The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-03-26
R o OTHER STATES,

- OHS ONGCCCULOt uUu | am
try Gentleman, to show our readers tho
general drift and prospects of farmin9
throughout the country:
J. w, Ontario Co., N. Y. March
9Th, says: "Many farmers in s~ettIing
up their accounts for the year seem
to be rather better off than last wear
but there r some who want to rent
Or SELL"
G.. S., Kent Co., Nd, March 7,says: "No
demand for farm produce; prices verv
low. Unless prices are better, farm.
ers will have to stop raising grain for
market and turn their attention to
small fruits, trucking and dairying."
w. H., from Rock Co., Wisconsin
writes: Farmers are beginning to
seem busy. Think the tobacco acre.
age will be in excess of last year,
Tobacco eem to have become a staple
growth in Southern Wisconsin. The
crops are prolific and the quality good.
This is a settled fact"
S. H. R. writes from Richardson
Co., Neb., March 3: eff there is no
change for the better, Eastern capi.
tallsts will have an immense ACREAGE
OF mortgaged farms upon their hands,
for it will be impossible for the farm.
ers to pay either principal or interest
On the same line we give the Chi.
cago Erpress credit for the following
from Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska:
J. Webster, Illinois: "The farmers
in this county r in a truly pitiable
condition, and their blindness to their
true condition and the Causes that
produced them is unparalleled in his,
tory. The wealth producers are hope.
lessly blind to their own interests
politically, hence their organizations,
non-political, have about as much in.
fuence on our lawmakers as pouring
water on a ducks back, and their DO.
litical prejudices every four years
buries them deeper in this humiliating
condition."
Phelps county, Nebraska, had, at
the beginning of the year 1888, 1859
farms, and the number of mortgages
in force on December l, was 2,O5l.
The assessed value of the land was
1886, 542, and the amount of mort
cages was $l,O9l, 929.
A very interesting letter from the
Mississippi Valley in Home and Farm
closes as follows: ..
"Grass and stock build up, while
cotton pulls down soils. We are be-
ginning to feel the effects of a long
continued seeding of lands in cotton.
Yields have fallen off until it is get
ting to be difficult to obtain half the
former yields.
"This fact can be seer in the in
crease in acreage hat has been going
on for several years, Notwithstanding
the increase the yield is surely de-,
creasing. The result of this will be
to increase the number of large plan.
and the tenalIL system. Small
farms will be sold, and their former
owners seek other business This will
be the worst that could happen, for
a nations greatest prosperity comes
from the small farms.
England illustrates the tenant sys-
France the other. In England
the wealth is in the hands of the few.
In France in the possession of the
Homes breed patriots; board
ers, anarchists STEELE's BAYOU"
And from the same paper we clip
the closing paragraph of a long, we'll
written and very interesting letter
illinois. Read it:
In the country, if any murderer
IS hung, it is not by the courts, but by
the people, who, for personal safety,
seem to think it necessary to take the
law into their own hands
Meantime there is a steady tide OF
the farmers flowing from the country
into the towns. They see and feel,
while remote from the towns, they
are taxed for conveniences and luxu.
ries they are denied the enjoyment OF
in towns" r
In the country the land is passing
into few and fewer hands. Land
owners r leaving and giving place
to tenants; slovenly farming is IN
creasing; redtop is ~crowding timothy
out, and where bluegrass was all-con-
quering broomsedge raises its rusty
In short, if affairs go on for
the next generation as they have for
the past, there will be some to
repeat for Illinois the sonorous SEN
tence describing the cause of the decay
of the greatest empire of ancient
times-LatJfundIa aperdldere Romano
rum, "Large farms ruined Rome"
B. F. JOHNSON.
Bro. Strickland informs us that
Cherry Grove Alliance, Of Columbus