The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-03-21
NUMBER 8.
DOES AMERICAN FARMING PAYq

10 BlODOblllOu ulCl 10 OCCd-
sionally disputed with much vehemence
particularly by the free trade orators
just before election Time. 1t is favor.
lite occupation with the free traders and
with other people who, because they are
dissatisfied with themselves, are accus-
toned to think that our entire social and
political economy is out of order, to
point to the American farmers lot as
peculiarly an unhappy and unprosper-
Gus one. To such individuals a single
unsuccessful experiment of some city
bred man of means and leisure to run
fancy farm and make it pay is a bonanza
in the way of an argument, and an
abandoned farmhouse on some rocky
New England hillside is proof positive
that all their pessimistic theories are
correct, and that agriculture in the
United States is on the straight road to
wreck and ruin. People of this kind, as
well as men and women who take
broader and more sensible and whole
some views of the various departments
of American life and industry, will be
interested in a valuable paper which DIR.
George B. Loring contributes to the
North American ReUielC. docs Amer
ican Farming Pay?" is the question
which DIR. LOring asks, and he answers
it with facts and figures which will con-
vince every body except those persons
who positively will not consent be con.
vinced. He argues with great force
that agriculture would hardly have been
adopted and pursued for generations in
this country had it not furnished an am
pie reward to the land owner and
k.,O Vn0n n0,l
moreover, that an industry whose pro-
duct has increased in 20years from 1859
to 1870 from $1,000 900 to $500 900
must have had great deal to do with
the growing prosperity of the country
and must have been attended by great
individual success. Ir the decade be-
tween 1870 and 1880 the increase of ag-
ricultural products was nearly 100 per
cent, and in the last year of this de-
cade the increase was in even a greater
ratio.
DR.. Loring finds the law of this vast
industry to be the cultivation of those
crops which are adapted to a local
market and the occupation of land ly-
ing near that market. This law is not
yet universal, but it applies TO all the
older sections of the country, and goes
with diversified industries wherever they
create large cities and town. 1t is in re-
gions where industry is diversified that
farm lands reach the greatest value.
Thus in New York State land is valued
at $44 Al per acre, in Massachusetts at
$5O.27 per acre, 10 New Jersey at $65 .16
per acre, in Illinois at $3lS7 per acre.
From such data DR.. LOring maintains
knY nd rrpn1 pripau anl
are in good demand where an enterpris-
ing and busy population is engaged in
diversified industry and where fertile
soil yields liberal crops and they are
in good demand because their cultiva-
ton is profitable. That there are un-
profitable farms in many of the States is
evident from the fact that they are
abandoned by their owners. But it is a
striking fact also that even where the
number of farms diminishes, the agri-
cultural products increase as the culti-
walton is transformed to more kindly
acres. Farms well selected, well man
ned, well cultivated, are always profta-
bla."
In summing up the advantages of the
American farming community, DIR. Lor-
in says
THE condition of the American farm
er is looked upon as SO satisfactory that
the lesson taught by him is engaging the
minds of some of the most thoughtful
statesmen and publicists of the Old
World, The attention of the English
farmer, discouraged By the agricultural
depression around him, has been called
to the contrast between the market gar
A nl 81 hn
which surround many of the great cities
of his own country. 1t has been dlscov-
cred that the American system of land
holding is the foundation of great pop
ular content and general prosperity and
accompanied. as 1t is. by great social
and civil opportunities, surrounded, as
it ia, by the free institutions of our land
attended ,as it is, by the school house and
the meeting house, and by the constant
call to service which occupies 80 many,
it constitutes the foundation on which
rest great mental activity, great dignity
of character. great enterprise and ambi-
tion. To the practical work of the agri.
cultural community here widespread
disaster, moreover, is unknown. The
local damage of drought or Hood is
not, indeed, unusual, but the extent of
the American territory is such, the di-
versity of our soil and climate is so great
that the disasters seem to be circum'
scribed and accidental, while the pros
perIty is widespread and almost con-
slant. With landed possessions which
are obliged to bear the burdens of heavy
taxation, with wages of labor vastly
greater than in any of the countries OF
Europe, with the personal requirements
of the farmer and his family increased
by social obligations and the natural de-
mands of a free and responsible people,
we have been able to compete in the
grain markets of the world with those
who, in some instances, are furnished
with land free of rent and taxation, and
whose necessaries of life are so small
and whose duties are so few that the
former seem intolerable and the latter
seem insignificant and trivial. The skill
of the American farmer, supplied as he
is with the most ingenious and graceful
and effective machinery, has become an
object of admiration and imitation. The
well organized home of the American
farmer is considered so important and
honorable that other nations inquire
how 1t has been attained. The crops OF
the American farmer are looked upon
as 80 sure that all anxiety with regard
to the supply of food for people less IA
vOred has passed away"