The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-04-21

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ness and prosperity and to the life of
the republics seriously threatened
with destruction. No one of these ele-
ments can dominate another with
safety. Even the authority and power
of civil government can not do 1t.
Rome had this under a republic for
hundreds of years. Commerce can
not do it. Carthage and Tyre had this.
Intellectual culture and development
can not do it. Greece stood proudly
pre-eminent in all this. The elective
franchise can not do it. All the re-
publics which have fOurished and per
ished had this. Concentrated wealth
with all it's power can not do it. When
the splendOr of the Roman republic
faded into night, eighteen hundred of
her citizens owned the then known
world. When Egyptian civilization
persisted from the earth, three per cent.
of her people owned ninety-six per
cent. of her wealth, and to-day the
once fruitful fields of the orient are
given over to the wild wanderer of the
plain, and the splendors of its civiIiza-
ton lie buried beneath the drifting
sands of the desert.
Will we, as a people, profit by the
lesson of the paste How stand we to-
day? To the student of Industrial
progress and economic development,
an anomalous condition of affairs is
presented. The rapid expansion of our
railway system, stretching 100, 900
miles all over our land and furnishing
transportation equal to the demands
of III productive power-the success
full development Of manufacturing en-
terprise in all it's varied departments =
the magical growth of villages, towns
and cities, the grand rumbling of
trains, the inspiring scream of whistles,
the ringing Clatter of hammer and
trowel, the musical hum and swelling
din of workshops and factories, the
mighty rushing tramp of u busy
millions, the tinkling ring of hammer
and anvil-al join to swell the grand
chorus of the worlds happy song of in
dustrial progress, and yet agriculture,
1.-The art of all arts, the science of all
sciences, the life of all life, is languish-
ing, dropping, dying. Instead of the
happy, cheerful song of plenty, con-
tentmenU and peace, which should
bless the home of the American farmer,
we hear the dismal and universal wall
of hard times all over the land.
Let us investigate, briefly, the stu
alton and see if we may find the cause
of this unnatural and dangerous con-
dition of affairs.
In 1850 our farmers owned over 70
per cent. of the wealth Of the country;
in 1860, about so per cent. in 1880
about 50 per cent, and to-day they
own less than 25 per cent, and yet
they pay over so cents in every dollar
that is collected in taxes.
From 1850 to 1860 farm values in
creased 1O1 per cent.
From 1860 to 1870 farm values in
creased 43 per cent.
From 1870 to 1880 farm values in
creased only 9 per cent.
Notwithstanding this alarming de-
cline in farm values, the aggregate
wealth of the country increased 45 per
cent. from 1870 to 1880, and the agri-
cultural population increased over 80.
per cent.
From 1850 to 1860, agriculture led
manufacturing 10 per cent. in increased
value of products; from 1870 to 1880,
manufacture led agriculture 81 per
cent, showing a difference in favor of
manufacturing of 81 per cent.
The value of the ten leading staple
crops of the country in 1866 was
50, OO7, 1862, 231. The value of the same
crops in 1864, eighteen years later,
50, DAB, 500, 481. During this time the
cultivated acreage had nearly doubled,
the farm hands had doubled, and agri-
cultural implements and machinery
had vastly improved, and yet the crops
of 1884 sold for only 2 per cent. more
than the same crops of 1866.
The average value per acre in yield
of all our crops in 1867 was $19, and in
1887, twenty years later, the average
value was about SO.
WHEAT.
186Oto 1870, average price per bushel,
$1.99
1880 to 1887, average price per bushel,
$1.O7.
CORN.
186OtO 1870, average price per bushel,
96 cents.
1880 to 1887, average price per bushel,