FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 113 



America, to the millions of months in the Old World. You recognize it 

 as a truism, when I say that the nations of the world are near neighbors, 

 and any shortage in one locality is easily made up by the overplus of 

 another. 



In South America, the cattle are, as you are aware, pastured on great 

 plains, where they can pasture the year around and under more favorable 

 conditions than on our high priced lands. They also raise great droves 

 of sheep; there are probably eighty millions of sheep in Argentine alone. 

 They are on lands where they can pasture all the year around and their 

 wool enters into competition with that raised on our high priced lands. 

 And yet farmers wonder that there is no money in sheep raising. 

 Farmers wonder that the price of grain is depressed. When you take 

 into consideration the vast waterways that they have in South America, 

 and how simple a matter it is to run the product of their wheat fields 

 into the very vessels which are to transport it to Liverpool — and the 

 amount of grain it is possible for them to export, running from thirty to 

 forty millions of bushels, coming into direct competition with the wheat 

 produced in the United States — the careful business man, looking about 

 him, will investigate all these subjects, and see if there is still a margin 

 for profit. It behooves the farmers of central Michigan to look these 

 matters over carefully, before engaging in any other business. South 

 America is not our only competitor; there is the great continent of 

 Australia. Africa in the same way enters as a factor, so far as sheep 

 raising is concerned, in the markets of the world. In wheat growing, 

 Australia does not enter as a factor, but there is the great peninsula of 

 Hindustan, with its cheap labor, and the plains of Austria, Hungary, and 

 Russia, and the British possessions of the Northwest Territory, exclusive 

 of British Columbia. Investigation shows that' ten states, the size of 

 Ohio, can be carved out of that territory, each of which can produce as 

 much wheat as is raised in Ohio. And yet men are looking forward to 

 the time when the price of wheat shall advance. 



The farmers in the western part of the State are complaining of a 

 deterioration of prices, and not only in the prices of products but in 

 prices of land. While it is true that the prices of land have lowered in 

 the western part of the State, still this deterioration has taken place all 

 over the United States and all over the world, with a very few 

 exceptions. 



Farmers often complain, as well as other people, of conditions concern- 

 ing them, for which there is no help; farmers ought to learn, as others 

 have had to learn, that they must be content with the conditions that sur- 

 round them. I do not mean by this that farmers must sit down in idle- 

 ness, and allow things to take their course; they should put forth every 

 effort possible to better their condition, and then not mourn or crj' out 

 against things that they cannot hope to make different. 



GETTING TOGETHER. 



I am to speak tonight, more particularly, on unity of action among 



farmers, and in this line I wish to show you something that may be 



accomplished by unity of action. A year ago, when the Michigan State 



Grange had its annual session, it was determined to put forth an effort 



15 



