The Dickinson press., 1885-01-31
The Small Farmers Future.

In this part of the world small
farmers are those who cultivate any.
thing less than a section of land.
They are different class of people
from the one suspender. torn straw
hat specimen that raise a single patch
of truck. and shiver through good
portion of every year in the flats of
Indiana or the low lands of Arkansas.
The small farmer of the Northwest
must be more enterprising than the
man who cultivates few acres in
the south. He must display more
energy, and the climate which re-
quires it Of him also fills him full of
ozone to assist him in meeting the
emergency.
Now tho question is presented as
to what will be the future of the
rustler on comparatively few acres.
Will he continue to place his whole
reliance upon one crop! Will he
grow nothing but wheat, to he turned
over to the elevator men, who in turn
pass it to the millers who are accu.
mulating all the profits on this crop
that is left by the warehousemen and
the railroads! In a year when the
monopolists conclude to leave him
something the farmer continues to
make good living and to have some
thing left over, but i'll years when
monopolists of the market conclude
that the farmer shall have no part of
the profit of his farm. it is exceeding.
ly rough on the small farmer. Has
he a remedy! Can he avoid the de.
spelling to which he is subject! If
he cannot then his future is not
very bright one. For what can rich
lands, bountiful yields and the best
grain in the world do against the
graspng monopolies who take from
the farmer a very large portion of
his product and give him no II turn
therefor!
1t is the province Of the small
farmer to raise the pigs, the poultry.
and dairy products, and to supply the
cities and towns AS well us the bonan-
"a farmers, who make Il business of
wheat growing only, with those arti.
cles. If he will do this he will have
solved the problem of his future in
satisfactory manner. He must not
do as the great farmers do. These
latter devote their farms to the rails.
ing of wheat only. In the years
when they have good yields and
prices are good, they make as profit
large sums of money in their farming
operations, and many of them do not
live upon their farms. In the old
fashioned sense they are not farmers
ut all, and they have not the taste,
inclination nor lin most cases) the
skill requisite to make diversified
farms. When it becomes necessary
that they should do so or go to the
wall, the large farms will disappear
and their operators will turn their
attention to other branches of bust.
ness. The farms they operate are
not their home and farming not their
life work.
With the small farmer these things
do not hold. He is generally, farm
er by birth and education. He knows
his business-the business of farming,
lie never thought of buying his but
ter and eggs and meat before he came
to the Northwest, but he thinks it
necessary to do so here in imitation
of his neighbor of bonanza preten.
sions. Now the thing that he has to
do is to unlearn what he has too read.
lily learned. He must learn to do as
he did before he came here; to sur
round himself with all the belong
ingS and appurtenances that he had
in his eastern home and he will then
find that lie is at the mercy of nobody
is king in Il kingly land, has more
pleasant prospects and a future that
the most fortunate agriculturist of
other regions might we'll envy him.
Northwestern Farmer.