Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-02-21
WHAT THE FARMERS GET.
NOTHING BUT CHEAPER LAND AND
LARGER MORTGAGES.

How the Price of Butter, Cheese and
Milk Has Declined-The Lookout for
the Farmer Under the Present Tariff
Tax on Salt and Timed Plate.
Protection is extolled by the high tariff
party for it's benefits to the farmer. If
the farmer and his assistants obtain no
benefit from protection, then the whole
theory falls to the ground, because the
farming interest is by far the largest in
the country.
Among the most important growing
Industries of the country is dairy farm
ing. With continually increasing de-
mand for its products, it would be natu-
raj to suppose, if not an increase in
prices, at least not a decline. Yet fig
ures show the contrary.
Between 1880 and 1888 the average
price of New York state butter was
80 cents pound. Since 1884 the price
has never exceeded 80 cents, and is at
present about % cents. The average
price of New York state factory cheese
for some years previous to 1882 was II
cents a pound. In 1889 the price was
from to 81 cents, with no prospects of
improvement.
This means round reduction of IS
per cent. in the price of dairy produce.
Judging by the example of wheat and
other export farming products, this re-
duction has come to stay.
A decline in the price of milk preceded
the fall in the average price of butter
and cheese. In 1872 the average price
paid for milk at the Wassaic condensed
milk factory in the state of New York
quart. In 1880 the price per quart of
milk at the same factory had fallen to
two and nine-tenths cents. Since 1880
the average price has not risen above this
figure, although in 1885 it was as low as
two and eight-tenths cents per quart.
AS the price for dairy products has
declined, the value of the land from
which they are produced has lessened.
The United States agricultural report
for 1886, made up by Mr.. Dodge, a con-
spicuous high protection man, declared
that farm lands in the state of New York
had deprecated one-third in value dur
ing the preceding ten years, and, more
over, that 80 per cent of the farms in
the same state were mortgaged to two
thirds their estimated valuation. Mr..
Wood, who is one of the state assessors
for the present year, bears testimony,
through the columns of the New York
Tribune, that the depreciation in the
value of the farms of New York state is
still going on. Farming property"
says Mr.. Wood, sis growing less and
less valuable. I cannot see any way for
it to improve, and in few years you
will see more tenement farmers than
anything else. don't see how those in
surance companies that have advanced
money will ever get out whole"
In Vermont the decline in the farming
industry has advanced a step further.
The New York Tribune had an article on
this subject August II, 1889, in which
was said, among other things: 'Good
lands are offered for sale as low as So an
acre, and it is said that it will be necessary
to make SIS an acre the maximum price
for settlers if the new Vermont boomers
expect to compete with western lands.
1t may serve as vivid notion of the ex-
tent to which the depopulating process
has gone on to say that no difficulty was
farms in one locality to furnish contigu-
GUS farms for the first proposed colony
of fifty families. In fact, four such To-
calities were found.''
1t seems then admitted that steady
deterioration of farm values is going on
in the eastern states. Cheap transporta-
ton has undoubtedly much to do with
this result. 1t matters little that Yer
mont is nine times nearer the port of
New York than Iowa. The difference in
freight charges is so small as not to
count. The western lands have two adj
vantages which last them for the first
few years after settlement. One is the
relative cheapness of land, and the other
is the virgin richness of soil unex-
hausted by overcropping.
But in both these respects time is tend
ing to equalize the values of farms in the
eastern and western states. There is nc
reason to believe that western farmers
will be more provident in their treat
ment of virgin soil than they have been
hitherto. Farming land in the state OF
Illinois is no cheaper than equally good
| farms in Vermont.
Many years ago the state of New York
ranked first in the quantity of wheat
grown and exported. With the fall Of
this cereal below 81 a bushel came the
end of the wheat growing on a large
scale. TWAS no longer profitable to grow
wheat in New York. Then the farmers
turned their energies to dairy farming
and this industry grew and thrived unit
the decline of prices to their present
level Meanwhile, western states were
finding out that the competition of states
| still further west was rendering the
wheat crop an improbable one for them
and SO took, like New York, to dairy
| farming.
How far this step has been successful
| N Illinois may be inferred from the re
| port of the bureau of labor statistics o.
Illinois made in 1887 on the subject Of
land mortgages.
In this report it is shown that while
the aggregate of all mortgages outside O
Cook county increased in amount onl.
81 per cent. between the years 1870 ant
1880, since 1880 the increase in amour
has been 81 per cent. Between 1880 alt
1887 the number of mortgages increased
from 8O,759 to 90,3e9, while the aggre
gate amount of these mortgages increase'
from S1O3, 525 1887 to S123, 1888, 09S. TAX
ing twenty two distinctiyely dairy coun
ties, in the seven years beginning witt
1880, fourteen of these show an increas
in the percentage of acres mortgaged
while sixteen show an increase in tn
average incumbrance psr acre.
This does not look much like prosper
ity, and it does not seem as if the farme
in Illinois was much better off than tn
farmer in New York. Both are appal
entity in a pretty tight fix. Neither 0
them can get any higher prices for hi
goods than what the competition Of othe
nations at Liverpool fixes them at. I
there was not enough butter and chees
to go around in this country, then tn
dairy farmer might obtain the benefit Q
the tariff which would keep the dair
prod,,otc of o,,tcido potionc from rom