The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-05-28
PROFITS In FARMING.
DEMAGoGlc PERFORMERS" MUST
CHANGE THEIR TUNE.

Profits Compare with the Easterrs
Tradesman and Mechanio-Protection
Helps Agriculture.
Western farmers are getting tired OF
playing the part of 'horrible example,
in the "reformer's" stump speeches
Youthful eastern demagogucs, who onevcr
saw western farm, are dashing off
awful descriptions of the miseries in
ficted by the tariff upon the west, while
the farmers themselves are producing
facts and figures to show that they can
get along very well without any of the
"reformers" sympathy. Anything can
be overdone, and western farming has
been no exception. The Des MoineS
News says:
"The price Of Iowa lands is advancing
The long stagnation of sales and depre-
citation of values has given place TO an
active demand for lands and substantial
advance in values. Lands about Nor
walk, in Warren county, are now selling
from fifty to sixty dollars per acre. Some
Ohio parties have recently refused cS1 so
per acre for wild eighty in Buchanar
county. Sixteen dollars per acre have
recently been refused for wild lands ifs
Dallas county. Substantial advances are
also reported from southwestern Iowa
The advance will average five dollars
per acre for the state. There is no
county in the state where the staguant
and deprecated land market is not tax
ing on an active tone with better prices.~
Mr.. j. f. Moats, q practical farmer Of
Montgomery county, Kan, shows that
farming in that state is as profitable as
any other business i'll the country. He
gives u detailed statement of the cost OF
raising forty acres of corn, calculates
the amount realized, and shows that the
farmers profit Oh the capital invested is
no less than % per cent. Here are his
figures: Rent, 500; plowing, so; har-
, rowing, $10 seed, So; planting, $40; cu1-
tivating, SAC; husking, $40; shelling.
$12.40; marketing, $40; total cost Of PRO-
ducing, $302.40. Yield, 40 bushels to the
acre; price % cents per bushel--$aJ2
TO this is added so cents per acre for the
stock pasture, which brings the receipts
up to S372, and leaves him net profit
of $6960
But these figures do not include ncar,y
all the income OF an average farmer
! OFF this forty acres there are sold IN Tie
meantime butter and eggs to the value,
of perhaps 500, besides poultry and
probably orchard and garden products
to a considerable amount.
When the income and expense of the
eastern mechanic or tradesman, with Tie
same amount of capital, are compared
with these figures, the h9llowness of the
"reformer's'' croakings becomes even
more apparent. Practically all the farm
er's income is net profit. The mechanics
or tradesmans profits do not appear till
the years house rent and a hundred
| other family expenses for comforts en-
| joyed by the farmer without expense,
are deducted from his income. When
! the farmer wants to attend a funefe!-
for instance, he bitches his own horses.
on to his own carriage and goes. The
| other pays ten dollars for a carriage.
| Potatoes, meat, green vegetables, fruit.
eggs, butter, bread and numberless ar
ticles of food must be purchased ut &c
good round price by the dweller ia the
city, and the purchase money deducted
from his income, before proper basis,
is reached for comparison between his
and the farmers profits. These facts are
always carefully concealed by the .'re-
former" "For the past twenty years, ;"
writes Mr.. Meats, 81 have carefully
kept an account of my business and OF
all its details. l began with very little.
and whatever l have accumulated is the
result of Iowa farming. have kept my
ledger and cash book, and each year has
shown goodly increase, either in the
value of my plant or my cash account"
1t is safe to assert that no protected
robber'' in the whole country can say as
much of his business. The progress ana
| increase of wealth in the western states
| belle the assertion that tariff legislation
has been prejudicial to western agricult-
ure and in favor of the manufacturing
states.