The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-22
WHY FARMERS ARE POOR
LACK OF DIVERSITY IN CROPS ONE
OF THE CAUSES.

Production Has Far Outstripped Pop
ulation and Consumption-Impo
ton Yearly of $24o, ,ooo, 600 Worth
OF Products that Should be Raised
at Home-Too Mi-ch Goes to Middle
men.
WASHINGTON, March 21,-American agri-
culture is treated by Statistician J. K.
Dodge in the March report OF the depart
ment Of agriculture. The prevalence OF
low prices is noted, and feeling Of dis
couragement in rural circles throughout
the world is indicated. 1t is and has been
especially severe in Great Britain, and Is
subject Of complaint, discussion and
official investigation in Germany,
France, Itsly, and other coun-
tries. 1t is present in monnrchiss.
and republics under diverse curreucies and
economic systems. Though the prices Of
implements, utensils and fabrics are also
low, the farmers interest account is unre-
duced and his mortgage harder to lift. The
main cause of low prices is referred to tho
inexorible laws Of supply and demand.
Corn, wheat and other staples are cheap be-
cause of overproduction immigration has
increased the population 100000 in ten
years.
PRODUCTION oUTsTRIPs POPULATION.
Inter-continental areas have been carved
into farms, free TO natives and Foreigners.
opening millions of acres to cultivation.
Railroad extension has stimulated produce
tioa and overwhelmed the east with VESTS
ern products. Speculation first and utili-
cation afterward have produced results
that have astonished the world with ple-
thora of bread and meat. The old world
has joined with tho new to crowd tho
mountains, valleys, slopes and far-stretchinC~
plains Of the continent with beeves in tho
haunts of the once countless herds of the
buffalo. In the more eastern areas the ma
turity Of beeves has been hastened bY
breeding and feeding Extended COMPARE
sons show how, IN The progress of forty
years, production has outrun population in
its widest strides. IL Is shown that wheat
growing has become a philanthrophic
mission to make cheap bread consistent
with the low wages In Great Britain
that the northwestern missionaries continue
sowing their seeds and floating bread across
the waters, mourning for profits that do
not return after many days. It is sug-
gested that loss than O fourth of the people
of the world eat wheat, that half OF the
people OF Europe scarcely know its taste,
and that Asia, Africa. South America and
Australia all have wheat to sell
roo MARROW a RANHE.
Mr.. Dodge says while there Is an excess Of
production Of few staples, there are insult
ticient supplies of many other necessary
products aud total absence Of scores of
others which should furnish profitable en-
ployment TO rural labor. There Is too mar
row range OF cropping. Di-
versiflcation is essential to agri-
cultural salvation. There are imports
costing s240, 900, 900 per annum of ngricult-
ural products which should be producai
here. These are sugar. animals and their
products, fbers, fruits and nuts, barley. leaf
tobacco and wines. Farmers are suffering
for want of hundreds Of millions of dollars
that the sweat Of brows and dexterity Of
hands might produce in raw materials" for
scores Of old and new industries. It is stated
that the cotton crop. valuable as IL Is, would
not suffice to furnish board for the people OF
the cotton states at first-class hotels for
week. A score Of other products not now
grown should enrich her agriculture and
relieve the existing depression.
SOME OF OUR FoLLIEs.
1t is argued that there should be no more
need of going to Italy or Japan for raw silk
than to Irdia for raw cotton: and as little
need OF going to Cuba for sugar. Statisti
clan Treab characterizes es folly wheat
growers insisting OH going to the Antipodes
for binder twine, while million acres Of
flax fiber is wasted in adjoining fields, and
when they could gpow hemp enough In six
months to bind the wheat of the world This
is, he says, exceeded only by the twin folly Of
the cotton growers who are wild to go TO
India for jute, when it will grow in their
cotton fields as readily as weeds. Depres-
sion more intense will result, il is predicted,
If the farmers continue to restrict their
efforts to walk in the furrows their fathers
turned, and seek to live and die in the same
overdone and profitess routine.
MIDDLE MEN GET TOO MUCH.
Another serious depression, he says, is tho
exorbitant share of farmers products taken
by middlemen and carriers. While the
growers receive 2J 20 30 per cent. less for
beeves, consumers pay the same for beef.
Milk is bought for cents a quart and sold
for 5. The huckster often takes more for
handling product in a day than the grower
received for producing a seasons growth.
The sellers's profit on fresh fruits is suggest
i've of the greed and extortion. An army
OF dealers in futures diSturbs the natural
flow OF trade, check expectation by a tenn
porary rise TO b. followed by lower prices
and greater fluctuations. Spectators de-
press prices when farmers are full, and
nothing to sell, as at present The
community is infested with pestilent
swarms of non-producers. The cursa of
speculation blights and consumes the result
OF honest industries teaches fasten on
every product Of labor and suck from it the
life blood OF profit Men who produce
nothing who neither toll nor farm nor SPIN
in factories are absorbing the wealth of the
country bv combination without conscience
and service without equity.