The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-09-30
FROM ABANDONED FARMS.
Some of the Thoughts that Came to a
Man Who Occupies Two Of Them.

Mar Who Occupies Two of Them.
l have lived on a farm all my life,
and now occupy two abandoned farms
which adjoin my own. Their former
owners got into debt and the farms
were sold at sherif's sale, and are now
owned oy men who are able to live
without working a farm. remember
the hard times of the "ffties" before
the war, and also the good times just
after that "unpleasantness," when
money was abundant and all the pro
ducts of labor brought good prices.
All kinds of business were brisk and
all classes seemed to be prospecting, in
spite of the fact that we were them
paying a large war debt. IOh, we are
paying it still, and our taxes are just
as heavy now as they were when the
debt was more than twice as large
Ed. The public officers, apparently
jealous of the prosperity of the people,
had their own salaries doubled, and
these have generally remained un
changed to the present day, while the
prices of the products of labor have
been reduced n half, and in many
cases more than that.
We were told that the prices of
those days we're Fictitious" on &C
count of the prevalent "infation,"
and that we must come down to a
"gold basis" and of course the way
to "come down" was by contraction,
and the way we have come down has
been fun for the bondholder, but
death to the farmer. Although in
figures we have already paid more
than one-half of the national debt, it
will take more of the products oflabor
to pay the remainder than it would
have done before a cent had been
paid. This is not an accidental con
dition; it is a premeditated scheme to
rob labor of its just dues. We all
ought to know that scarcity of any
necessary or desirable thing makes it
high in price, and money is no excep
ton to the rule; but money being the
measure of value, the ordinary mind
fails to grasp the idea that money can
be high in price.
But many a farmer knows to his
sorrow that it takes double the amount
ofSSproduee to get a dollar that it did
twenty-five years ago, and hence they
have tried every e to increase
their crops only to make the matter
worse by helping to bring down
prices. One correspondent of the
RurGl mentioned laziness as one of the
causes of the existence of so many
abandoned farms, but human nature
is just the same to day as it was
twenty-five years ago, and young men
are just as eager to own a farm and
home of Their W. as ever; but they
have seen too many caught in the
agricultural trap to feel like trying it
themselves. They have seen men
grow old and gray in useless toll try
ing to pay for a home, and after they
have made improvements, and in part
paid for it, it has p~erforce of hard
times been sold out, only to help en-
rich the money shark and to add one
more to the list of abandoned farms.
The farmer lsbors under too many
disadvantages. Let me mention a
few. If he waters his milk, he is-a
fit candidate for the State prison, and
a sojourn there would serve him right;
but the railroad man waters his stock
for the same purpose Ito get something
for nothing(, and he Is a fit candidate
for the United States Senate. The
farmer issues his promise to pay and
pays the interest on it. The banks
issue their promises to pay and get
interest on them. Real estate paws
an outrageously large disproportion of
all State taxation. If the farmer is
in debt on his farm he is taxed for
the full amount, while the man who
holds the mortgage often gets off scot
free.
Again, our tariff system on the nec-
essaries Of life causes the poor man to
pay as much Of the tax as the rich
man, and causes millions to accumu-
late in the United States Treasury,
and these r lent to the banks free
of interest. Farms that were bought
twenty-five years ago at $40 per acre
will not sell at the present time for
$40. But United States bonds were
bought at forty cents on the dollar,
and were then refunded IN such a
way that they are now worth Sl.28.
The cause of all this is that we have
voted for money sharks and corpora
ton lawyers to make our laws, and
they have made them in their own in
terest and those of their clients.
Now, if these conditions continue to
! exist it is only a question of time