River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-06-14
HOME MARKETS.
The Farmer Finds His Wagon a Better
Market Than the Railway Platform.

The Farmer FINDS His Wagon Better
Market Than the Railway Platform.
Farmer Brown settled in the wilder
ness soTue twenty years ago. His first
crops were hauled fifty miles away and
he had hard times. After awhile rail
way came and a station was established
three miles away.
Then he stopped feeding wheat TO his
stock and stopped burning corn. He
could ship them off east. he could ship
pork. beeves and some other products
which would 0edr transportation.
Times grew better with him, but he
often regretted that he was so far from
markets. The railways got an awful
slice, the steamships took another bite,
aud middlemen all along the line nib
led or bit until his bushel of wheat or
corn, his hundred weight of pork.
looked so small. net. that he sometimes
felt that it was not worth the labor.
lie felt that there were too many
commissions, too heavy freight charges
that the railway platform was dead
" enemy, and that farming did not
pay.
Just now a fellow from somewhere
east came along with money and open
eyes. lie saw the water power, or the
timber. or the other natural resources,
and proceeded to put up some indus
trial works. Perhaps il was a sawmill
a Touring mill, tannery. furniture
factory. These brought workmen and
one enterprise another until the little
hamlet grew to be town and the town
city
In these days things changed. These
workmen did net raise crops; they at
what he and other farmers raised. His
wheat went to the home mill and he
got his pay check with no reductions
no freights, no commissions, but good
hard cash at the bank. Instead OF
whistling To the distant markets be
was able to sell all he could raise right
at home. lie had TO skirmish To get
enough to supply the demand. lie
sold his farm products from the lcdg0r
bJF ~ the families of those who worked
at the factories. They gave him good
prices and charged no commission. He
had the sale before his eyes and was
not a helpless victim of some one in
Chicago or New York.
Do you suppose he wishes these mills
TO close up and these people 70 turn in
despair to that last resort, the farm.
Not much. Will IL be possible to con
vince him that il is better to buy for
| eign goods calico, for in
stance-than to help build up a home
market? Let us wait until next No
vember and see what we shall see.
lie has learned by hard knocks what
college theorists cannot get out OF
boOks-that the village, now grown
into town or city. is sure, net cash
market for every product of his acres
He knows that he can go in person
sell to whom he chooses, get the toy
of the market, hold his produce until
the prices suit him and put the ,choh
product deep down into his pocket OF
his bank. lie does not have to ship
and trust, and pay freight, only to bt
whitfield to the fine edge of nothing.
The farmers of the northwest are
thinking big chunks of this sort OF
practical hard-headed wisdom and ar
ranging to act accordingly. Ideas
may come slower on the farm. but
they are clearer and more definite and
they last longer. They summer anc
winter with the farmer. lie has cal
lous spots ON his hands and he intends
TO make these count for money, fol
good homes, honest labor and indi
vidual prosperity.