Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-23
FARMING IN NEW JERSEY
Proposed Tariff on Agricultural Pro-
ducts.
Testimony Before the Industrial Com
mission-IneQuitable ASSESS
ment of Lands.

The farming interests of New Jersey were
again the subject of discussion before the
Industrial commission In the Bliss building
today. Mr.. Rlchman Coles of Woodstock.
N. J., was the first witness. He is an agri-
culturist and dairyman. The agriculturists
Of his state are not very prosperous. but
they have no particular complaint 10 make.
The prices Of farm products in that state
are generally lower than In former years.
while the wages of farm laborers are
higher than formerly. There is a feeling
among the farmers that they suffer be-
cause of loT rates of freight on the long
haul, and competition from both the west
and the south had the effect of reducing
their profits on their products. Milk is
shipped to Philadelphia for a distance of
200 miles, and they pay no more freight
than do farmers who send their milk a dis
lance OF twenty-five miles. This has made
it necessary for the New Jersey farmers to
make cheaper milk. Within the last TWEEN
ty-five years the value of the hand had de-
preciated about so per cent the deprecia-
ton on the land being greater than that on
the farm products.
Mr.. Coles advocated a tariff on farm
products SO as to put such products on an
equality with products Of the factories
Such a policy, he believed, would save the
United States $500, 1000 or $500, 1000, 900.
which is the amount of money now sent
abroad for the products of agriculture.
At the price of land in New Jersey today
farming is fairly profitable. Land sells
from $40 to $50 an acre. farm can be
bought today in New Jersey and with good
management the farmer can live well on it
and pay interest on the money invested.
Failures among farmers of his state We're
chiefly among those who bought at the high
prices of land of several years ago.
The farmers in his section of Ia state
have fairly good homes and hayS/horses
and carriages. They live about as well as
other people.
Farms InequitabIy Assessed.
Mr.. James B. Ketchum of New Jersey
went on the stand at the afternoon session.
He thought the amount of labor employed
in New Jersey today is about the same as
thirty or forty years ago, because of addi-
tional land being put under cultivation and
more intensified farming. These causes
had operated to employ many men as
were displaced by improved farm imple-
ments. Three-fourths Of the farm labor
they employ is engaged during the entire
year. The tendency of the brightest young
men is to leave the farm and go largely
to Trenton and other cities and engage in
other vacations. Some think farming is
too slow and others think it is too labor
ious, and for those reasons they leave the
farms for the city, where they think they
will be able to do better.
About Trenton the farmers have to get
most of their labor from Virginia. This
colored labor is not trusted with the use of
complicated farm machinery. At first this
farm labor is likely to go back to their Vir-
ginia homes about Christmas, but later it
returns to the same neighborhood, and
finally settles down there permanently. The
tendency of New Jersey farmers to hire
Virginia colored laborers began about
seven years ago. A large number of these
men go back to Virginia In the fall and ap-
pear again for work on April 1. They get
from $40 to $50 a month and board.
Mr.. Ketchum said he was not an enthu-
siast on the subject of introducing instruc-
ton in agriculture in the public schools, as
many of the children are in villages, where
they will not eventually engage In agricul-
ture.
In New Jersey he said the valuation of
farm lands is placed higher than property