62 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



FARM BUSINESS CONDITIONS DURING THE PAST QUARTER 

 OF A CENTURY 



It was in the fall of 1896, now a quarter of a century ago, that 

 I began to take an active interest in the operation and management 

 of several thousand acres of central Illinois land, tho the responsibility 

 for its management was not assumed until a few years later. The 

 land did not lie in one body but in tracts ranging from forty acres up 

 to more than a section. Let us consider for a moment the conditions 

 existing in the farming business at that time, for they were worse then 

 than now. 



Some of you may recall a decline in the markets for farm produce 

 that began about 1889 and lasted without very marked improvement 

 until after 1897. During that time the barometer of farm business 

 seemed wholly unable to find its way into the fair weather section of 

 the chart. Corn sold for twelve to fifteen cents, and wheat around 

 fifty cents ; cattle went as low as a cent and a half, and hogs down to 

 two and a half cents during that depression. It was during this time 

 that the abandonment of the New England farms commenced, and 

 hundreds of them were simply deserted and left to revert to the 

 bramble and the briar. Alarmed at this condition, efforts were made 

 to import foreigners to run the land, but without success, and even 

 to this day that section has not fully recovered from the blight of that 

 condition. Kansas, during these years, had a particularly trying 

 time, aggravated by the cyclones, hot winds, grasshoppers, and other 

 visitations of Providence and politics. It was then that the great 

 movement from the country to the cities began, which continued 

 almost unchecked for more than a decade. Then, as now, Congress 

 was appealed to for legislative relief, but then, as will be the case now, 

 the recovery was gradual. Now, however, some measures of relief 

 are being advocated in behalf of the farmer that, in the end, will only 

 aggravate instead of ameliorate his condition, among them being the 

 issuing of the tax-exempt securities. 



Certain it is that things were bad enough, and there was not 

 much encouragement or incentive to remain on the farm. About 

 everybody left who could, but a good many, then as now, were in 

 much the same position as the fellow who had the bull by the tail. 

 He couldn't let go. In 1897, some of the best land in the estate was 

 offered for sale and brought from sixty-five to seventy dollars per acre ; 

 but even at those figures it was considered better to sell than to try 

 to make it pay interest on that valuation. 



