The Monmouth inquirer., 1896-08-27
Address by Edwin Beekman.
BEFORE THE MEETING OF THE coUN
TY BOARD OF AGRICULTURE
AT RED BANK.


AT RED BANK.
In my remarks | shall keep clear of
politics as this is no place for them
In my deduction / shall generalize
for there are exceptions to all rules
like bearded wOman-or man
with seven toes on one foot.
If my remarks are hardly orthodox
to a meeting of this kind whose mis-
sion is to tell how to grow big crops
and swop experiences as to the best
way to do it-blame the local com
mittee who invited me to intiict
speech upon you, for as to large crops,
| am sure almost anyone here can do
as well or better than |, and at re-
duced cost. If not they had better
get out of the business.
What wish to discuss is, what prof
it is it to grow rs barrels OF potatoes
to the acre if we lose money by the
transaction; or grow 1000 barrels of
apples at loss of $50 Where are
we drifting to if this keeps on.
Hope springs eternal in the human
breast and next year is when we are
all going to do SO much.
But the years seem growing worse
and its hard telling what to trust to.
Like the pious old lady whose horse
ran away going down hill sShe said
she trusted in the Lord until the
preaching broke then she give right
up.
In the memory of many here in
Monmouth County are farmers who
owned large fertile farm was little
king. He could give his children a
college education. improve his farm
and buildings and when dead leave
thousands of dollars at interest. In
the memory of many here an in
dustrious common sense young man,
could start farm hand, then fore
man, then tenant farmer, then buy
a farm ana in a few years pay for it.
The profit of the business allowed it.
And those who inherited their land
clear, why they could lay in bed and
have their victuals brought to them
if they so choosed, and still save
money, for the more land in till the
more profit.
OF those large land holders few are
left, many in name only.
[ call toinind one man who brought
up family of five boys and one girl.
He gave part of the boys a college
education and part were started in
commercial pursuits with sufficient
capital. To-day his farm has fifteen
owners, twelve foreign born. The
original family does not own one foot
of the ancestral soil
This agricultural necrosis or gan
creme has been going on for several
years and the condition is steadily
for the worse, and the past two years
faster than ever, until now it seems
the worst investment man can
make of his money is to buy a large
fertile farm at its assessed value.
Two years ago the Mutual Life In
surance company ceased loaning on
Monmouth county farm lands.
On the other hand there has been
class mostly drawn from the Euro
pean peasantry that have been buy
ing the odds and ends of places,
sandy knobs, and stumpy hill sides,
and swamps. A tangle of Alder gum
and sweet briar. They have grubbed,
ditched and plowed, rose up early
and laid down late, worn the coarsest
of clothing and produced most Of
their own food With them another
month was not source of expense
after the first few years Of infancy,
but an added income. And when
the mouths got more than the eco
+
it was kick edout in some ones kitchen
and wages collected until Is, a boy
put to some trade with the amount
of wages he was to keep, an undeter-
mined quantity A few months of
district school for Il few winters and
they are equipped for the battle of
life.
This class of farmers have not
drifted, they have sailed to ports
of prosperity, they have added acre
To acre and dollar to dollar, while
others lave marked time they have
marched, marched ever forward.
But we cannot all be truckers so
let US take a look at those of our
brother farmers who produce the
cotton grain and that 90 to make up
our exports, for in considering our
drift we must look at the different
currents.
Those men are there il their homes
on the banks of the Missippi the
wind swept plains of Dakota, or fer
tile bottoms of Ohio or Illinois.
wondering as they contemplate, 8
cents for oats, - cents for corn, 35
cents for wheat and cents for cot
ton what they shall do. Leaving
them there trying to lift themselves
out by their boot straps we will
glance at the other current.
Bradstreet is man that does not
altogether agree with Soloman when
he said buy the truth and sell it not
Bradstreet sells the truth, with him
failure is the road to fame and for
the past six months ending in June
he gives the failures of the United
States at IA per cent greater than
any time since the acute panic of SO
and a total liabilities of 100000 600.
Those unfortunate people must have
been overtaken by the wave of re-
firing prosperity that the papers
have been telling us of and strangled
to death. Now what does this prove
simply that the fall that has been go
ing on all these years on cotton, grain
and etc., has first exhausted the farm
ers casn, next his credit, and now
that their purchasing power IS one
half gone, the return blade of the in
dustrial shears is getting in its fine
work
The commercial and manufacturing
part of the population are feeling II,
they are not finding a market. One
wooden mill in Trenton has cut wages