Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-11-09
American Agriculture

The many complaints which come from the
farmers unqnestionsby have some founda-
ton. The past year has not been very
prosperous one for those who devote large
share of their labor to the raising of wheat,
and the crop Of the previous year, though
abundant in quantity, sold at so low price
that the farmer was much disheartened. But
his embarrassments are in a large measure
due to mistakes which he himself can remedy,
if he will. Certainly the experience of the
past few years ought to lead to an earnest and
determined effort to improve the methods of
agriculture in this country, So that the pros
perity of this great industry may depend less
than it does now upon the production of a
few chief staples for distant markets.
The farmer, as well as the country, needs
liberalization of industry, and greater econ
omy in production. He needs to produce at
less cost than hitherto, and to adapt produce
ton more nearly to the demands OF the home
market, and to become himself manufact-
urer as well as farmer, turning out less
of the raw materials called corn, hay or
wheat, and more of the finished products,
cattle, hogs, butter. cheese, poultry
and eggs 10 the youth of agrcul-
ture here, with a virgin soil apparently
of inexhaustibe fertility, the farmer natur-
ally devoted his attention first to the produc-
ton of grain, for which there was ready
market and which could be produced with
least delay. Crude and wasteful methods
were tolerated, because the unwearied soil
yielded abundantly with little labor and no
ferIiizing. Land was plenty, and if the soil
began to wear out, the farmer would always
move further west to cultivate new land again
| after the old methods, Thus agriculture has
been sweeping across the country, so to
.peak. scratching the surface and wastefullv
exhausting the SOIL but nowhere developing
economy in production, nor giving due atten-
ton to that diversity of labor and of produc-
ton which will secure the best results in the
long run. But the advancing settler from
the east now meets in Montana the advancing
settler from the Pacific coast The area of
unoccupied land is rapidly narrowing. Enor-
nous distance from the markets renders the
farmer too dependent on lines of transporta-
ton, and too exclusive attention to the rails
ing of wheat, corn and cotton places him at
at the mercy OF foreign markets and
governments. The changes of tariff
BY Germany and France within the
past year warn the American farmer that he
can no longer afford to neglect those improve
ments and dew elopments of his industry
which are necessary to render it permanently
prosperous and independent.
II is time to remember that the more thor
ough and skilful culture is often the cheaper :;
that 1t costs less per bushel to raise % bushels
of wheat to the acre than to raise II bushels
1t is time to remember, too, that the farmer
who has to employ hands all the year. in or
der TO have their services during the summer
months only. wastes a part of his productive
force if he fails to so diversity his industry
that his labor may be as far as possible en-
ptnyaA in tho winter also II IL
that he can get on his corn when the crop is
as large and the price is as low as it is this
year. But If he can add the profits of a
manufacturer TO his profits as a producer, and
turn his corn and other products into hogs
and cattle through the winter months, he will
find both his fields and his pocket enriched
Every winter consumers pay high prices
for meats. butter, cheese and eggs, because
there are too few farmers who wise
" keep the machinery of produc-
ton running the year round. Yet even in
the older States, where soil is scanty and
most worn, some men of shrcwdness and
science, by diversified and well-distributed
industry adapted to the wants of the commu-
nifty, secure profits which the great wheat
farmers of the West cannot in a long run
surpass. Not long ago, in a scientific ssso-
citation, a paper was read maintaining that,
even upon New EHsiauu stony soul, Dy rals-
ing corn for fodder and buying cottonseed
b, eff could be produced cheaper than in Texas,
and in such quantity as to supply all Eastern
markets.
The agriculture of this country has spread
over too many acres already. What it needs
is to bring higher intelligence to its aid,
and to make each acre produce far more than
before We have not yet begun to realize the
productive capacity of this country, nor shall
we until the farmer makes a manufacturer of
| himself part of the year, learns to make all
his months produce wealth for him, and
sdspts his industry more to the permanent
and increasing needs of the home market, so
thar he may be less dependent on the changes
of Industry or of legislation abrosd.-N Y.
T'flhuMs