechanical, CONNER
cial and professional industries are 60
ing on SO rapidly, and the growth of ci-
ties. towns and villages is so great a.
compared with competition in farming
that the farmer holds mortgage, as il
were, on the market, and we must pei
force pay tribute to him.
THE FUTURE OF THE FARMER.
farmer, no man can write it at this day
save as a speculation of the imagina-
ton. That bis status has immessura-
by advanced and improved Of late
years there is no doubt. That land is to
assume new relation to the human
race is evident enough. There is class
of agitators who hold that land was in
tended to be as free as air and water
that it is sort of an original vial ele
ment In which there should be no prop
erty. This plea is SO absurd as to scarcely
merit serious consideration. Ii land
could be divorced from ownership agri-
culture would relapse into barbarism.
Our sense Of ownership in any species
of property is the strongest incentive to
make it as valuable as possible. The
man who owns a house is willing to
spend more money for its betterment
and ornamentation than the man who
hires the temporary use of it. Take
away this incentive and what remains
but a grand FouIierite community, in
which the cohesive element which has
held together special Fourierite commu-
mites for few years-tbat of ultimate
succession to the title,-would be who'll
ly lacking. George Rapp's community
of Economists, picked with great care
as co-religionists, as also that Of Robert
Owns, have experienced memorable Sc
eessons and litigations, because the Sc
ceders realized that in the nature Of
things there could be no equality of in
terests among men Of unequal physical
and mental capacity. All the expert
ments in this direction have been fail
ures. The Almighty planted acquisi
tiveness in our natures as a great exec
utive force, and while it is selfish and
too often an overriding and absorbing
instinct, yet it is with this instinct as
as Jefferson said of the liberty of the
press. that error may be safely left free
as long as truth is left free to control it.
TENDENCY TO SUBDIVISION OF LAND.
These communistic principles have
all had their germs in Europe, owing to
the systems of entailment and primo
geniture and monopoly in land prevail
ing there for ages. They can have no
serious growth in this country. The
tendency in this country, where land is
as easily alienated as personal property,
will be to subdivision. As the differ
ent States have grown old, except in the
days Of slavery, the population dense
and the land more valuable, the tenden
cy to subdivision has quickened. The.
wealth of New England is very great,
but the farms are very small. Two or
three experiments were made in farm
ing on gigantic scale in Illinois, but
you are all familiar with the fate of the
most noted one-that of Sullivan. Bo-
nanza farming in the far West is sort
of necessity of the hour. The land was
ments are costly for small farmers, and
the land is being cropped for all that is
in its virgin soil, without reference to
its ultimate condition. The day will
soon pass.
THE SUSTAINING POWER OF AN ACRE.
The future of land in this country is
to be very intimately connected with
science. No man now living can gauge
accurately the sustaining power of an
acre of ground nor its ultimate CONNER
cial value. l have lately been reading
some account Of the life and experiments
of John Johnston, Of Geneva, New York,
the Scotchman who was the pioneer
i'm the tile draing of land in this coun-
try, and who brought up worn out
C ay farm from yield of nine bushels
Of wheat to the acre to an average of
forty bushels. The intelligent farmers
of Belmont county understand all that
Is comprehended in such an increased
yield as that. They also understand the
nature and effect of tile draining; also
lis expense, and. still further, they are
aware Of the fact of the tremendous
amount of it that is now being done In
Illinois and other States. The process
is being steadily cheapened as the de-
Iuand increases, and the results are won
derful. There are those who estimate
that the productive power Of all clay
soil will be enhanced fourfold by this
process.
Then there is the system of ensilage
that is so much discussed, and that was
tu me most Interestingly discussed by
the Agricultural Convention that met in
Chicago few days ago. On the dairy
farms it is claimed that through the use
of ensilage the sustaining power of an
acre can be doubled.
STEAM IN THE FARMS.
only refer to these experiments and
improvements as tending to show in
connection with the future of the
American farmer that the future Of the
land, and therefore of land owners, has
many phases in which it might be con.
sidered. | am confident that chemistry
will reveal astounding secrets in regard
to the power of an acre Of land to sus'
tain life. am also confident that in.
ventIve genius will yet plow the land,
as it is now thieshing the crops, by
steam. There are men at werk on
ground traction engines today who will
make some of their models a complete
success. Steam will yet play great
part in farming-almOst as important a
part as it has in distributing the pro-
ducts of the farm. There will be in ev.
cry farm house an engine that will do
the washing and churE ng 10y steam.
We know that life OH the farm has
been immeasurably relieved of its drudg'