The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-08-28
A TALK WITH THE FARMERS.

Miller on Friday and Saturday threshed
out 513 bushels of oats on the farm of
F. c. Collision, the product of twenty
one bushels of sowing. They are said to
be of excellent quality" This is a fine
yield, and tends to dissipate the popular
fallacy that there are no fat streaks in
agriculture. Oats are quoted at fifty
two cents per bushel. A simple arith-
metical calculation shows that the seed
was worth $10.92, and the crop will
bring $266.76, leaving difference of
$255.S4. We think 1854 would be a
very generous allowance for labor, use
of land and other expense, which would
leave clear profit of 5000 on the crop.
What Mr.. Collision can do many other
farmers may accomplish, approximately
at least He has discovered that Guilt
waiting oats pays better than reading
Farmers Alliance manifestoes, which
try to prove that agricultural interests
are going headlong to destruction.
A strikingly intelligent if somewhat
misguided farmer of Saratoga county re-
Gently made melancholy exhibition of
the agricultural situation. He said in
substance: 81 tell you times are hard
with the farmers, but they are good in
the cities. Legislation is all in the in
terest of capital and mechanics, and
against the farmers. Why, there isn't a
farm in Saratoga county to-day that
would pay as business investment. If
the owner had to hire all his work done,
he couldn't make a dollar, and would
probably lose money. Farmers have to
work hard to hold their own. Why, my
brother and myself work hard early and
late, and at the end of the year only have
two or three hundred dollars to show for
it-not half what we would make in any
other business. A man with farm
worth $4,000 must work hard to make
it pay, while person who has $4,000 in
cash can live like nabob on his income.
And the times are growing worse.
Something must be done, or there will
be trouble in this country. The farmers
wont stand this sort of thing much
longer" AS an offset to this, we will
cite a Washington county farmer who
says he cleared $1,000 off his farm last
year, besides all expenses. He worked
himself, to be sure; but he was we'll paid
for his labor.
The average farmer knows aigreat deal
more about the struggle for livelihood
in the country than in the city, and is
apt to underestimate his own advan-
tages and greatly exaggerate those of his
envied urban brother. The farmer must
labor hard to win success, and as a rule
his farm will not pay unless he works
himself. But does he imagine for a
moment that enterprises in the city run
themselves and turn out profits for their
owners? The merchant works as many
hours as the farmer take the year
through, although his labor is more
evenly distributed. In making COM
parsons, the farmer loses sight of one
essential fact. In reckoning the fruits
of his years work he takes no inventory
of what he has bought for the farm in
the way of stock, implements, improve
ments aud the like, or of his living ex-
penses. If above all these he has $500
left, he calculates that he has made that
amount; if nothing, that he has lost a
years labor. How is it with the mer,
chant? He keeps books, and if at the
end of the year they show balance OF
So, 900 in his favor, he considers that he
made $1,000. Out of this comes his
rent and living and incidental expenses,
and very likely they have absorbed it all
and he has no more wealth than he had
year before. He has worked HARD
through the year, and in the fierce com
petition met with many harassing draw.
backs. But he is tolerably well salts
fed. He will confdentially say with
some pride to a friend, "Why, L made
$4,000 last year. The times are not sc
hard as croakers would have us believe
Yet the farmer who does not have a casl
balance complains bitterly of his occu
patton, and looks with envy upon this
merchant, who in reality has done no bet
ter than the farmer.
Is it not a curious fact? Here are two
men pursuing different occupations
One has as much to show as the othel
for his years work. Yet one thinks HI
made $1,000 during the year, and thu
other thinks he didn't make anything
If farmers but study this problem, the!
will let bright rays of contentment shin,
into their hearts and not be so enviOu
of their city brethren. There are darl
sides to urban as we'll as bucolic pic
lures.
The Saratoga farmer is a skilled math
ematician; but he did not stop to calcu
late when he said the man with a capita
of $4,000 could ''live like nabob Of
his income" What is the income at 81:
per cent? 1t is just 81, 200-less than
member of the "nabob" class woul
spend for house rent. But our farme
friend should remember that a six-pe
cent. investment, backed by satisfactor
security, is not easily obtainable, and
conservative investor might wait lon
time before he secured it. His none
would in reality yield him about five pc
cent, or $1,000 per annum, unless h
was willing to incur risk. This is les
than twenty dollars per week. If nc
conservative, but speculative in his dii
| nnsitinn +hn rnrnha hilitr 10 nrnatnr tha