CHANGES IN FARMING. 



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tomed before that epoch, by immense numbers of the people. The 



possession of the means ed to the gratification of numerous wants, 

 and to indulgence in numberless luxuries never before thought of. 

 The demand for these, including, as they did, the products of the 

 whole circle of industrial and artistic pursuits, enabled the men 

 who suppled those wants and those luxuries to pay rates of wages 

 to all who assisted them altogether beyond what the farmer could 

 afford to pay for work at the diminished prices which his products 

 commanded. Thus it was that wages, greatly enhanced as they 

 were during the war, did not fall off with the cessation of war's 

 demand. They were sustained by new demands called into being 

 by the simple fact that the war gave means to thousands upon 

 thousands to pay for what they never before dreamed of "owning 

 or indulging in. The element in this unprecedented condition of 

 things which is to be regretted is, that the new demand came to 

 exist in consequence of an abnormal abundance of money, or of a 

 substitute for money, to buy with ; because it did not come by a 

 more gradual and Jiealthy development. of productive industry. 

 The sad truth is that it came of borrowing, it came about by antic- 

 ipating future earnings, by spending to-day what must be earned 

 to-morrow — and pay day must come and will come — some time. 



Far be it from me to intimate that it was wrong or impolitic to 

 do as we did in incurring the debt, or that we did not get our" 

 full money's worth for all which was spent, and what is of greater 

 value than any amount of money besides, a united country, 

 together with the establishment of the principle of national sov- 

 ereignty in all its scope and force. In the emergency that was 

 upon us there was no help for it, and it is, beyond all calculation, 

 better for us to-day than if we had done otherwise, but it is well 

 for us, nevertheless, while enjoying the priceless blessings which 

 we do, to remember that the bills are not all paid yet. 



But with such unlimited call for labor all around us, is it to be 

 wondered at that our young men should seek avocations and em- 

 ployments which yield larger remuneration than does the farm 

 under existing circumstances ? I can neither see in it anything 

 surprising, nor, in this aspect, anything to be regretted. For the 

 very first requisite of a successful agriculture, in an advanced state 

 of civilization, is markets. What it wants, most of all, is demand 

 for what it produces. Not a feeble call for a little to be paid for 

 from lean purses, not a loud call from peoples so distant that the 

 half or three-fourths or nine- tenths (as has sometimes happened) 



