The Iola register., 1886-10-29
THE FARMERS LOT.

I6E fAnmenS kOVs
Facts Which Prove That Chronic Grun-
blers Have No Ground to Stand On.
The New York Times of recent date
contains story about the old-fashioned
farmer living in the heart Of Orange
County. who was listening one day in
the 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: II guess you who gfoan so
about low prices and high taxes, who
are longing for the good old times, do
not rccOllect well" and added: Il can
remember when we were compelled to
haul our grain, butter. pork and eggs
all the way to Newburg, going one day
and returning the next We generally
got Is cents q bushel for oats and 1O
cents pound for butter. Seventy-five
cents q bushel for wheat was q fancy
price. If we got six or eight cents .
dozen for eggs we thought we were
doing well. Nice corD-fed pork. dressed,
we carted to market for $2 hundred.
The butter we put on the market in
those days was the genuine Orange
County article. yellow as gold and as
hard as q walnut. I've sold tubful after
tubful of butter for 10 cents a 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 it into but
ter. We didn't have any lime-pre-
served eggs in those days to sell either.
As for taxes, 1 paid 800 on my farm Of
100 acres when l was getting only 10
cents a pound for my butter. On the
same farm now pay S42.5O. 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 hauled wheat into Chicago, camp
ing 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 rail-
ways have gridironed 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 glad 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 grumble over the fact that
they are not milliOnalres. 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 go back to the good old days
when prairie schorners did the freight
ing, while yet the West was a wilder
ness of grass. The reason is that such
men have made farming Il 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 crop or
a 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 of Eusi-
ness farmers. They know just what
each crop cost to make year by year.
They understand that they belong to the
great producing class Of the country;
that if their profits are small they are
nevertheless sure; that their daily labor
produces an abundance of food, and
leaves them good health. Such men do
not find it necessary to work themselves,
their families or their teams sixteen
hours 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 happi-
ness 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 * 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.-CAicago Irib-
une.