INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 421 



Mr. Colliugwood: I suppose a person could talk all day on this sub- 

 ject and still there Avould be just as much to be said the next day. 

 There is no one reason for it. There are several that might be mentioned. 

 In the East the trouble with the farmer, and I think the chief trouble, 

 is all in the fact that in the past the farmhand has held his position 

 as inferior to other occupations. The farmer has not stood for his pro- 

 fession, and has not dignified it, and has not made it noble as they 

 should have done, and the result is that the people have chosen to "work 

 in other lines. If the farmers will not make their calling what it ought 

 to be— will not dignify it— other folks will not step in and do it for them. 

 I am not talking of the farmers of Indiana, for I do not know about 

 them, but I am talking of the farmers in the East. They do not get 

 the places they ought to because they let the middleman stand between 

 them and the wholesale man. The middleman gets more for handling 

 the product than the farmer does for raising it. I had to buy a ton 

 of hay last year. It cost me $ly.75 before I got it. That same week 

 I was writing to one of my friends in Iowa and he told me that he 

 was glad and delighted to get $4 for the best hay on his farm. This 

 is a difference of $15.75 between the price in Iowa and the price I had 

 to pay for it. This man has to help support three families besides his 

 own when he sells at this price, and he does the work. It is the same 

 way with your apples. And this is the reason the farmers do not get 

 the prices they should, and why they can not pay the prices that other 

 people pay for labor. The farmer should reach over the head of the 

 middleman and reach the consumers in the city himself. The farmers 

 ought to go together. 



Many of our laws have been against the interest of the farmer. In- 

 stead of rising up against them he sits still and continues to send the 

 same men to Washington to run things. The farmer makes a good living 

 on the farm, however, and some people think that as long as the farmer 

 is getting enough to eat he should be satisfied. That is all a farmer 

 ought to have. I do not expect to live long enough for these things 

 to be changed, but I hope the time will come when the farmer will take 

 the position to which he is entitled. He will not do it until he takes 

 it himself. First, the farmer must have confidence in the dignity of his 

 calling. If the farmers all should make up their mind that they would 

 only raise enough for their own use and the use of their family and 

 not one pound for sale, what would happen in the city? What would 

 become of Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, etc.? Grass would 

 be growing in the streets, and the people of the city would be down ou 

 their knees begging the farmer to go to work and produce food. The 

 farmer should have great credit. You should reach over the middleman 

 and do business for yourself entirely. 



President Stevens: I am sorry we can not continue this discussion, 

 but we have a lengthy program before us and we must discontinue it. 



