Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-06-23
The Self-Supporting Farmers.
By Our Agricultural Editor.

by our agricultural Editor.
Whatever n cs; Se said in favor Of strict
Iufvision of labor-and in theory the reasons
are many and plausible-yet in practice the
plan does not always work well. To the
farmers at least, strict division of labor is
endurable only when people generally live
up to the rule to do as they would be done
by. At time, like the present, when fraud
exists more or less in all the departments of
trade, and when everything that the farmer
has to sell barely brings in enough to pay
the actual cost of production; at time too
when the farmers rights are ignored or
trampled upon by legislature and corpora
ton alike, what is the encouragement for
him to go on repeating the role of mere
producer for other peoples benefit? What
is the good of strict division of work to
him, when the majority of those with whom
he divides do not 'tote fair?''
Nay, but we tell the world that, unless
there is speedy change for the better, un-
less the farmer can get better paid for what
he produces, large proportion of us intend
to quit growing money crops exclusively, or
even extensively, and will turn our main at
tention and efforts to making our farms
self-supporting. We will become petty
manufacturers as well as producers, and
will make the great bulk of what we con-
sumo at home, and from the resources of our
own farms. We will become small buyers
and small sellers, and we will live at home.
Some things, of course, we cannot make,
but many things we can, and the world will
be glad to take what we do have to sell in
exchange for manufactures that we cannot
make.
We admit this is not the best policy for a
nation, or for the farmer, to pursue. 1t is
exclusive and selfish. But it is our remedy
for hard times, low prices, and oppression,
and If the world compels us to resort to it,
the fault is theirs not ours. We intend to
get out of the mill somehow; we are not
legitimate grist for other people. We have
the farms, the soil; we are producers; you
cannot starve ms; we will make our own
bread, meat and clothes, our implements
and our manures; we will not employ you
as transporters, as statesmen, as helpers in
the industrial loom, In word, we will
take care of ourselves, make our own living
as we know we can, and you will have to
look out for number one.
This is the farmers remedy, not his
choice, and if things go on as they are an
other year, the world will witness a rapid
falling off in the bulk of staple crops, and
there will not be much cotton or grain for
anyone to ''cerner." The merchants sales
to the farmer will fall off too, for he will
make his shoes, clothes, and food at home,
and will buy little in a market where fraud
meets him at every turn.
We know families who spin the wool from
1 their own sheep, and weave it into cloth;
farmers who tan hides and make their own
shoes; who keep bees, and buy little sugar
families who live almost entirely within
| their own resources. The spinning wheel
and the handloom are not extinct yet; the
hum of the one and the bang, bang Of the
other are yet heard in our land, and it is
| music sweet to the self-supporting farmer.
Call us homespun, rough, unpublished if you
will. No matter. We have thrown off a
lead. We stand erect on our own domicil,
| proud monarch of all we survey. We do moi
| feel it our mission to furnish free bread to
the rest of mankind.
| Here is where many of us stand to-day,
and our ranks are rapidly augmenting. We
are willing to tote fair, but we want half the
stick. Without this we must use our one
remedy, we will become seifsupporting
We will seek to supply our own need, but
we do not promise to supply the wants OF
any one else. These are the sober facts
To Cypress or attempt to coerce US further,
is but to call up hundred-headed hydra
that no Hercules will be able to down.
Lnder-Appeal.