St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-09
CHEER FOR FARMERS.
Better Days Anticipated In the
Use of Improved Ways.

Better Days Anticipated In the
Use of Improved Ways.
From 1850 to 1862 agriculture was
greatly depressed, writes Prof. |. p.
Roberts, director of the agricultural sta
ton at Cornell university. Ithaca, N. Y.
For brief periods the clouds lifted only
to settle down into greater gloom. Onr
inherited, unreStrained desire for
land resulted in destroying the forests
on millions of acres of steep hillside
and sandy plain, which contained
but little fertility and which could give
renumerative returns at best for brief
period only. The cities were small and
few; the wants of the consumers were
simple and easily satisfied; the pro-
ducers were many, the home markets
were glutted, and the foreign markets
distant and expensive to reach, freight
charges exceeding the price of the prod
ucts at the farm. Corn and oats in Hit
nsis aud Iowa in some of these years
could with difficulty find a market at
from 10 to IL cents per busheI; pork,
cattle, butter, sheep and wool were cor
respondingIy low. Wildcat money ana
bad banking laws in many Of the states
i'll which they had little confidence and
which could be used outside of the state
in which it was issued only at a
ruinous discount. The government
was borrowing money at IL per cent and
individuals at 20 to % per cent. Wages
were low: carpenters and InasOns re-
ceived from $3.50 to S1.75, farm hands
Except in harvest so cents to rs cents
per day and board. With all these diff
cultieS and mistakes, and many others
which come to new country whose
people are largely occupied in produc-
ing crude and uncOncentrated products.
came the greatest one of all, that of
clearing and improving, at vast eX-
penSe of energy, large tracks of land
which could only be cultivated at loss.
At least one-fourth of al the cleared
land east of Cleveland, o., and one
eighth of all west of the Mississippi
should never have been improved.
Left in timber, an annual harvest could
have been secured by cutting such trees,
and such only, as were mature, and
large profits realized from this land
which has not yielded dollar ct clear
profit since the last sawlog and tie last
c3rd of wood were removed.
The hardy, courageous pioneer pushed
westward. but always with an ak in one
hand and frebrand in the other; the
Southern slave formed the left wing of
this vast host, armed with the same
weapons of destruction. If the North
ern farm boy desired more knowledge
than he could secure at the school house
on the four corners, he purchased a He
brew dictionary and started for college,
and never suspected or saw the rape that
was being committed on mother
earth. Tie Southern boy purchased a
Latin dictionary and started north to Sc
cure his NJ. A., not dreaming that mill
ions OF value lay rott:ng and wasting i'm
the neglected cottonseed behind the old
ginhoIse. Had we not possessed coun-
try fa:rer and richer than any other the
sun ever shown upon, the result of our
was.eful methods would have been
apparent long before they we're.
During 1892 the country began to
realize that there was to be long and
eXhaustiGg war. Large numbers of
producers were constantly being con-
verted into consumers. Prices rose. IN
yentive genius saw its opportunity
The farmer found that he had two cuI-
tivators and only one man TO use
them. Witra few bolts and bars he
united them. and the productive
power of the corn grower was
more than doubled. The hand
corn planter was discarded, the two
horse planter substituted, and efficiency