Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1889-02-09
A GOOD MOVEMENT.

now Is, HOW TO IMPROVE THE COUN-
TRY ROAD SYSTEM! The only sue
cessful plan found anywhere is PIX
ING,-asystem us old as civilization;
but people in this age. with their OPP
position to all kinds of restrictions,
have no good feeling for toll-gates,
and they have been resisted in some
States and abolished in others.
Railroads, towrs aud cities, have
revolutionized things in the country
in the last fifty years and competi-
ton with cheap productions OF West
ern lands, railroad discrimination in
rates that make it as cheap to ship
bushel of wheat from Chicago to
Baltimore as from New York or in.
termediate points not fifty miles
away, have made farming anything
but paying business of late years.
The Philadelphia Record has an
account of the meeting of the lead
ing agriculturists of York Co., one Of
the richest next to Lancaster Co..
wheat producing sections in that
State. The unanimous opinion was
that a serious agricultural depression
exists,-that land has deprecated in
price one.third in the last ten years,
and that it is worth less now than it
was thirty years ago, notwithstand-
ing the improved methods and more
intelligent farming now produce two
bushels of wheat where then one
was raised. The causes are Western
competition, railroad discrimination,
the tendency to habits of city life
and the desire to invest in stocks,
bonds, and anything speculative;
while at the same time these invest.
ments are not taxed one.haif what
the farm products and occupations
are, and have no high-rate mort.
cages and interest to contend with
as many farmers have. In the east.
ern States farmers have turned their
attention to tobacco, which paid a
few years and then failed also to
stock-raising, where again the West.
ern grazers could compete with them
in quality and price by refrigerator
shipments thousand miles at the
same cost that Pennsylvania could
drive his stock ten miles to market.
Farmers have also tried truck rails.
ing,-small fruits, vegetables, &C.,
but the immediate sections around
every town and city are being turn
ed into gardens and vegetable
patches and diaries leaving the ship
per at distance DO show of compe.
tition. Breeding fine horses has al.
so been tried, but it takes too much
money and experience for the aver.
age farmer. Raising corn and rye
once paying crops, has been so cheap,
ened by the great western prairie
farms that the eastern farmer can
buy chop and brand cheaper from
the West than raise it himself to feed
his cattle.
If owners of good farms admit all
this, the reader can judge how it is
with the poor tenant on the shares
or the high renter at cash rem
tal,-now the general rule.
These conditions do not exactly
apply to this portion of the country,
yet in measure they do.
Land here is cheaper and farms hot
as close together as in the Susque.
hanna region where farms of 100 to
$50 acres lie one against another with
very little waste land, and the price
ranging from 300 to $3.50 an acre.
That is one reason why so many
eastern men settle in the West or
South, where they find they
can buy two hundred acres for the
same money fifty would cost them at
home. This is true, too, but then the
Improvements are not as substantial
and the state of cultivation not near
as high.
Our farmers are confronted with
the same vexatious questions
as their richer northern brothers.
The disadvantages are the same
here, and few will say that farming
pays.
High taxes, low prices of cattle
and grain, railroad discrimination,
phosphate bills, and judgments,
make the best farmers save the pen.
MES to see that the dollars.hold out.
There is another drawback here,
and that is bad roads in winter.
Many farmers sell their grain for
two or three cents a bushel less rath-
er than haul it to better market.
There is movement on foot now,
with its origin in the grange,To PIKE
EVERY LEADING ROAD IN BERKE-
LEY Co.
AT first thought some may deem it
impracticable and impossible. 1t
can be done and pay the county in
the end. The taxes levied now to
keep up at best a defective road sys-
tenn in the county are about $4,000.
Stone are plentiful and can be had
for the hauling. The labor is here.
If the proper steps were taken to
have the county issue per cent.
bonds for hundred thousand dol |
lars, the interest would not be one
half what is now required to keep
up the roads, and with that the
main roads in the county could be |
piked from one line to the other.
Discussion is first wanted, then
active cooperation and the work
will be done.
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Is consumpfion IncurahIn7