50 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



in another way. Every good business man knows best his own 

 business. The man who can invest his savings in extending the 

 business of which he is already the master has the best chance of 

 further success. The farmer who already owns a large, well im- 

 proved and well stocked farm has no such opportunity. As a 

 result his savings are invested in unknown fields ; and experience 

 has shown that results are often unfortunate. 



The farmer can establish no monopoly. The production of 

 agricultural staples is too widespread, the amount produced by 

 each individual bears too small a proportion to the entire output, 

 to render any attempt to increase prices through a combination to 

 reduce production, possible. Nor can he enjoy that monopoly in 

 the possession of brains, experience or reputation which enables 

 one doctor or lawyer to charge a thousand dollars for a service 

 which another would be glad to perform, perhaps ecjually well, for 

 twenty-five. One bushel of wheat or pound of pork is very much 

 like another, and while pounds of butter do differ very ma- 

 terially amongst themselves, yet in our day the enormous quan- 

 tity of practically perfect butter renders any such difference of 

 price impossible. 



The prices of farm products are materially reduced, and of 

 course profits as vv^ell, by the persistency of competition on the 

 part of those producing goods at a loss. When a parcel of goods 

 appears in the market it thereby increases the visible supply and 

 tends to reduce the price. The question of profit to the producer 

 cuts no figure at this stage. While no statistics are available it 

 admits of no doubt that a large proportion of the demand for 

 agricultural products is supplied by goods which have been pro- 

 duced at an actual loss. Now this is not true to so large an 

 extent in any other line of business. Agricultural products com- 

 pete in the same market whose cost of production varies 50 per- 

 cent and more. In manufacturing and commercial pursuits a 

 difference of one or two percent is ordinarily decisive. If a 

 merchant or manufacturer fails for any length of time to realize 

 a profit he goes out of business, either voluntarily or with the 

 help of his creditors. He ceases to be a competitor as soon as 

 it is settled that he is a failure. His goods soon cease to help 

 to glut the market. Not so with the farmer. Year after year 

 he clings to the old farm. Year by year the interest is added to 

 the mortgage. Year by }-ear the soil grows poorer, the stock 

 scrubbier, the farmer's living harder. And still the output of that 

 farm enters the market to help force down the price of agricul- 

 tural products. The leniency of a creditor often allows such a 

 state of things to go on for years, even after the security of his 

 loan has become impaired. It is not that competition is less 

 severe in agriculture but that it is less sudden, less decisive in 



