The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1900-06-08
The American Cow.

a
1t may be of interest to note another
instance where the prevailing prosperity
has reached the farms. The great
change in the value of the sheep in the
country has been commented on from
Maine to California, and the great sheep
raising states of the west, just this side
of the states along the Pacific slope,
have shown by more than one solitary
straw which way the wind OF ballots IS
likely to blow wherever the sheep In
dustry has any influence turnout the
vast domain, and it must be remembered
that the sheep raising industry is in
many sections even more important
than the mining industry itself in those
very states which are known almost en-
tirely in the east as mining states
There seems to be little need of remind
ing the sheep raiser that republican
times are good times for him but the
American cow is beginning to have her
record looked into as we'll, and it is be-
ing discovered that she has a record
which will compare favorably with that
of the sheep. And it is no wonder
either. When factories are busy and
working men are earning money they
eat more beef, more steaks, more roasts,
drink more milk, and eat more butter
and cheese than when they are obliged
to figure the cost of living down to the
last cent, and sometimes have the last
cent matter of so distant memory that
it seems like dealing in ancient history
to even refer to the last one they had
Our foreign trade has made wonderful
growth 2xd has had its full share in
raising the value of every product OF the
American farm as well as those of the
factories, for when the foreign demand
is active and American products are go
ing abroad at rapid rate there is far
less chance of Cutting the American
market, itself the best In the whole
world, and thus the foreign demand OF
itself has double action in not only
taking care of the products exported at
good price, but also by leaving no
more than is needed for home consump-
ton. This combined with the fact be-
fore referred to, that the American con-
sumner is more generous consumer
when he has the money with which to
purchase needed supplies and knows
that he is also going to have the needed
cash to upay for more supplies OF as
good grade when those are gone,
furnishes reasons which might be ex-
pected to sdo just exactly what they
have done, viz, give an increased value
to every article produced on American
farms. And so if what even the Ger
man merchants say is true, that 1t has
been almost entirely due to the Ameri-
can protective policy that American
foreign trade has made such wonderful
upward bounds, an assertion which they
backed up with demand for similar
laws to foster their own foreign trade,
then the American farmer has just one
more illustration of the way in which
protection helps him by raising the
price of the products which he raises,
and that too in spite of the old assertions
of the free traders that protection would
kill instead of foster foreign trade, and
that it would hurt the farmer by in
directly making the prices which he
would receive even lower than they
would be without the protective feature
of the tariff laws in force.
But perhaps the statement recently
made by the department OF agri-
culture as to the value OF the COWS In
the United States for the seven years be-
ginning with January 1894 and the
average value of the same will be inter-
estipg reading at this point. 1t will be
seen that their average value thruout
the country in 1894 was but s21.77 per
head while under the operation OF the
protective, expansive, labor employ
ing, prosperity bringing. American
policy the growth of the average value
was steady one until in January OF the
present year it reached $3.50. Surely
a gain in value of ten dollars for every
COW in the United States Is value
which the American farmer will be
little slow about voting away by casting
his ballot for Bryan this fall, especially
when this increased value Is rated in a
money which Bryan himself told them
and tells them yet is worth more than