58 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT 



Real estate and improvements $39>544>544,333 



Mines and quarries, including product on hand . 1,291,291,579 

 Railroads and equipments, including street rail- 

 ways 8,685,407,323 



Telegraph and telephone lines, shippings and 



canals 701,755,712 



Total $50,222,998,947 



There is a small element of personal property in this total, 

 but to offset this there is some real estate that is omitted because 

 it is impossible to ascertain its value from the census reports. 

 The value of farm real estate is reported to have been $13,279,- 

 252,649, which is but 26 per cent, of the total real estate value 

 of the nation. The reported value of the real estate of the 

 nation outside of farms in 1890, was $36,943,746,298 ; this is 57 

 per cent, of the wealth of the country. This real estate outside 

 of farms is very largely situated in cities and towns, where it is 

 gaining in value faster than it is possible for farm land to gain, 

 (land has been sold in New York and London within a few years 

 at the rate of several million dollars per acre), and I assume that 

 it is partly due to this fact that the visible farm property consti- 

 tutes a diminishing ratio to the wealth of the nation as time 

 advances. 



The persistent efforts to supply the market with imitation or 

 adulterated food products is a matter of concern to the farmers as 

 well as to the consumers of the country. We are aware of the 

 fact that shoddy and other worthless articles are substituted in 

 the manufacture of so-called woolen goods by which the demand 

 for the product of the sheep is cut down and the consumer is 

 swindled in the purchase of goods that are not what they seem 

 to be. We are also aware of the successful efforts made by 

 wealthy corporations representing large capital to shirk their fair 

 share of the burdens of taxation. In all these matters the farm- 

 ers are vitally interested and will suffer greatly unless some 

 means can be devised to prevent these frauds. Farmers must 

 unite in demanding effective legislation, state and national, and 

 must send men to Congress and the Legislature who are in sym- 

 pathy with honest, fair dealing in all these matters. They must 

 also rally to the support of those who are charged with executing 

 the law and sustain them in every contest with those who wil- 

 fully violate or disregard the law. If the farmers will not assist 

 in fighting their own battles they need not expect other people to 

 fight for them. Very many of the things of which we complain 

 exist because we have permitted them to and because we have 

 been apparently indifferent in the matter of protecting our own 

 interests. If we desire a change for the better, we must bring it 



