Evening star., 1895-10-26

Lower Prices for Commodities.
During the fiscal year ending June 80,
-S,o. we sold to foreign nations $SOs, 600, 600
| worth Of commodities, which was $S5OOO,-
| coo less than during the preceding year and
| $lOOOO.OOO less than in the year '92-'9S.
Ihis decline in the aggregate amount is
| Que to lower prices of our commodities,
| which have been brought about by the les
sened demand for those commodities in
| foreign markets. In 1894 the United States
exported 2.Gss,0OOO0O pounds of cotton 1t
| brought S21l,ON-O00. In the year 1895 ex-
ports OF cotton rose to 3.5l7 100000 pounds.
| but brought only S2O5, 5000, 600; that is to
| say, $6.O00,G00 less than the smaller auan-
| tity OF the preceding year brought If the
average export price of cotton for the fiscal
year is94-'o had been the same for the
| preceding year the value of United States
| cotton exported would have reached s271,-
! Coo,ooo instead of $2O5, 600. During the
same period had tine price remained stand
ara our bacon would have brought $42-
| OO0,0O0 instead of SIS. .OOa, 600, and our lard
Sl3.OoOOOO instead of $37,ON,OO0.
ne prenamed kinds of exports If sold
at the price Of the year previous would
| nave brought up the total value of our
| farm exports to the figure of the former
year.
The decline in the quantity value of the
exports of tie United States for 1885 as
| compared with 1894 was most marked in
wheat flour. wheat, corn, raw oleomar-
sarlne seeds, cheese, butter, nops hides
and skins. oil cake and copper, while there
| was a less decline in quantity and value
oi exported tobacco, wood, cotton clothes,
COAL live animals. agricultural implements
sole leather, other leather and furs and
skins The United States commodities ex-
ported in 1895 which show a marked in
crease in quantity and value are mineral
CHS, fruits ard nuts manufactures of iron
ana steel. cotton seed oil, fertilizers and
wine.
Competition More Intense.
cultural products in the markets of the
World is becoming more universal ard in
tense from year to year. In whea. the
United States must compete for sales with
the Argentine Republic, the Russian en-
pre-, Australia and sometimes with India
tnough the latter country seems to be on
me decline as surplus wheat producer
MS, ms ,lnperatively commands American in
NehtiVe genius and American farm man.
aSement to provide improved machinery
ana methods from time to time, so as to
touch the lowest possible cost Of produc-
commodity at the lowest cost can always
command the market and drive out COM
petitors
"A bushel of wheat in the United States
with the present improved implements and
machinery for Its production, cannot cost
the farmer of today more than one-half
what 1t cost his predecessor forty-five
years ago. TFen there was no gang-plow
One furrow was turned and the plowman
walked therein. Today the gang-plow
with three horses, turns three furrows
and the man who drives rides the plow
Then the farmer walked and narrowed the
held; now he rides and harrows. Then he
soWed broadcast and brushed the seed in
with harrow and tree top; now he rides
upon drill, which plants his wheat at a
depth of two, three or four inches, as he
may gauge his machine. Then large per-
centage of the wheat sown broadcast was
lost; now every grain drilled in comes to
NO n axx-itt n
sickle and cradle; now with the reaper and
self-binder. Then it was threshed 5y the
use of the fiai! and one-horse machine:
now by steam. What the exact diminution
IN the cost of producing a bushel of wheat
may have been during the last forty-five
years am not able to state with any de-
large.
by these improved methods the supply
or wheat has been easily increased from
year to year, SO that it has kept abreast
demand for it, and farmers, as we'll as
manufacturers and all others understand
after little study, that demand is the sole
creator of values
Condition of Success.
THE American farmer of today must
compete with farmers from every section
of the civilized earth when he seeks for
eign markets. Speedy improvements in
the INSTRUMENTATION by steam quick
telegraph and cable exchanges of thought
and prices open the worlds markets to all
VINO read and reason. The success, there
fore, of American agriculture must depend
from this time very largely upon the intel
ligence and skill with which it is con-
Quoted. The time is not distant when q
man who seeks a livelihood by farming
without practical knowledge of that in
dustry will be regarded as daft as one who
now seeks to practice medicine or law
without having studied either profession.
The application of science to agriculture is
mr. la
understood by the American farmer He
is constantly impressed with the import
ance of soil analysis, both mechanical
and chemical
.The relation of rain storage and mois-
ture to deep tillage in certain soils is he
coming more and more appreciated among
farmers. while in certain kinds of soil the
value of shallow plCwing is understood
better. The American farmer is subject to
less imposition by the purchase of COM
mercial fertilizer now than he was -ven
ten years ago, because he has been taught
10 ascertain by analysis the component
parts of each fertilizer offered and to de-
termine thereby whether it will meet the
lacking elements in plant food which he
desires to restore to his farm or field
THE farm home in the United States to.
day is far more refined and embellished
than 1t was thirty years ago. AS popula-
tion increases and the area of arabic lands
remains stationary there must be. during
the next decade, a very visible advance in
all rural real estate. The relative supply
u iailu 10 tfle demand Tor land Will change
very materially during the next twenty.
five years. In that time the population of
the United States will have reached 49,
100000. but the area Of desirable farm
lands will not have increased at all.
Farm Land Prices.
Therefore, in that time there WILL nee.
essarlly. be a mammoth enhancement of
farm Land prices all over this country. Ur.
ban real estate is not always productive.
but with good care and .illage ali rural
real estate can, a rule, be made produc-
tive year after year, SO as to sustain COM
fortably those who care for and cultivate
it, In my judgment, there is no avocation
which offers more solid and substantial sat.
isfaction to those who will diligently and
int lligently follow 1t than that of the ag-
r,culturist. An American farmer out Of
debt, in good health, with n subst tantial
dwelling, barns orchards, ard reasonable
acreage in tilth and in woodland, who has
a healthy and industrious family, is, In my
opinion, the most ind epel!ent citizen of the
republic.
'All that he reqaires is the worlds mar
kets. the right to buy and to sell where his
interests are best subsarved, and no tax
except for public purposes. The greatest
calamity that has ever befallen the farm
ar- Of he northwest ia that interDreta finn