Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1895-08-29
FARMERS WILL PAY.
VARIED AND INTERESTING oeSeRVA-
TONS ON AGRICULTURE.
Some are Shortsighted Opposition to
Erie Canal Through ar-Capitalists
who Know Better-Guv. Morton
and other Rich Men who Farm
on Modern Business 4 rincipies.
(From the Philadelphia Morning Journal)


when he was told the other day that very
likely organized opposition to the S9,OW'On
for the Erie canal would he
developed by the grangers of New YORK
State. Yet the information which was
carried to the governor was correct. Inc
grangcrs. including in that name almost
all of the associations of agrcultursts,
seem to look upon the proposed improve
ments as something that will be sure still
further to depress the prices which the
farmers receive for their products, ana TO
cause more abandoned farms bankrupt |
cies and foreclosure of mortgages than
have even taken place in the past ten
years.
The committees which have been pre-
barring to make a campaign for the $4,000
900 appropriation have at last discovered
this opposition, and have also learned that
it is likely to be the only one that has or
ganization. The extraordinary reason is !
given by the grangers that canal improve
ments will make it possible for the Farmers
of the West more easily TO float their prod
ucts into New York State, whore they can
be marketed at such low prices as will
make it impossible for New York farmers
to compete with them. They reason that
they are safer with the canal as it was
when first open. with its mule path it's
three miles an hour boats and its methods
which were like those of the stage coach
period.
OATS AS AN ILLUSTRATION.
When the superintendent of the famous
Jarvis Lord farm at Pttsford, near Roch-
ester, discovered that with all of the bust
ness ability, with every labor-saving agri-
cultural implement, with the lessons which
chemistry teaches well learned, he was
nevertheless. unable to raise oats upon
that farm for less than 20 cents bushel
cost while he could buy Western oats for
20 cents, he was sure there was some other
reason than a political one or one related
to canal management which caused that
difference, or nearly ~ per cent. No won
der that he bought j0u0 bushels of the
Western oats rather than raise them upon
his own farm. His fields are too near the
Great Lakes to permit the canal question
to enter as an important factor INTO the
matter of cost. What is true of this farm
is, of course, true of every other one i'm
the State where a profit has been realized
upon its products.
FROM POLITICS TO BUTTER MAKING
Gov. Morton, even in the heat of politics.
in which his own political honors were
deeply involved, was nevertheless glad to
turn aside from such eYctcments to cX-
pertinent with the effect of silos upon the
producing capacity of his COW. Hc
studied no problem Of finance more closely
imam ne ana tnlS one. HIS farm is not Il
very large one only about 1000 acres Not
at all comparable with the immense farms
of Congressman Wadsworth and his cous-
ms in the Genesee valley, which take
rank with some of the great farms of the
far West. Yet Gov. Morton has compelled
those thousand acres of his at Rhnecliff
to yield him a return of from 10 to II per
cent upon his investment. His principal
product is butter, and he supplies not only
pl n a
product, getting a high price for it, but
also other hotels, and besides that milk
from his farm is sold at an extra price at
some New York restaurants.
MONEY IN SILOS.
But in order to gain profit Gov. Nor
ton has applied tho most careful business
methods to his farm mana cement. He is
one of the few farmers in the State who
has set up silos. John Il. butcher is an
other, the Pittsford farms have five silos,
but there are probably not more than II
score of silos upon all the farms of the
state. Yet the experience of these rich
farmers has been such as to cause wonder
that the smaller farmers, those who are
in grangers' lodges, have not built silos.
, Careful estimates show that the cost of
storage of corn fodder and oats and peas
mixed is only 81 Il ton, and yet COWS fed
from silo yield an average of five per cent.
of butter, while those which are fed after
the old methods which began with the
clearing Of the timber more than a hun
dred years ago do not yield more than
per cent of butter.
WHAT THE FARMERS HAVE DISCOV-
Erred.
These SUCCESSFUL farmers have discov-
cred another thing, and that is that New
York state cannot compete in grain prod
IT. ],