Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1889-12-20
Farming East and West


conGi.ion Of Yves ern farming f om Mr. s.
III. Cook is published. Mf. Cook has re-
csn.!y returned ffcm an Extended tour OF
observation of the condition of the western
farmer on lands that have been occupied for
thirty years or more, as in Kansas and
other prairie States, and for lesser period
iu The TWO Dakotss and Montana. He
states that Horace Greeley's advice, Go
West, young man." white it may have bean
good advice in the time when given, is no
longer so, the conditions having been 80
greatly changed. Twenty-Five or thirty
years ago good land could be bought for
dollar and quarter an acre, and 1ith la.
dian scrip for lcss Since then all the best
land hiss been taken up, except the tracts
held by the railroads, at from two dollars
and half to FIVE dollars and upwards, &C
cording to location. Anything at all desira'
BILE of wild land will now cost the settler
eight hundred dollars for one hundred and
sixty acres. After buying the land house
of logs or sods he's to be built. Thou
sands put up such houses years ago. expect
ing soou to be abs to build after wards Of
frame, but they or their children still occu
py the same, or others like it. II am now
speaking" be says, "of section OF the
Northwest settled lougar then [ have indi-
Gated" few gears ago wheat would
average twenty bushels per acre. By con
slant cropping the average has been reduc
ed to 6fteen bushels, aud the farmer, by
hauling his crop anywhere from one to
twenty miles, can get sixty.6ve cents per
bushel. The question is then asked, with
wheat at sixty-fve cents, corn at thirty
cents, oats at twenty cents, potatoes fifteen
cents and hay FIVE dollars per top, how
much profit can the farmer make p But
the land, it is argued, must be increasing in
value. To this Mr. Cook replies: II will
auawer by citiag cases n as favorable loca-
tion as the average of farming communities,
certainly. The section is q Very fertile one.
The writer sold land there fifteen years ago
for S15 per acre. O:her land alongside was
sold by other parties at the same time aud
mortgaged at q rate of 10 per cent. Tho
purchasers after having struggled for q
d zen years in vain to lift the mortgage,
gave up, and the land can be bought to.
day for SO per acre. The buyers were in-
dustrotrs and not weighted BY Incorporate
habits, sickness or unusual mlsfortunes.
Land on shat prairie to-day, with consider
able improvements, Gao be had for what it
cost the owners 20 years ago, and there aie
two churches uear and school hcu es, in
these respects far more desirable locality
than the average. The young mans pros
poets for bettering himself in riaog values
do not seem very fattering" Twenty five
years ago what the farmer had to sell brought
much more than now. There was market
almost at his door and prices were good, for
the influx of immigrants and the absence OF
railroads rendered the demand equal to the
supply. The conditions are now sii changed
the many producing aud comparatively
few buying for home conaumption. Riding
through the country one sees but few newly.
painted houses; he will see many, painted
wears ago, when times were better, sadly in
need of new coat now churches, general
y assisted by the home missionary societies
of different denominations, wearing too often
sadly dlapida,ed and deserted look, and
the appearance of the people. far oftener, in
my experience, than at the East Indicating
an absence of hopefulness for the future aud
sort of logged resignation to the inevitable.
Do not forget that l am speaking of the
settlers 10 scattered settlements on the
prairie and in the timber. Many a time,
entering their dwellings, have found we'll
educated women from eastern homes and
many times havs put the question, DO you
like western bstter than eastern life?' and
the answer has been, I wish we were back
East I do not recall an exception"
The picture Mr.. Cook gives of farm
life among the isolated communities Of the
newer western States is sad one. and there
s nc reason to doubt that it is true. The
conclusions he draws from his personal OBJ.
sergations are that farmers in the middle
States, if they are industrious and thrifty,
are far better off than those of the West In
A. ha m
such as are restive and desire TO try their
fortunes in the West is to stay at home and
cultivate their lands to the best of their
ability, with schools and churches close at
hand aod with social surroundings that are
congenia Il nsy be desirable thing, he
says, 10 import Scandinavian colonists to
occupy the deserted farms, but it would be
much better, he thinks, if native Americans
could be induced TO take the vacant farms
and apply to their improvement the same
,obor and arerov that thev would ha com.