DOES FARMING PAY ? 25 



general store, except as they may incidentally aid to make 

 the prodiK'iiig-labor of others more eiBcient and powerful, and 

 from this they must be supported. 



Agriculture is acknoAvledged to be the chief among our great 

 producing industries. Labor in this department is funda- 

 mental, in that its products are a new creation of indispensa- 

 ble and valuable materitd out of that which previously was 

 valueless. Nor is this all. So indispensable are its products 

 of raw material that farmers have absolute control of all other 

 industries. So imperative are the wants for his food-products, 

 and so unchanged is this demand by trade fluctuations, by 

 whim, caprice or fashion, that the last farthing, if not the 

 very life of all other classes, are at his disposal. Therefore, 

 it is to be presumed that farming pays ; and if it does not, it 

 must be the fault of those who pursue it. If a pursuit which 

 is fundamental to everything else, whose products under any 

 circumstances cannot be dispensed with, does not give fair 

 remuneration for the labor expended upon it, a great wrong 

 exists somewhere, let that pursuit be what it may. As already 

 stated the irreat ao-o-reo-ate of the nation's wealth is but the 

 result of private prosperity and gain. Therefore, a wise 

 and parental government especially aids, encourages and pro- 

 tects those classes of its citizens whose labor as individuals 

 tends primarily to this result. Our question should therefore 

 be examined and answered from two stand-points : First, 

 Does farming pay the nation? Second, Does farming pay the 

 individual? For it is possible that, owing to adverse circum- 

 stances, or to some improper system in the distribution of 

 the products of labor, the nation may be growing rich, while 

 the great mass of laborers are growing poor, or do not obtain 

 just compensation for their toil. And first. Does farming pay 

 as a national industry? I answer. Yes. No other industry 

 creates ahsolntelij so much useful material and wealth as farm- 

 ing. This is most conclusively proved by the statistics col- 

 lected by the difierent departments of the national govern- 

 ment in the census of 1870. The returns show that we have 

 406,735,041 acres of actual farm-lands, improved and unim- 

 proved, exclusive of lands in cities and villages. Allow that 

 this land was worth to the government one dollar and twenty- 

 five cents per acre before its value was enhanced by agricult- 

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