St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1891-12-31
FOR THE FARM.
THE SITUATION.

At the last meeting of the Massa-
chusetts Board of Agriculture-Ex-
Gov. Hoard of Wisconsin delivered an
address in the English language
plain English, so plain, in fact, that
parts of it did not highly please some
of his farmer listeners. Gov. Hoard's
subject was THE Agricultural Situa-
ton" and the chief cause of all agri-
cultural misfortunes, he said, was
traceable to ignorance-the farmers
ignorance. AT the expense of several
hundred dollars he had secured a
1 thorough dairy census of a farming
town in New York-a town that
would average in intelligence with
any farm town of the United States.
The result of the canvass showed
$50 dairymen. keeping i'll all 5417
cows. The average cost of keeping,
per cow, in that town was $36.36-
the average earning per cow was
$31.74, or a loss per COW of $4.62.
Ofthe $50 farmers only 172 read agri-
y cultural papers, and only 20 read
dairy papers. He said:
What is true IN the dairy is just
as true in the production of beef,
pork or mutton. Thousands upon
thousands of poor scrub steers, the
product of scrub parentage, and still
scrubbier ideas OF scrubbiness, flood
the markets. From the tip of the
horn to the tip of the tail you cannot
see the faintest record Of the use of
any brains in their production.
1.-TWO years ago in Canada L saw
buyers from Boston, New York and
Philadelphia buying mutton sheep
and paying five and six cents a pound
for them and an additional cent a
pound tariff, to get them into the
very market which belongs to the
i United States farmer. At the same
time thousands of farmers were shiv-
ering over the expiring emDers of
their thoughts and pluck and declar-
ing farming don't pay
Why was it the buyer went to
Canada? Because he found there
was a set of English and Scotch far
mers who had made themselves in
telligent in feeding and handling
4 4DullOu SDOOP ~ lHd( LIN primary
object of the breeding should be car
ried out to suit the demand of the
market.
as there anything difficult in this;
anything that the mind of the Ameri-
can farmer cannot grasp? Why
should not he supply his own mar
ket with just as great success as the
Canadian farmer? What is lacking
in the American farmer? Simply the
same intelligence and energy % carry
out that intelligence, to a practical
end"
Mad or pleased, there is much solid
truth in the address, but the state
ment thatignorance is the chief cause
of agricultural depression might be
honestly questioned. The sum total
of earthly existence, it SEEMS, is the
accumulation of money, and that
army of beings, politely designated
I as middlemen, who add nothing to
the actual wealth of the world, yet
wax rich in earthly goods from the
proceeds of the farmers labor, is not
the result of farmers ignorance, but
belongs to that kind of can't-he lp-
yourself state of affairs. However
that may be, the world is striding
along, and it is evident the general
farmer has not kept pace. What
was the cunningest purse for a
farmer to pursue twenty-five wears
ago might be the worst thing for
him to do now. But it "a be safely
said that the farmers who get there
now, are possessed of the same essen
tial characteristics of successful far
mers in the past-life, brains and the
ability to twist themselves into the
shape that changing circumstances
demand.