The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1886-05-22

48A08 OH inc
Our farmers have it in their power
to make hard times or good times in
Monongalia county.
The tritc saying that 'all wealth
comes out Of the ground" is peculiar
~ adapted to this county. We are
a farming population. There are no
manufactures or mechanical indus
tries upon which we can depend.
The farms are our sole sources of
revenue.
We believe that our farmers are
beginning to realize the important
relation they bear to the general
prosperity, more than they have
done heretofore. They begin to see
that the farms must be made to pro-
duce more than they have heretofore
done. There is more money going
out of the county than heretofore,
and there must be some means of
increasing the return. A vessel
that has a bigger hole in the bottom
than in the top can never be filed,
but must inevitably be emptied at
last.
Moreover the farmers must share
the general condition, whether that
be one of prosperity or decline. They
cannot avoid the good or bad effects
which fall upon the business inter
ests of any part Of the county.
They may be able to live while 9th
crs starvc but they can never grow
rich and prosperous while The sur
rounding population is poor and
pinched in its resources. They can
not sell where the consumers are too
poor to buy. They will have no
market for the products of their
farms, however fruitful they may be,
unless their neighbors have money
to buy, and there will be no money
in this county with which to buy
unless, as we have said, it is dug
out of the farms.
The fact that we wish to impress
upon the farmers of this county is
the fact we have insisted upon be-
fore; they must conclude to raise
more than in past years. 1t will
not do to raise as much; they must
more. Our farms must supply the
grain which has for years been
brought in from foreign markets
and which makes a larger drain upon
our money than any other thing
There is no reason why we should
import nearly all the flower we con
sumo. This is like carrying Goals to
New Castle" There is something
radically wrong in an Agricultural
community that imports the grain
it eats Nor is it the fault of the
farms. Our land is productive 1t il
the bad policy of the farmer rather
than the bad quality of the LAND
that brings about this state of af
fairs. We must produce not only
what we eat in order to save buying
abroad, but also more than we cal
in order that we may have some
thing to sell abroad.
In many of the counties of West
Virginia the farmers are coming tt
realize the mistake in not raising
more grain. The rich county o
Harrison has suffered from this mis-
take more loss in the past two years
than it can recover in ten. A Ions
winter not only exhausted the grail
they raised but compelled them t,
send abroad for grain to such an ex
tent as to exhaust the money of tn
county. Farmers were compelled t,
borrow money with which to impor
grain at cost largely beyond what i
could have been raised ON thei
farms beside paying interest on tn
money thus expended.
Monongalia county had some
thing Of this same experience, all O
which might have been avoided b,
the more profitable policy of raising
not simply enough grain to fee
their stock, on close calculation
but surplus to sell. The forme
policy might have been excusable i
times past when the farmer had dii
ficulty in finding market for hi
surplus, but now that we have &C
cess to the markets of the Who'll
country every consideration of tn
public and individual interests d,
mands a new deal on the part of on
farmers.
High rents are great drawbac