The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-06-26
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THE MORTGAGE LITTER.

ponent Parts.
III one travels over or studies the ap-
-1cultural sections of the country, q
most striking dissimilarity Is notice
able in the financial condition and rel
alive prosperity of the farmers of our
nation Where are the most progress
sive, prosperous agriculturists of to-
DAY, and to what is due their prosperi-
" Is very pertinent query, Are they
IN mississippi or the sunny south, with
It's live or six cent cotton; are they
among the farmers of the wheat regions
Oh minnesota. the northwest, the Dako-
las, or are they to be found in the corn
belts of Nebraska, Kansas or Illinois?
go, the student of agriculture and
those conversant with the agricultural
condition of the country will answer
promptly: They are in the dairy and
stock raising sections of our domain.
And the farmers of the entire west are
beginning to see that the improved
financial status. the increased fertility
sad value of the farm lands of Wiscon-
SIN, iowa, Michigan, southern Minne-
sofa and other dairy states, and the
great decrease in the per cent. of farm
mortgages Of the dairy sections during
the last decade is due to the fact that
they have been subornating the pro-
uuction OF cereals to the dairy and its
loyal adjunct. the hog. This is exem-
pinned right here in jefferson county
very forcibly. In 1870 the mortgages
amounted to go per cent. of the assessed
valuation of the farm lands, and to-day
1t is less than 10 per cent. In 1870 an
averaged acre was worth about e25;
to-day it is worth $50. This Is a coun-
~ only "a miles square with IS, 600 in
habitants. yet II contains so creamer-
les, and 3e. 900 cows, which cows turned
INTO the pockets of the farmers net,
during 1896, $1,000, 600. Sheboygan
county, of Wisconsin, and Freeborn
county, of Minnesota, and others of
the dairy section of the northwest.
show equally, if not more, astonishing
ana rapid decrease in per cent of farm
mortgages and in the increase ia the
value OF the farms, The wheat farm
ers OF the Dakotas are beginning to
spring up ill over those states. The
Kansas farmer, the most highly mort
gagged fellow in the country and the
corn farmer, is grasping this idea of
the great mortgage litter. Kansas now
mas over l2o creameries, and is rapidly
pushing herself to the front in the
dairy and creamery world, and in
about the same proportion as her
creameries and dairy farms increase
her mortgages will decrease. Min
nesota has already grasped the
dairy idea and is rapidly becoming
the foremost agricultural state in the
Union. Then is there any logical rea-
son, since the advent of the separator.
why the southern farmer living in a
country with such vast agricultural re-
sources, great climatic and soil and
crop advantages for the maintenance
and propagation of tlairying. can not
get hustle on him, begin to improve
the fertility and value of his farm
lands. engage in dairy farming, get out
OF the clutches of the crop lien, or
mortgage system, and become a pro-
gressive, up-to-date, prosperous farm
er, with mich cows grazing upon the
hillside pastures. nibbling in the val
legs md decking the farms of the
south with fine barns and homes? win
not dairying be .overdone and dairy
products become as Improbable as
cereals and cotton? is a natural uues-
tion for one to ask contemplating en-
gaging in dairy farming.
G. p. Goodrich, the great veteran
dairyman and farm institute conductor
OF Wisconsin, says upon this point:
I'VE hear it often said that perhaps
dairying will soon be overdone. We
heard the same kind of talk more than
Twenty-Five years ago. when Wisconsin
and Iowa farmers. were beginning to
engage heavily in dairy farming. Those
same men have been saying the same
thing ever since, and hesitating to go
into business that was SO soon to be
overdone, and they are out of it, yet
missed great opportunity; and now
they have poor, WORKOUT farms from
constant cropping and selling off the
grain and hay till nothing now re-
mains but the foundation on which
once rested a fertile soil, and on which |
now rests mortgage. Their neigh |
bors, who grasped progressive IDEAS
and engaged in dairy farming, now
have fine homes, rich farms, good barns
and excellent bred stock and arepros-
porous"
The greatest dairy authority of Amer
lea, Hoard, says upon another phase of |
this dairy question that beginner is |
always likely to ask himself about:
1.-The farmer who studies the deem