Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1888-03-03
FARMEns AND rHE rAR1FF.
Some Figures on the .Pr1oes Of
Farm Lands. +

Chicago Inter Ocean.
The vote Of the farmerls the objective
point Of the free trade cain paign, and to
secure 1t no old falsehood is left unre-
peated. no effort 10 spared toward the In.
v%entlon OF a new one. The farmer is told
that he 10 unprotected, though nearly all
farm products have direct protection by
import duties; tho beef and lay, the
horses aud cheese, the wheat and fax,
the honey and potatoes, the oats and rye,
the barley and wheat, the butter and vim
sgar; the tobacco and hops. the rice and
milk, the corn, tho wool and sugar which
are grown or made on the farms and
plantations Of the United States are as
directly protected by tariff duties as are
tho iron and copper which are taken from
m it. %'n ne :. ., f. the steel and 'l0t2eh"t are
Tho farmer is told that the tariff duty
on imports is added to the. price which
no pays for like articles of home make,
although he often buys homemade cal.
leo at less, and seldom at more, than the,
import duty OF a like quantity of foreign
make; he buys his nails 1T less cost than
they could be imported, his reapers and
mowers. his watches and clocks, at less
price than like articles are sold for in
England or France. He now buys his
salt for less than half the price he paid
for 1t when when 1t was not protected by
tariff duty. All that he buys is cheaper
than 1t was under free trade, and almost
all that he buys is in a constant process
OF further cheapening.
And what he sells ia increased in value
by the extension of home markets as the
result Of the growth Of manufacturing
centers. The free trader tells him that
his wheat is lower than it was q few years
ago, but forgets to ask him lift would
not no lower still were Europe made his
sole market. The effect of homo mark cts
upon the value of farms may be demon.
strated by q few easily understood fig
ures: The states Of tho Union aud the
Territories OF Dakota and Washington
have been classified into four groups; in
the first the area under cultivation il 49,
7l7,247 acres, and the value is $4l.07 per
. ire; IN this group there are 10 persons
engaged in agriculture to 81 in labor,
which consumes but does not pro-
duce what the farmer has to sell.
In the second group are ll2,32l,-
$50 acres. valued At $30.55 per acre,
and hero the proportion of per-
sons engaged in agriculture is AZ to IS i'll
other industries. In tho third group are
2377, s7S, 040 acres of tho value Of 1888
per acre, and here there are IS farmers to
AZ persons engaged in other industries.
In the fourth group are los, 636, 796 acres.
of . value Of $5.1S per acre, and here the
farmers number II against % in other in-
dustrios. Tho Philadelphia Press forci-
bly, remarks, mo candid man can looi |
at these figures without seeing that the
value of farms is greatest where the pop
ulation is most largely dsyoted to fac
tories, or, as in two Of the states, Califor-
mia aud Colorado, to mining, and lowest
whore th~ree-fourths OF the workers are
OIL farins.'
Tho accuracy OF the grouping OF aver
age values of farms on a large scale is
proven by examination of details, torthe
average Yaluo of farm land in fye- man
states atanus thus: |