Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-22
MARYLAND FARMERS
They Are Not in as Good Condition
as Years Ago.
LABOR DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN
Testimony Given Before the In
dustrial Commission.
NUMBER OF MORTGAGES
NUMBER OF MORTGAGES

| culture this morning.
Mr.. Joseph B. Ager of Hyattsville, Md.
master Of the Maryland State Grange
Patrons of Husbandry, appeared before the
commission. Mr.. Agcr is engaged in farm
ing and dairying, selling milk and cream in
this city. He has been so engaged for
| twenty years
| Labor in Maryland, he says is scarce
In the summertime when labor is chiefly
| needed, the laborers, who generally col
| ored men, flock to this city, where they get
! better wages and have shorter hours La
| Dor is now very difficult to get. These men
| are paid from $40 10 SO a month and their
| board. The hours of labor are long on the
| dairy farm, generally from or ) o'clock in
the morning until or s o'clock at night.
| IL has been said,'' he remarked that the
! farmers had solved the eight-hour problem
| ty working eight hours before dinner and
| eight hours after dinner
| He had built tencments his place with
| a view of having men stay permanently
| there, but he had been disappointed
| with the result as he now has TO rent these
| tenements to people who do not work for
| him.
| Good Farm Tenants Scarce.
1t was very difficult to get good farm ten
| ants for the reason that. as rule, when
a man has much energy he will get a farm
! OF his own, because the land is very cheap.
! The men who rent, as a rule, have but lit
| tie energy.
A good many farmers in southern Mary.
! land buy goods in Baltimore and give liens
! On their crops. This credit system, ne
thought. was not desirable as he consid-
| cred II better if farmers would buy for cash.
| He thought this credit system was quite
| largely practiccd in southern Maryland.
| The immigrants that come to Maryland are
| largely German, and they We're found to be
the most desirable of immigrants. They
wer2 industrious and soon after beginning
| as farm iaborers, were able to buy their
own places.
As general thing. he said the colored
laboreTs need some one with them. Very
few of them could be depended on to do
work without constant supervision. They
ing to Washington to black boots or to
work as walters to- working on a farm The
| class of white labor in the state was not
much better outside of some of the imm-
grants.
School Facilities.
| Mr.. Ager said the school facilities of
Maryland are very good for the whites, but
| are not so plentiful for the colored chill
| dren, though the colored children seemed
| quite willing to go a long way to get to
school, They have free school books. He
| thought agriculture should be taught in
| the public schools of Maryland. He
| thought it as necessary for agricultural
education for farmer a study of the law
| is to the lawyer. These boys who intend to
| DsCoiiie IdI!uerS SHOulQ be taught chemiS-
Try and the value of soil, and when they
| could DO so they should then go to an
aSFlcuituTal college to carry their studies
| further. The agricultural school at College
| Park is well attended. The mechanic arts.
agriculture, horticulture and dairying are
taught at that school, The experiment sta
ton OF Maryland had been a great help to
| the farmers of that state. The farmers
VINO had taken the trouble to get the bull
| Ietlns issued from this experiment station
| Which they could do merely by writing for
| h.ET0 ri
year the state as Il whole got but about
| twenty bushels of wheat to an acre. but at
| the experiment stations they got forty
DuShelS, and inquiry had shown that this
increased yield had been secured from the
use OIL nitrate of soda. He told how the
| farmers mad been greatly benefited by ap-
| piS !is Ie[tHizer to other crops, as directed
Dy She professors at the experiment station,
| and IN case of a potato crop farmers who
| a. ,i'u io.'oWe eu tiliS aoFlce received an ad-
| vantage Oh several hundred dollars each
| Education Of the Negroes,
| Ihe education of the negroes in Maryland
| Is improving. They are not equal to the
| whites as law-abiding citizens. The coIored
people near large cities as Washington are
not as abiding as are those further
! away from cities. The use of intoxicants
| he considered as the chief cause of crime
! among the coored people. Montgomery
county has local option and it improves
the condition of the colored people The
sheriff of Prince Georges county had told
MN some time ago that after local option
| had been put in force his work had been
decreased. He considered drink as respon-
| slbIe for nine-tenths of the crime among
the negroes of that state.
During the last twenty years number
OF northern men had come into Maryland
| When asked how it happened there was so
much abandoned land along the railroads
| he said that after the war the owners of
land did not think they could run their
rcd hnlr and
| the places be idle, then they mortgag ged
| them and finally lost them. One grocer in
Washington, he said, at one time was said
to own half of Prince Georges county,
| winch he got through mortgages. This
| land is for sale for from IS to $40 an acre.
| and is gradually being taken up. He did
| not think the condition of Maryland farm
| ers is as prosperous today as it was twenty
years ago This was the result of low
| prices for farm products. The truck farms
| of the south tended to reduce the prices
| received by the truck farms around this
| city.
| Not as Profitable as Formerly
Capital employed in farming is not as
| profitable now as it was thirty or forty
years ago Farm products are low in price
| and somehow taxes seem to be increasing
| Thirty per cent of the farms of Maryland
| are mortgaged, and many of these mort
gagged farms were free from debt twenty
years ago. The tendency of the farmer is
! to indulge his and daughters in dress
| and other things, and he knew some farm
| ers who had mortgaged their places in
| order to indulge them.
| He understood that 90 per cent of the
| men who go into mercantile business fail
| and he was quite sure that the humber of
| farmers who fail Is not so large
| There was no tendency among the farm
i-erS to form a combination or trust in order
| to control the prices of farm products. He
! didn't think that could ever be DONE and,
| if it should be, there would be great
| h, wi. Last winter during the blizzard
] when milk could not be brought in the city
| 1t brought almost any price. If the dairy
| men should refuse to ship milk in there
| would be this condition. The farmers
in Montgomery county save something by
| buying what they want in large quantities.
The farmers join in buying what they all
want by the carload lot. They do that
| with fertilizers and mix them themselves
instead of buying individually and prepared
fertilizers.
| The state tax of Maryland Is 17Z cents a
| hundred of assessed value, the county tax
being 90 odd cents per hundred.
Roads UnsatisfactOry.
Their roads are in an unsatisfactory con-