Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1890-12-19


mast. and probable future. ut our
agriculture. which invites remark,
81 far a. the former Is cOncerne'l III
,iudicatiou uf period ot which
tunlp-s ther. l. an error of types
he draws, a. ii seems To us, very
mistaken picture. He says:
From 1850 II lSb@ agriculture
Was greatly depressed; fer briel
rnvinds the clouds lifted, Out "hiN
10 .attle down into greater gloom,
etc, etc.
In point of tact the period above
specified was one of our vrei'es'
agricultural progress aud develop
ment, not only in the occurrence-
of the time but alsn I'm the restilis to
which 1t subsequently gave birth.
Much of what Prof. Roberts say> oi
these years would apply TO the pre-
ceding decade, and perhaps was 8"
intended. The commercial coltal>,
of 1857, which involved every indus
try In the country, was sereiy fell
by farmers, snd their recovery from
Its effect was slow. During IN.
forlies prices were greatly depresse-,
and, indeed. up To that time we can
hardly be said To have hat any
agriculture at all beyond the small
farming that supplied its own homr
market, aud the fertile fields of
Western New York which were
sending their surplus to the ltrger
se..board cities.
But in 1850 changes previously
inaugurAted were giing OIL with
accelerated rapidity. Railroads were
extending their RESOURCES of trans
portation over areas vastly enlarged,
and states ike Ohio. Michigan aud
Illinois were showing more and
more what their virgin soils were
worth. The resping and moving
machines had been Invented, but
were slow of introduction until the
Worlds Fair at London in 1871,
where they excited degree of at
ten,iOn which reacted al home, and
soon began To scatter them broad
cast over t.e United States. Other
agricultural machinery was much
improved and more widely brought
into use. Then came the Crimean
war 1886, which carried prices Of
our agricultural products higher
than they have often been known
in cur history, before or since.
And it was also about 1850 that
men of discrimination and wealth
who felt the needs and fsresaw the
possibilities of our agriculture, be-
gan to enter more largely into the
importation of improved breeds of
domestic animals. There had been
Short Horn and other importatinns
IN the thirties and fOrtles, but the
enthusiasm tnr "boom,' as we
should now call III had died away,
and at best they were but limited la
number and in The localities in
which they were distributed. We
aeed no. recur in detail To tine many
importations of the fifties. One
iliusir ration Of their effect is seen In |
the fact that while the first volume |
of the American Short Horn Herd !
Book, slender in its d m nsions,
vas published ih 1916, the second |
was not called for until 1861, when
others very largely Increased in ze |
followed as suon as 1857, 1883 and !
1851.
II Is rue that the prices Occasi0ned |
by the war in iiie Crimea fell of in |
subsequent years, but We had ac
quired hold on EupOpean markets
which, though varying at timer, has
never since been seriously threat
ened. And a. the political excite
ment which preceded the war for
secession, and the general uncer-
tainty which accompanied its out
break, affected other pursuits, so tn
u greater or less extent they affected
our agriculture. But this sense of
weakness and fear was almost Im- I
medlateiy supplen .nted by the re-
inf,rciny strength of farm niachiu-
cry which had been constantly imi-
proving from $50 On, and by the aid
of which the loss of the men who
went to the front was hardly felt by
tile producers who staid at home;
and our E"glish friends-much To
the disappointment of some Of them
-fou nd American breadstufs in
constantly increasing quanliti
crow,iing the London and Liverpool
exchanges.
Some other things may be noted
of the greatly depressed" period Of
which we are writing. A quiet
dairyman in Central New York was
gradually working out the system of
cheese. making In factories, Swhich,
with its subsequent outgrowth, has
this branch of agrl-
culture AT the West aud in Canada,
as we'll as through this state aud
New England. 1t WAS during this