River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1886-10-28
Fl. II. WARNER & co.
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The Grnmbl ng Class,

The Grumbl ng Glass.
The New York Tines of a recent dat
contains a story about the old-fashion
ed farmer living in the heart of Orange
County who was listning one day in
the market town to that class who sit
around on dry goods boxes and barrels
chewing straws and whiting, lament
ing that the good old days of farming
had gone neverso return. He deemed
it an excellent time to give the CONVEX
sation another drift. 1t was after this
fashion: Il guess YOU who groan so
about low prices and high taxes. who
are longing for the good old times, do
not recolleet WE'LL" and added: Il
can remember when we were compelled
to haul our grain, butter, pork, and
eggs all the way from Newburg, going
one day and returning the next. We
generally got Is cents bushel for oats
and 10 cents pound for butter. Sew
enty-iive cents bushel for wheat was
a fancy price. Ii we got six or eight
cents dozen for eggs we thought we
were doing well. Nice corn-fed pork,
dressed, we carted to market for 81
hundred. The butter which we put on
the market in those days was the genu-
inc Orange County article, yellow as
gold and as hard as walnut.
I've sold tubful after tubful of butter
for 10 cents pound that would net me
IS cents easy If had it. or any like it,
to sell now. That was long before the
Erie Railway came through here and
put us up to selling our milk instead OF
making il into butter We didn't have
any lime-preserved eggs in those days
to sell either. As for taxes paid 500
on my farm of 100 acres when | was
getting only 10 cents pound for my
butter. On the same farm now | pay
SAP so. and my dairy brings me, the
year round, what is equal to nearly
three times 10 cents pound for butter
There is great deal of humbug, / tell
you, in mourning for the good old
times, and / know it. =
This case is fully paralleled in the
West. There are plenty of old settlers
here who bauled wheat into Chicago,
camping out on the journey, and glad
to carry back little money toward
the inevitable taxes that must be paid
They were not unhappy then; are not
so now.
They are rather glad that railways
have gridironed the State; are glaG
that their farms have grown from
81. % an acre up to from $50 to 500
per acre; are glad that labor-saying
machines enable them TO cultivate
three or four times the number of acres
and better than they could have done
then. They do not grumble over the
fact that they are not all millionaires
They are at least comfortable and
hal p having lived their lives vita
robust health, albeit with that steady
labor and plain food which make the
muscles strong and leave the head
clear. They do not want to 90 back
to the good old days when prairie
schooners did the freighting. while yet
the West was a wilderness of grass.
The reason is that such men have
made farming a business as exact as
that Of the merchant or the manufac-
turer. They have always known what
a crop cost and what it should sell for,
and as soon as a crop or commodity
ceased to pay they have gradually
changed to crops that would
pay better In other words,
they have kept pace with the changed
condition in their profession.
This class of men is composed or
business farmers. They know Just
what each crop costs to make year by
year. They understand that they be-
long to the great producing class of
the country; that if their profits are
small they are nevertheless sure; that
their daily labor produces an abund-
ance OF food, and leaves them good
health. Such men do not find it nee
essary to work themselves, their fam.
lilies, or their teams sixteen hours a
day. They understand that it is the
common lot of humanity the world
over to labor for their daily bread. and
even though few of the many, either
in city or country, acquire large
wealth, nevertheless there is more true
happiness among the many than among
the few.
There is another thing that the grum-
bling class do not appreciate-that a
man must make or mar his life each
for himself. 1t is not necessary for the
farmer to put on city airs to make him
self respectable. There is no class
more honored than the clean farmer.
Neither is it mere wealth that makes
city or country bred honored.