Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-06-29

cents a pound in England. The Danish
bacon sells for IA cents a pound, and the
famous Wiltshire bacon is worth is cents
| a pound Had We gotten the best prices
our bacon would have been worth nearly
ten million dollars more to us than it was
last year. The English like lean bacon,
the thickness of the fat upon their backs
A hog that has fat two and one-fourth
inches thick brings a shilling more per
twenty pounds of its weight than a hog
whose fat on the back is three inches thick
The English want lean swine They will
not buy any hogs that weigh more than
2i0 pounds. as they know that bacon from
such hogs is not in demand. Here our
ambition is to raise fat hogs, and l have
seen car loads of swine which will average
400 pounds in weight. Still we have
great trade in farm products with England.
Fully half of all our foreign exports go
there We send mere than 100000 tons of
hay and more than 10000 tons of cheese to
Great Britain every year. We send only
2,0o0 tons of butter. and Denmark beats
US in this article alone by $1,000 tons year
ly.
Machine Farmers.
1.-The trouble with u.s." the Secretary of
Agriculture continued. "is that we are too
luxurious in our methods. We have been
making money so easily that We can't ap-
preciate the change in conditions the world
over, and we have not tried to adapt our
selves to them. Our farmers are machine
farmers. They raise practically nothing
that cannot be raised by machinery. Take
the matter of wheat. The farmer now
rides the pillow as he breaks the soil He
rides as he harrows, and he plants his
fields with a sulky drill. The crop comes
up of itself and when It is ripe the farmer
again takes a ride on reaping machine
with an umbrella over his head, and when
he is finished the machine has cut and
bound his grain. A steam engine does his
thrashing and a small part of the straw
he
All this is expensive, and If the wheat
brings low price, or there is a crop fall-
ure. the farmer runs behind He does not
watch the small leaks and he does not
raise the little things which pay so well.
Take the onion crop. Onions always bring
high price here, and it pays to raise
American farmer let's the outsiders have
the profit 1t is so all over the country.
The farmer of the south sticks to his cot
ton and tobacco. and he of the north and
west to his wheat and corn
Farmers Wives.
"What do you think Of the way our
farmers live, Mr.. Secretary" 1 asked.
Would it not be better if they lived in
villages and not on their farms?'
I'm many respects, yes" was the reply.
1.-THE farmers wife has a dreary lot. She
is in most cases little better than a slave
to her work and her house. She drags out
sad existence, scrubbing and cooking.
with few resources outside oil herSen. L
can't imagine anything much worse than
her condition, and it seems to me that the
European system of farm villages is bet
ter than ours. And still. the most OF our
farmers wives are bright women. they
are as a rule Industrious and good business
women but they get little for it. believe
in making women to large extent the
business partners of their husbands. They
for instance story heard the other day
about the family of an old farmer in In
dana. The man and his wife had lived to-
gether for fifty years. Their children had
grown up and left them, and now, at sew
enty, the farmer found the burden of his
work too much for him, and he decided to
sell his farm and live off of the interest.
1t was worth $4,000. but when the deed
came to be made the farmers wife object
ed. She said she had helped to pay for the
farm. She had worked all her life for it,
and she was bound to have some of the
money which 1t brought before she signed
the deed. The lawyer and the husband
we're dumfou1ded. They had not anticipat-
ed such complication, and at last one of
them asked the old lady how much she
| thought she ought to have. She hesitated
a moment, and then said that she believed
| she was really entitled to ask for as much
as 81. or course. she got 1t, but think how
| little money she must have had in the past
| to have made such a fuss about this
amount.
How One Rich Farmer skimped His
| Wife.
Il am surprised how mean men are some
! times to their wives" continued Secretary
| Morton; mot only farmers, but other men
as we'll Woman is naturally self-sacri-
| fcing creature ard she submits to many
| a thing a man would not think of tolerat-
| ing. Speaking of little meannesses, let me
| give you an incident that l saw myself
| during the days of the war. l happened to
be in a store in my town one day when
| an old fellow whom l will call Jones came
in with his wife to buy some goods. This
| man Jones came from one of the most cele-
| brated families in the United States. He
| settled in Nebraska when it was still a ter
ritory, and by economy and thrift he had
| now gotten farm of something like 1000
| acres. He was known to have money in
Well, shortly after hes entered the store
| Mrs Jones took up piece of calico and
| admired it very much. AS she looked at it,
| she said to her husband:
| "Pa, 1 ought to have a new dress, and
| Ike this very much. Don't you think we
| could afford to buy it?'
oh 1 suppose So" replied the old man.
| and he thereupon asked the clerk the price.
| He was told it was 50 cents a yard Old
Mr.. Jones raised his eyes at this, and ask
| ed his wife how much it would take. She
replied she didn't think she could get along
| on less than twelve yards,and he answered.
"Why, ma, twelve yards of that goods at
so cents a yard would cost 50. Now; don't
| you think that that is pretty high?'
yes" she replied, Il do, but need the
| dress
| "Well, said the old man. times hard
and do wish you could get along without
| it just now. Couldn't your
Eyes, 1 suppose could" replied the old
lady with a sigh, and the calico was
dropped
| A moment later old Mr.. Jones asked the
| same clerk If he had any tobacco, and
whether he had any Of that good old Vir-
| ginia leaf. which they used to keep in
| stock.
The clerk said: Eyes, we have, but it's
awful high. It's 81 pound, and think
| 1t will go higher before it gets less. We
| have just one caddy left"
| Jones.
Yes. said the clerk, it's sure to go up
| We'll, you might put me up five pounds, v
| said the old man and q moment later