Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-13
FARMERS HARD LUCK.
Allegheny County Agriculturists
Making No Money This Year.
Hay COSTS MORE THAN 1T is WORTH
City Sportsmeu and Their Dogs Harry the
Cattle and Sheep.
Hay COSTS MORE THAN IT'S WORT
POTATOES ROTTING In THE GROUND

There seems to be no balm in Gilead for
Allegheny county farmers this wear. Truck
farmers declare that there was no money in
it for them, and other kinds are In worse
shape. They have no fruit, and some didu't
even have gumption enough to plant pump
kins, and so supply the deficiency in part.
Corn and oats are almost failures, and
raisers have been glad to get the cost of
work out of the crop without any other con-
sideration, and many of them did not get
that.
Milk producers say they can barely make
ends meet when thev get 10 cents n gallon
and pay 2 cents freight. Several say the
only profit they have had the past year was
the improvement of their farms in fertility
in consequence of feeding the product on
the ground. There is money in potatoes
sometimes, but this year the yield is small,
and it looks as though the crop will not be
harvested The fields are mudholes, and
the tubers taken out when the ground is in
that condition are in bad shape.
CAN'T STOP THE MACHINE.
Th1t old Philadelphia patriarch, who, in
the latter part of 1888, prophesied two years
rain, seems unable to put the cork in again
after getting the machine started. Some farm
ers are talking of leaving their potatoes in the
ground until spring. thinking they viii get the
fruit in better shape then. Hay was the only crop
that was success. and at present price paid will
not cover cost of bringing it to market. The best
baled hay is quoted at SO a ton. Loose is worth
from 81 to IS a ton moro, but il will not pay to
transport it by wagon at that price, as the roads
are SO nearly impossible that navigation on
them is exceedingly perilous. Farmers living
Of a railroad are having their hay baled, and
here is the approximate cost of
and il should be borne in mind that it is ali the
average Allegheny county farmer has to sell
this year. A ton and a half of hay to the acre
is good average crop in this county, and al
lowing that yield, the cost account stands in
an acres produce as follows:
Interest on cost of land. St: fertilizer at least
s.; cutting, curing and stacking. 81 l211; baling,
IS; feed for four horses belonging to baler, so
cents. cents ton: assistance furnished by hay
owner three men. 81 50 per day and davis work
eight tons, Sc cents: board of balers, IS cents;
freight. 81 50; sellers commission, 10 cents:
total. Sl4 81.
This leaves the farmer SO cents margin for
hauling 5000 pounds of hay TO the railway sta
tion. for he must ship 1t this way if he hopes to
come out even, as he cannot get 4 ton hauled
over the Southsde roads eight miles for less
than s.. four horses being required to do 1t.
THE FARMERS ARE PUZZLED.
If his hay be up to the standard he will get
SIS Tor the produce of an acre, and what the
farmer would like to find is an srithmetician
who can figure cost of production of the crop
out OF present prices. This state of affairs eI-
plains why hay stacks at present as thick
in Western Pennsylvania as stars in the firma-
merit.
Judge Fetterman talked of buying
flock of sheep to eat his hay
so that thereby he would keep his farm fertile,
but shooters and their dogs are so much of a
nuisance at present that it is doubtful whether
Is fhriy
who have tried feeding CO tito say that all there
is in il is the improved fertilization of their
land.
1t goes without saving, that there must be a
change of some kind ere long, OF Allegheny
county fields will be allowed to grow second
growth forests as worn-out Virginia tobacco
lands have done and there seems to be a field
for the exercise of both craftsmanship and
agricultural chemistry.