The Black range. (Robinson, Socorro County, N.M.) 1882-1897, 1895-11-01

-
acres Of corr requires two mems work
for six months, Reckoning the labor
at 81 per day and the board at so cents,
the cost is S75 per month, or for six
months it is s45Q Then the two men
have to be boarded for six months
more. There had to be at least one
woman in the house TO do the cooking,
washing and mending for the men.
Probably there were two or three
children that had to be clothed and
fed, and while they made a little
money, perhaps, out Of chickens, tur-
keys and eggs, any one can e that II
the farmer kept v e outside of the
corn, he was doing well. And we find
that IL he hired help to raise and har-
vest the corn crop, he fell short just
SIS on the years crop. II he did the
work himself, he and his boys, then
for all his work and all his boys work,
they did not average a dollar a day
through the hot summer, and they
have nothing to do through the win
ter"
1t is very evident from the figures of
the Tribune that the price of corn will
have to be considerably above 30 cents
a bushel before the farmers lot will be
one hat can at all compare with that
of the Vanderbilts and Astors.
The same results that have been
gained by the Tribune in its study of
the corr crop statistics have been
reached in regard to the local wheat
crop by the state board of agriculture,
which has been trying to ascertain how
wealthy the wheat raisers of Califor-
MIA are becoming. On this subject the
San Francisco Examiner says:
THE inquiry was made by circulars,
and the returns are meager. The re-
plies were less than 100 in number, and
they gave the figures for 1894, when
wheat was at its lowest point, and
might perhaps be said to give ar unfair
view of the situation. Nevertheless
there is reason to believe that the con-
illusions indicated by the few statistics
of the state board of agriculture give
a correct indication of the state Of the
industry.
''The average Of the figures present
ed to the board give the following for
the cost of raising wheat: Where the
yield is 10 bushels per acre the cost is
70 cents per bushel; Is bushels per
acre, IS cents per bushel; 20 bushels
per acre, "a cents per bushel; rs bush
els per acre, SO cents per bushel: 80
bushels per acre, IS cents per bushel.
"As the average farm price for
wheat in 1894 was 40. 1 cents per bushel
it nay be taken that land that yielded
less than about IS bushels per acre
brought a loss to the nan who raised
the wheat.
According to the returns of the de-
partment of agriculture, which are
much fuller than those of the state
board of agriculture, the average yield
of the California wheat farms is about
10 bushels per acre. 1t is evident that
there is big section of California that
must get out of wheat and get into
some other business if it is to make
money"
Wheat and corn are the two staple
products of the farmers of this country
outside of the cotton states, and no
doubt all that has been said about the
cereal would apply as well to cotton
raising. 1t is difficult, therefore, to
find the ground upon which an eastern
PAPER bases this remark: 1.-THE farmer
finds in returning prosperity an oppor-
tunity to square accounts and adjust
balances, and, if the spectators can
be set aside, their bank deposits will
o be in condition to meet any
future demand, with a nest-egg left
over"
The comments of the Salt Lake
Tribune are decidedly more accurate
and timely, when it says:
SIS it any wonder that the rural dis
tricts are not increasing in population,
and is it not plain enough that all these
great figures, running into the hun
dreds of millions of dollars, are gotten
up to give out a false idea hat the
farmers, under present circumstances,
are doing well throughout the east2
1t is simply a bare struggle for life,
and if there is any Indebtedness on the
place, that indebtedness, sooner or
later, will break the farmer and leave
the family homeless, without means,
and without the ability to engage in
any other business And how cruel it
is for papers in the cities to publish
how well farmers are doing, when on
their w showing the farmer who
raises forty acres of corn works him
self and his family to death for six
months to raise that corn, then cannot
realize on it what the ordinary bust
ness man in the city spends every year
for his lunches at midday and his
cigars"
1t is clear that the country can never
be in a prosperous condition so long as
the farming business is being con
Quoted at a loss. 1t is as impossible
for a nation to prosper when one large
element of it's population are suffering
as it is for a man to be well with his