Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1886-10-29
TIE EARMER,S Inr-
Facts which Prove That Chronic Grum-
bIors Have No Ground to Stand on.

! Facts which Prove That Chronic Grum-
bIors Have No Ground to stand on.
The New York Times of a recent date
contains n story about the old-foshoned
farmer living in the heart of Orange
County, who was listening one day in
tho market town to that class who sit
around on dry-goods boxes and barrels,
chewing straws and whiting, lamenting
that the good old days of farming had
gone never to return. He deemed it
an excellent time to give the CONVERSE
ton another drift, 1t was after this
fashion: al guess you who groan so
about low prices and high taxes, who
are longing for the good old times, do
not rccOllect well, and 2ddcd: al can
remember when we were compelled to
haul our grain, butter, pork and eggs
all the way to Newburg, going one day
and return ng the next. We generally
got 10 cents bushcl for oats and 10
cents pound for butter. Scvonty-five
cents bushel for wheat was fancy
price If we got six or eight cents n
dozen for eggs We thought we were
doing we'll Nice corn-fcd pork, dressed,
we carted to market for 81 u hundred.
The butter we put on the market in
those days was the genuine Orange
County article, yellow rs gold and us
hard as n walnut. I've sold tubful after
tubful of butter for 10 cents pound
that would net me 75 cents easyif | had
il, 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 it into but
ter. We didn't have any lime-pre-
served eggs in those days to sell either
As for taxes, paid 500 on my farm of
100 acres when | was getting only 10
cents n pound for my butter. On the
same farm now / pay Si2.50, and my
dairy brings me, the year round, what
is equal to nearly three times 10 cents Il
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 parallcled in the West.
There are plenty of old settlers here
who hauled wheat into Chicago, camp
ing out on the journey, and glad TO
carry back n little money toward the
inevitable taxes that must be paid.
They were not unhappy then; are not so
now. They are rather glad that rail-
ways have grldironed the State; are glad
that their farms have grown from one
dollar and TWENTY-FIVE cents per acre up
TO from thirty to one hundred dollars
per acre; are clad that labor-saving
machines enable them to cultivate t rec
or four times the number of acres and
better than they could have done them.
They do not grnmble over the fact that
they are not milllonaIres. They are at
least comfortable and happy, having
lived their lives with 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 scborners did the freight
ing, while yet the West was n wilder
ness of grass. The reason is that such
men have made farming II business as
exact as that of the merchant or the
manufacturer. They have always
known what crop cost and what it
should sell for, and as soon as a crop or
n commodity ceased to paw they have
gradually changed to crops that would
pay better. In other words, they have
kept pace with the chang d condition in
their profession