Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-01-17
WIN HE MAKEs NO XMAS PRESENTS.
Farming East and West.

Amost interesting papes on the present
condition of Western farming from Mr. 5.
NJ Cook is published. Mr.. Cook has re-
Gently returned from an extended tour OF
observation of the condition of the Western
farmer on lands that have been occupied
for thirty years OF more, as in Kansas and
other prairie States, and for lesser period
in the two Dakotas and Montana. He
states that Horace Greeley's advice, $50
West, young man," while it may have
been good advice in the time when given.
is no longer so, the conditions having been
so greatly changed, Twenty five or thirty
years ago good land could be bought for a
dollar and quarter an acre, and with In
dian scrip for less. Since then all the best
land has been taken up, except the tracts
held by the railroads, at from two dollars
and half to FIVE dollars and upwards, ac-
cording to location.
Anything at all desirable of wild land
will now cost the settler eight hundred
dollars for one hundred and sixty acres.
After buying the land a house of logs or
sods has to be built. Thousands put up
such houses years ago, expecting soon to
be able to build afterwards of FRAME but
they OF their children still occupy the
same, OF others like it. 81 am now speak
ing he said, "of section of the North
west settled longer than have indicated. :"
A few years ago wheat would average
twenty bushels per acre. By constant
cropping the average has been reduced to
fifteen bushels, and the farmer, by haul
ing his crop anywhere from one to twenty
miles, can get sixty-tive cents per bushel.
at sixty-five cents, corn at thirty cents, oats
at twenty cents, potatoes fifteen cents and
hay five dollars per ton, how much profit
can the farmer maker" But the land, it is
argued, must be increasing in value,
To this Mr.. Cook replies: Twill answer
by citing cases in as favorable a location
as the average of farming communities,
certainly. The section is very fertile
one. The writer sold land there fifteen
years ago for SIS per acre. Other land
alongside was sold by other parties at the
same time and mortgaged at rate of 10
per cent The purchasers after having
Struggled for dozen years in vain to lift
be bought to-day for $40 per acre: The
buyers were industrious and not Weighted
by Incorporate habits, sickness or unusual
misfortunes. Land on that prairie to-day,
wi4h considerable improvements, can be
had for what it cost the owners 90 years
ago, and there are two churches near and
school houses, in these respects far more
young mans prospects for lettering him.
self in rising values do not seem very
hattering." 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 supp4N.
1.-THE conditions are now all changed-the
many producing and comparatively few
buying for home consumption, "Riding
through the country one sees but few new
ly painted houses; he will see many, pain
ted years ago, when times were better, sad
ly in need of new coat now; churches,
generally assisted by the home missionary
Societies of different denominations, wear.
ing too often sadly dilanidated and de-
serted look, and the appearance Of the peo.:
pie, far oftener, In my experience than at
the East, indicating an absence Of hopeful
hesss for the future and a sort of logged
resignation to the inevitable. Do not for
got Fiat I am speaking of the settlers II
the timber. Many d time, entering their
dwellings, have found we'll educated
women from eastern homes and many
times have put the question, DO you like
western better than eastern life?' and the
alnlsYeer has been, T wish we we're hack
The picture Mr.. Cook gives Of farm life
among the Isolated communities ct the