88 
The responses to the March circular, relative to causes of discour- 
agement, afford no indication of permanent hardship or remediless 
disadvantage. Indeed, the more serious of the evils complained 
of may and should be overborne as a direct result of effort that 
never would be put forth but for the weight to which the burdens have 
attained and the co-operation secured by a public complaint of them. 
The leading difficulty in the West, and a prominent one in all sections, is 
the burden of railroad transportation, which eats up the bulk of the 
farmer’s heavy products, unless he wisely insures their being eaten in- 
stead by the animals of the farm, for he has his choice, to fatten beeves or 
bondholders. This burden is more irritating from the fact that the ship- 
per in many cases pays more for carrying a bushel of corn a short distance 
than for a longer one on the same road. Inthe South the great trouble 
is with its labor ; not its relative costliness so much as its unreliability, 
nor its inherent insufficiency so much as its instability, while in other 
sections there is a general complaint of its high cost in comparison with 
the prices of its fruits. The other causes of discouragement complained 
of are numerous, and among them are low prices of most farm-products, 
high rates for merchandise, and increase of cost of agricultural imple- 
ments; poor crops, resulting from drought, from lack of drainage, want 
of irrigation, and deterioration of soil; ravages of grasshoppers, the cot- 
ton-caterpillar, the Colorado beetle, the chinch-bug, the hop-louse, and 
many other insects ; the depredations of dogs, plunder by vagrants, and 
the increase of Canada thistles; the cost of fences, the scarcity of fence- 
materials, and the attempt to cultivate too much land; extravagance, 
a spirit of speculation, and discontent with the business of farming; 
poverty, laziness, misdirected effort, and slovenly practices; want of 
transportation facilities, lack of a home market, and need of manufac- 
tures; a habit of buying on credit, unnecessary expenditure, and ina- 
bility to hold products for higher prices ; the combinations of ‘* middle- 
men,” including the grain-ring, the flax-ring, the implement-seller, the 
commission-merchant, and the huckster; the extension and re-issue of 
patents which have paid handsome dividends ; and, among other things, 
venality, corruption, and unworthiness of corporation and government 
officials. There is alsoa great deal of complaint of taxation in all parts 
_ of the country, and especially in the South, where it is generally coupled 
with denunciations of the local government—a complaint of paralysis of 
agricultural energy, caused (as expressed by our correspondent at 
Gadsden, Florida) by “a government of irresponsible and reckless 
strangers, who have gained the confidence of the ignorant class to op- 
press the farmers of the State.” 
A small minority of the reports declare that no cause for discourage- 
ment exists. They are scattered through the country, more frequently 
in Pennsylvania, where prosperity of manufactures and mining have 
given great encouragement to agriculture; in New York, Michigan, 
Indiana, Texas, and California.. In Westchester, New York, the only 
depression is said to arise from the fact that ‘“‘those who want to sell 
cannot get ten times as much as their farms are worth.” Columbia, 
New York, is another happy county, where the farmer, while getting 
only 18 to 25 bushels of rye per acre, is enabled to obtain $20 per ton 
for the straw, through the influence of manufactures; and in Living- 
ston “the farmer is independent, his condition needing no improve- 
ment.” Defiance, Ohio, defies ‘misfortune, and “increases in wealth 
and population faster than ever ;” and Williams claims that “ prospects 
are fairer than ever.” No discouragement stalks in Kanawha, West 
