The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-12-26
GRAIN GROWING IN new ENGLAND.

and grow the larger share of the grain
they used instead of being dependent
upon the Western States for it, and at
the mercy of the railroads for it's trans
portation. | we'll remember the days a
half century or more ago when almost
every farmer held corn meal and rye
meal for the family table, corn and oats
for his horses, corn to fatten his beef
cattle and swine upon, corn, oats and
perhaps buckwheat for his poultry, all
Of his own growing, and some to spare
to those who had not land on which to
literally as the farmers of the present
day do, at least not to milch cows, for
the low price of milk and milk products
did not seem to warrant the forcing of
milk production, but when he needed to
use it he did not have to dip down into
his pockets, or draw upon his bank &C
count to pay the Western farmer ten
cents and the railroad forty cents for
each bushel he used.
During the civil war the change be-
gan. The young men and some of the
older ones left the farm to help preserve
the Union, and less acres were planted
and Sown. When the wal closed all the
newspapers were echOing Horace Gree
iey's advice to $50 West, Young mar"
and were telling wondrOus tales of the
''inexhaustible fertility" of the soil, and
the great crops that were sometimes
grown there. They did not mention
the fact that one bushel of grain here
had as much cash value as five bushels
had west of the Mississippi. They rather
envied than pitied Kansas farmers who
burned their corn in the ear because it
would not sell for enough to purchase
its equivalent in other fuel, who plowed
in their corn slower and burned their
straw to get it out of the way. The
young men read of the grain fields that
were measured by the square mile in
stead of by the acre, where the land
was plowed by sulky pillow, seeded
with a grain drill, cultivated with a
sulky plow, harvested and threshed by
horse or steam power, and during the
whole season the owner scarcely had to
bend his back or soil his hands.
This looked fine on paper, but they
did not notice what every census plain
ly showed, that the average yield per
acre of corn or wheat in the grain-grow-
ing sections was not equal in amount to
the average crop in some of the New
England States, and very far below in
cash value per acre the yield in even
the poorest of the Eastern States. They
did not know, nor was it meant that
they should know, that the money their
fathers had in the savings banks here
was invested in mortgages upon the
large and the small farms of the West,
that their owners might have the teams
and the machinery to run them. They
did not realize until they reached there
that the best chance to accumulate
money there was caused by the fact
there was no chance TO purchase there
either luxuries, comforts, conveniences,
or even much of what they had looked
upon as the necessities of life.
1t is true that in many respects times
have changed for the better there since
that time, but the abandonment of
grain growing here has not proved d
benefit to the farmers of the Eastern
States. Some have found other crops
of which they could grow greater
money value OH smaller areas of land,
though scarcely with less labor, and
others have let land stand idle, and
young men have left the farms to go in
to stores, shops and factories, where,
wien business was good, they handled
more money each week than they would
80 49, 49, 80 49, ia =, >
h"Ne saseu oot llVale osoaooe VI 'ne
seasons Mlen llle WE was scalce Vi
lnoai p".I' any i, ;ne uaily eApGfse t Me'e
VIC have loft Nv Emaland for ia
W1c+arn S+ataS found 49, ,,'t two, os r .mo
son 70 rearat the ohanma tbnne ' u ,t",
iaft 70 f,r tbor
,,,,t had lass $500 - ;slt thon II"
hac, n, i,'' ie'''" w "'''' 'o'
Rnt / i hni;ava the time h.s coma now
ma it viii he nrofitahla fnr tbs farm nom
H. F,s4a ~ Statas ~ ~ go .,io io r4 20
49, lnmd 49, fn,t w "a pei 49, ~
i,hn1 10 tho arominn Of n,oro "r mu t. and
NO. vonnG stoo ga tho fa7t tal GUY ~
49, ~ 800, CIV ,,io 'a W
marat IF thora ao haS 80 I haan n tine
uihan S,oh no,rs ,,'',,,d 49, ~ t I4,1o
mnGh go q ~ t4 t . NV new
th rnr iu ns ' tho+ 'ho p.eIt
rooa h D1 rv aanh ilnaV liz e
p go ~ NC, uouo , "l.i4iti Gilo
pe'r ns yH"io pIiii.o ouv tii0 poos h
VI o+ ploin' III 0li"hso o'oA W JIG o'u
'AG'i 49, oo,, +, ,-,4 +,
,ha hoS n So 49, 100 hopO ~ .toIe
" ~ ,,e'a lom Il ,noni ~ w i4o pa'nei i.
y. v'i,s VI oonn s jpn al aoa d. oos.
eeiS.ns lioh 300 W @fo ". aoie, vi
my W olA'y GehIs pusilel lol sneiieu
coIi' os't oelleVe tllat 'hls cosC Can oe
leoueeo ny I,ie iatlilel VINO OWNS nus
own lalio. me land rent or taxes ana
aii. S On cost shouiu hot pe large
anu llSHt De SCI against IlS improve