Year: 1879

An absurd disposition prevails among
many impulsive and unrefiect;ng persons
IN America, to treat the increase OF pO1u-
latlon in our cities and towns as unnatur-
al and unhealthy; to dcplore what is
called the indiSposition of our people 10
engage in agriculture; and to urge the
young and enterprising TO leave populous
and well-Settled districts 10 brave the
hardships and perils of a rude border life.
But We have been unable 10 find the evi-
dence of this alleged neglect Of agricul-
turo. The abounding products Of this de-
paument Of human art have never, in our
age Of the Republic, been greater than u.
this very time. Our exports OF wheat
tobacco, hay, cheese, butter, provisions,
cotton, and. all other matters usually
needed for foreign market are in such
masses as to attest the unfiagging toll and
enterprise of our countryman, and sustain
braveiy the vast burden OF our foreign
commerce.


O1 what use would it be for our coun-
uymen to raise more Of these products
than would command profitable mar
ket! We had an evidence Of that folly
during the evil war, when corn was pro
duced at the West in such prodirious
quantities that it was actually burned in
Illinois for fuel, as the market-price
would not pay the farmer And so it
would be again in almost any line to
which our agriculturiSts could turn their
attention. Ii we raise too much of any
thingthe losses sustained by the producers
are most disinheartening. Hundreds OF
farmers can bear us out in the statement
that in scme seasons, after AL the care
and anxiety and labor of raising a crop.
they have at last found the markets piut-
ted and prices too low TO pay their eX-
penses. There is therefore, no more sense
IN setting everybody to farming, than
there would be in setting them all to
making hats, or boots, or fans, or steam
lre engines.


Employments must be diversified. An
excess OF the agricultural interest is no
more desirable than an excess of the COM
merclal or manufacturing. And here is
The true utility of the cities and town,
great and small. Their vocation is to
find or provide markets for the agricuI-
tural produce OF the country. Thus Viii
mington and Philadelphia have to provide
markets somewhere for the glorious fruit
crops Of South Jersey, Delaware and
Maryland. In this manner Chicago finds
markets for the prodigious cereal crops of
the West; while New York markets the
cotton and tobacco crops Of the South.
To Well-regulated and prosperous agri-
cultural region these cities and towns.
large and small, are as essential US the
seed sown to produce grain, or the live
stock raised for meat and the depreciation
Of them must proceed solely from want
Of reflection.


Indeed, we have often thought that the
leading cities generate and stimulate agri-
cultural thrift and improvement quite as
much as they DO railway enterprises or
mining ventures. Their capital is ever
foremost i'll the introduction Of improved
agricultural machinery or processes, and
OF superior breeds of live stock and varie-
Away from these cities the movement of
agricultural life is apt to become sluggish
and to stand in need ofsome stimulant


Nor are these cities mere collections of
drones who require to be fed by the in
dustry Of the farmer. The country sup
plies food, and the city IN return gives i'm
plcments of husbandry, clothing, all the
essentials of advanced civilization. More
than this, the city takes the farmers raw
materials and applies them to the arts,
and without this arrangement much Of
what the farmer uses would be useless TO
him. No nation can expect to go on H.
creasing indefinitely il population by
simply depending on agriculture, for an
agricultural population must necessarily
be sparse, and beyond certain limit it





by having numerous cities Of all sizes,
with diversified industry, and indefinite
expansion can be sustained. What is
needed is profitable work for the people,
and this can only be provided In the way
stated. Hence there is no occasion to
urge everybody to go to farming.