The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-07-26
FARMING INTERESTS.
New JERSEYS Advantages
Making'Farms Pay.
spscsal to he Jersey Citv Neus.

excellent arJlCle Irom Lne pen Ol IrSei-
dent Edward Burrough on the subject of
farming interests in New Jersey.
New Jersey has many advantages, and
the energy of her farmers, the yield of
her crops, the quality of her productions
and value of her lands are the envy of her
SISTER States, Notwithstanding III innu-
endoes so freely lavished upon her
A farmer In New jersey to BIZ prosper
Gus must give close attention co the de-
tails of his business. He must be ever
on the alert of new systems n new
products. He should go slow until salts
fed that he is in the right track n then
push vigorously forward. He must be
continually educating himself on new
ideas and methods. He should be will
ing to attend his County Board institute
and take part in the proceedings. He
should be perfectly free to give mis- ex-
periences and successes and failures.
The County Boards are institutes and
should be used and improved. Institutes
have been i~naugurated by the County
Boards in several counties. with satisfac-
tory results.
The people of New Jersey possess
many advantages aud enjoy more of the
comforts and social blessings Of life than
are to be found among the farming COM
munlty Of many of our sister States.
Perhaps the most damaging result to
lltC tlG1oO vi ~ w OOAoCJ 010 OAp AN'b
ern States is that resulting from the
dressed beef industry of Chicago ana
Kansas City. This giant monopoly is like
an octopus, whose strong arms have
reached every city, village n hamlet in
the country, and crushed in its enormous
clasp the fattening of animals in every
section of the State. If q dairyman has
an animal hat is Improbable for the
dairy, he cannot afford to fatten it, be-
cause he has 40 market for it, and the
expense of feeding it would far exceed
the price he could obtain for it; the con-
sequence is, he sells his dry COWS TO a
bologna butcher, for a mere nominal sum,
who too often places the fieshy parts upon
stalls, and they become the food of the
poorer classes. and most frequently at
prices that would entitle them TO meat of
q far better quality. The same influences
that prevent the fattening of dairy All
mails also drive out the fatted steer; and
sheep and hog feeding are alike strangled
by the octopus, dressed beef. The
remedy for this lies in legislation,
either by Congress or by the States,
or both, and the sooner our law.
makers awake to this fact the better.
The dairy interest is today the largest
interest, agriculturally speaking, i'll the
Safe, and yet the receipts for milk sold
by the wholesale producer do not make
milk dairying a profitable business. This
Is partially II not wholly owing TO the
producers themselves not having a busi-
ness and systematic mode of marketing
the same. The farmer finds the land,
purchases the cows, produces or buys the
feed, does the caretaking and the milk
ing, owns the cans, carts the milk TO the
depot n prepays the freight, and for all
of this he receives scarcely half the price
paid by the consumer. One-half of this
solid price Is retained by the retailer,
who also buvs the milk by dry measure
and sells it by liquid measure. This sys-
lem or lack Of system will continue so
long as the milk PRODUCERS quietly sub
NIT to be fieeeed Of over fifty per cent of
the price their milk sells for In the MARI
kets Of the country. The milk produced
in Sussex, Somerset, Bergen and other
contributing sections Of our State, is ad-
misSsd to he OF 8 superior quality, and is
readily disposed of, while that from Sa-
lem, Gloucester. CaplHen, Burlington and
other counties, that contribute to Phila-
delphfa's supply. is far superior to Penn
sylvania dRifies, and finds a reader
sale. Clearly then the remedy lies
with the producers. They should unite
and form milk supply unions similar
TO those successfully operated in New
York State.
The subject of taxation is one that
should engage serious attention. Houses
and farms pay too large a proportion of
the taxes. The taxation of corporations
for the support of the State governments
is the correct form of raising a revenue
for the State. 1t is but Justice to the cor
porationS to say that the revenue de-
rived from them is sufficient not only to
maintain the State governments, but also
TO increase the State appropriation to the
school fund. if our Legislature would
stop making such extravaganza appropri-
atoms for all conceivable purposes; and
even the agricultural heading there
are some allowances which, if diverted
into other channels, would be of far
greater service. All excuses should be
avoided. If such a course be pursued the
revenue is (or ought to be- sufficient to
prevent the people of this State from be-
ing taxed for State purposes, except for
the support of bhe public schools. Nor is
the subject of local taxation to be over
looked. 1t is an undeniable fact that
real estate has to bear the burden of tax
alton; 1t cannot be put in a grip sack and
carried from place to place. There is
much injustice in taxing real estate be-
tween city and town lots and farm land
held for speculative purposes and agri-
cultural lands. Today the greater part
of the agricultural lands are assessed at
as much per acre as they will bring at
public sale, and the valuations cannot be
lessened because of the mortgage in
d~ebtedness; and the personal taxes Of
farms are always collected. On the other
hand the valuations in the cities are too
low aud consequently q high rate of
assessment is resorted to to meet the
requirements of the municipal govern
ment.