90 
lies, and the education of their children; and a man is very foolish to 
leave his children ignorant and his wife without comforts, and spend 
his profits in trying to better a quarter-section of land which, with good 
cultivation, will make him rich, as surely as anything he can do.” 
Many peculiar causes of discouragement are mentioned. Among 
others the cost of fences and the losses by unrestrained cattle are of fre- 
quent mention in nearly all parts of the country; but the evil is most 
severely felt in Texas and California. The following are sample ex- 
tracts : 
Franklin, Mo.—Another want sadly felt among thinking farmers is a good, efficient 
stock-law enforced. The scrubs would be got rid of, good stock only would be kept, 
and a good price could be got for it in market. As an example, I wiil add that two 
weeks ago I saw sold at a Saint Lonis stock-yard two milch-cows at $7.50 each, that 
ought to have brought the farmer $30 each. 
Refugio, Tex.—The great incubus that has for years been a moral and pecuniary 
pestilence to the State of Texas is the system of turning stock loose to roam at will; 
but we are not without hope that our present legislature, now in session, will relieve 
us of this evil. Then, with improved implements for which our country is so well 
adapted, we will show a satisfactory record. Take away the necessity of a fence to 
make a crop and we will furnish you meat of the finest quality, instead of the millions 
of hides from famished animals. 
Another evil operating against the stock interest is bitterly com- 
plained of in all parts of the South. 
Wilcox, Ala.—I believe there is more money’s worth burned in the fall and spring 
in my vicinity in the shape of dry grass and fences than there is of cotton sold, 
and that is all we do sell. But if sheep, hogs, and cattle are raised, the loss from steal- 
ing is so great as to discourage and disgust. One of my neighbors turned out last 
spring into a swamp pasture about sixty shoats. There has been no disease among his 
hogs, and he will have to buy meat to supply a family of five persons. 
The farmers in some portions of California suffer from another form 
of injustice: 
Tuolumne, Cal.—Lands segregated as agricultural by the United States surveyor? 
where there is no profitable placer-mining, where there is scarcely a mine that pays 
half daily wages, where the mines have been exhausted and the land filled up and 
reclaimed at great expense by the farmers, have been withdrawn as agricultural and 
declared mineral. The burden of proving their non-mineral character being thrown 
upon the farmers, and the cost of obtaining titles doubled, worthless miners are en- 
abled, by filing mineral affidavits, to blackmail them or force them to expensive trials. 
A common man cannot obtain a title without employing a lawyer, and his fees, the 
fees in the land-office; publications, citations, travel of himself and two or more wit- 
nesses from forty to one hundred miles to the land-office, will amount to as much, and 
often a great deal more than the amount paid the Government for the land. Where 
there is a contest, in nine cases out of ten the farmer had better abandon his land than 
go to the expense of a trial. The couniy officers, elected by the miners, have seldom a 
permanent interest in the county ; have been paid enormous salaries; have squandered 
money, and every mining county is hopelessly in debt. The rate of taxation in this 
county has been for years nearly 5 per cent. This year it has been somewhat reduced. 
As the miners, with but few exceptions, pay no taxes, the burden of taxation falls upon 
the farmers. The internal-revenue taxes have also been very heavy upon the wine- 
growers. The remedy is for the Government to recognize the fact that placer-mining 
is exhausted; that it is now a curse instead of a benefit; that it does not enrich, but 
impoverishes the miner, and is desolating and destroying the counties where it is 
carried on. 
Complaint is made that the tendency is strong among farmers to di- 
vert a part of their time and means to other business, sometimes to 
invest the profits of the farm in railroads that pay no dividends to orig- 
inal stockholders, when the farm is suffering for drainage investment 
that would pay 20 per cent. Some are making investments in building 
up towns and villages, and neglecting the improvement of the farms 
which gave them their surplus. An urgent protest against this tend- 
ency comes from Baltimore County, Maryland. 
