The Republican journal., 1902-08-21
FARMING STILL PAYS.

There was a time. not so far back in
the history of the country that most of
us can not readily recall it's conditions,
when the point to the complaint of the
opposition elements in state and ma
tlonal affairs was that the tendencies
under Republican management We're to
the disadvantage Of agriculture to the
absorption of the small farms bv the
big ones, the turning of the former
landowner into a hired man and the
general decentralization Of farming in
all Its branches, but more especially i'll
the case of the small farmer who strove
to win on the rugged New England
NILS living from reluctant nature.
The deserted farms of New England
were the theme that was talked up and
down III this discussion and the moral
OF 1t was, turn the rascals out and let
us III. But a change came over the
spirit OF the opposition dream and the
decay of agriculture, the blighting of
the small farmer the increase in the
deserted farms, all these topics have
ceased to inspire the conventions and
the tramp orators. who have switched
over to the trusts. the tariff and the
Philippines. The general census of 1900
reveals most remarkable state of pros
perlty among the farmers on the great
agricultural tracts of the country and
the number of individual farms ard
farmers has increased tabulously. The
figures are actually astonishing, and
they etfectually put an end to the
claims that big farms are absorbing the
comparatively little ones, that individ-
n a
that Intelligent farming does not pay
Conditions change, in farming as in
everything else. and the farmer who
would farm successfully must know
his farm and know his market and
adapt one to the other as must the mer-
chant who would succeed adapt his
business to the demands of the com
munltv IN which he looks for success.
Intelligence and enterprise and indus
try are as imperative today as ever,
and are called for everywhere Thus
Oh the rugged New England hills, the
abandoned farms have ceased to play
the part once assigned them and it has
come to be acknowledged that lntelll-
gent adoption will make most of even
them good for something and the moan
over them, tor political effect, has prac-
tlcally ceased. The returns of the last
census for the individual state of Con-
necticut show that while she has been
growing more and more a manufactur-
ing state and taking her place well up
in the list of producing states notwith-
standing her limited area, in the num-
Der of her farms and farmers she is adj
vanclng also, and advancing in the right
direction. She no longer completes with
the west in the raising of wheat. corn
and other things which demand a big
area and cultivation on large scale,
but IN the supplying of her local mar
kets growing larger as her manufac-
turing population increases, she is max
ing commendable Roadway and farm
ing pays. Today she has 4,503 more
farms than she had 80 years ago when
she was an agricultural state, and the
value OF her farms today is S3l 2l9, 127
more than 1t was i'll 1850. She cult
Yates a smaller area, but she cultivates
1t to better purpose and her aggregated
farms today are valued at S113, 305, $50,
or at S49.0l per acre, compared with
So, 0S6, 4533 or S34. 43 per acre fifty years
ago. In all the details of farming, as
conducted under the intelligent appre-
citation of the modern demands and
modern methods, there is marked in
crease in values and in the aggregate
OF products. From the year 1870 to the
last census the totals of farm products
have been totalled as follows 1900,
s2s.276,94S: 1890, S17.924,310 1850, SIS
olo,075: 1870 S21, 1S5, 720, an increase in
thirty years-which include the years
when destruction awaited all agricul-
tural ventures,-of S7,O61, 22S in the
annual value. Taking the figures all
together, there is nothing to show that
the intelligent farmer who has aban-
doned the outgrown methods of the
past and adapted his work to the condi-
reasonable lines will not be we'll re-
warded.-Bridgeport, Ct, Standard.