Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-02-22
FACTS THAT FARMERS
MUST FACE.

Whlle the farmers or Vermont and
other Eastern States in common with
people in general are waiting for the
early dawn of a period of renewed
prosperity, there are certain changed
conditions which they must estimate
at full value before they will be pre-
pared to take advantage of improved
business conditions throughout the
country. Eastern farmers have come
to regard themselves as unable to
compete with their Western brethren
in the production of great number
of agricultural products, and to GER
tain extent this view is justified; but
they have allowed their ideas of the
competitive power of the West to mis-
lead them to disastrous degree.
Under the stress of this influence
Eastern farmers have gradually drift
ed into the habit of purchasing from
the West number of products which
they believe they can buy more
cheaply than they can produce the
same, but the time is rapidly ap-
preaching when they must return to
the good old habit of making the farm
self supporting or go to the wall.
Eastern farmers not only buy Western
-four for themselves and Western
mill feed for their cattle to an aston
ishing degree, but they are also help
ing along the market for Western
meats to an extent that seems almost
accountable.
There may be some excuse for the
Eastern farmers who purchase -four
instead of growing their own wheat,
but there would seem to be no valid
reason why New England farmers
should depend upon their Western
competitors for feed for their cattle
and horses, as is too often the case at
the present time. This practice be-
gan with the supposition that the
East could afford to allow the West
to produce the grain, if Eastern dair-
les were permitted to supply the
markets with butter and cheese, but
if the conditions have here heretofore
resulted in this reciprocity, condi-
tions have sadly changed. The tend
ency of the times in the Western
Ststes is we'll illustrated by the com
ments of an Iowa contemporary which
says:
eff the farmers of Iowa are paying
off their mortgages and putting
money in the bank, it is not because
of the profits made in growing corn
and wheat and oats. Their improved
lot is due to the fact that they have
been subordinating the productions
of cereal to the dairy. In the county
of Jones the farmers have in bank /
deposits over $4,000, 900, according to
the latest report of the dairy commits
sioner, which shows that by proper
management farmers can become
lenders instead of borrowers.
This statement illustrates the |
growth of a movement which makes |
rapid progress in other parts of the
West as well as in the Hawkeye State
Diversified farming is fast taking the
place of grain growing and it needs
no argument to show that the New
England dairyman cannot hope to
compete with the dairy products of
Western corn and other grain with
which to feed his dairy. Eastern
dairy products can undersell those of
the West, other things being equal,
owing TO the difference in the dist
ance to be covered by transportation
to market, but it is plain that if East
ern farmers are to compete success
fully with the West the average farm
in the East must become more self
supporting than at present.
The Eastern agriculturist will, in
all probability, find it to his advant-
age to max his farming more diver
sified than it has been during the past
decade. Competition will force him
not only to produce more grain but to
adopt more careful methods of culti
walton, as well as to introduce new
features. Poultry raising can be un-
dertaken in any farming locality and
when dealers can afford to go west of
the Mississippi for all kinds of poul-
try, ship it to Vermont, put it in cold
storage and later on ship it to market,
there is another field for fresh enter
prise on the part of the farmers of
the Green Mountain State. There are
other directions for agricultural en-
which will suggest themselv-
IS to farmers in all parts of the East
IAN be sure of one thing and that is
Western competition in dairying as
veil as in the production of cereals
Ind meat products. Free Press