Smyrna times., 1886-01-13
Farmers and Their Duty.

the following remarks, which are so
much in accord with our own views on
the subject that we cannot refrain from
giving them place in our columns,
and direct the attention of our agricul-
tural readers to them:
1.-THE many complaints which come
from the farmers questionably have
some foundation. 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 abun-
dant in quantity, sold at so low price
that the farmer was much disheartened. |
But his embarrassments are in large |
measure due to mistakes which he him |
self can cure, 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 agri-
culture in this country, so that the
prosperity of this great industry may
depend less than it does now upon the
production of few chief fstaples for dis
tant markets. The farmer, as well as
the country, needs diversifcation ofin-
dustry, and greater economy in pro-
duction. He needs to produce at less
cost than heretofore, and to adapt pro-
ductiOn more nearly to the demands of
the home market, and to become him
self manufacturer as we'll as a farmer,
turning out less of the raw materials
called corn, hay or wheat, and more of
the finished products, cattle, hogs, but
ter, cheese, poultry and eggs. In the
youth of agricultural here, with a vir-
gin soil apparently yofinexhaustible for
tility, the farmer naturally devoted his
attention first to the production of
grain, for which there was a ready
market, and which could be produced
with least delay. Crude and waseful
methods were tolerated, because the
unwearied soil yielded abundantly with
little labor and no fertilizing. 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 speak, scratch
ing the surface and wastefully exhaust
ing the soil, but nowhere developing
economy in production, nor giving due
attention to that diversity of labor and
of production which will secure the
best results in the long run. But the
advancing settler from the East, now
meets in Montana the advancing set
tier from the Pacific coast. The area
of unoccupied land is rapidly narrow
ing. Enormous distance from the mar
kets renders the farmer too dependent
on lines of transportation, and too ex-
elusive attention to the raising of wheat
corn and cotton, places him at the
mercy of foreign markets and govern
ments. The changes of tariff by Ger
many and France within the past year,
warn the American farmer that he can
no longer afford to neglect those i'm
prOvements and developments of his
industry which are necessary to render
it permanently prosperous and indie
pendent.
"It is time to remember that the
more thorough and skilful culture is of
tea the cheaper: that it costs less per
bushel to raise twenty-five bushels of
wheat to the acre than to raise twelve
bushels. 1t is time to remember, too,
that the farmer who has to employ
hands all the year, in order to have
their service during the summer
months only, wastes part of his produc-
tive force if he fails to diversity his in
dustry that his labor may be as far as
possible employed in the winter also.
1t is a poor profit that he can get on
his corn when the crop 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 en-
, riched. Every winter consumers pay
high prices for meats, butter, cheese
, and eggs, because there are too few
farmers who wisely keep the machin.
cry of production running the year
around. Yet, even in the older states
where soil is scanty and worn, some
. men of shrewdness and science, by
} diversified and we'll distributed indus
try adapted to the wants of the com
munity, secure profits which the great
wheat farmer of the West cannot, il
l the long run, surpass. Not long ago
: in a scientific association, a paper was
5 read maintaining that, even upon New
; England's stony soil, by raising corr
for fodder and buying cottOnseed, bee
could be produced cheaper than in
F.. Texas, and in quantity as to supply al
Eastern markets.
+ "The agriculture of this country ha.
s spread over too many acres already
s What it needs is to bring higher in
a telligence to its aid, and to make eacl
i acre produce far more than before
s We have not yet begun to realize th'
G productive capacity of this country
n nor shall we until the farmer makes
/ manufacturer of himself part of th
d year, learns to make all his month
s produce wealth for him, and adapts hi
industry more to the permanent anC
u increasing needs of home market, 81
: that he may be less dependent on tn,
3 changes of industry or of Legislation
y abroad"
CANAL VS.. RAILROAD.-A CORE
= spOndent writing from Townsend
= whom the editor says is reliable, fur
nished the Centreville Record with
long communication concerning tn
= ship canal. In the course of the art
N Gle he expressed himself as confider
that the canal will never be built. III