242 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



But it is not in the purchase and sale of goods alone that 

 the farmer sees the benefit of an organization. A far 

 stronger point is in the help it gives him in maintaining his 

 business in its integrity, and not allowing the organized efforts 

 of others to despoil him. How can this be ; can the busi- 

 ness be wrested from his hands ? Perhaps not ; but it can 

 be so crowded down by customs, by unjust legislation, by 

 the avarice and greed of those who have no sympathy with 

 it, by the unjust extortion of those who live by handling its 

 productions (middle men, so called), as to render it unre- 

 munerative as a calling ; and unremunerative agriculture is 

 a national disaster. Our American farm homes, as we look 

 at them, are perfect pictures of peace and tranquillity. They 

 are the preservers of the ideas that have built up this repub- 

 lic. They have been the homes of the strong men who have 

 guided and controlled it. They have produced the educa- 

 tors of the people, and to them we look for the highest 

 examples of purity, honesty and uprightness. They are 

 essentially American. The cities are more than one-half 

 European. The future greatness of America will come from 

 her farms; depress them, curtail the income, reduce the 

 farmer in the social scale, as is his European brother, and it 

 will in corresponding ratio reduce the country's greatness. 

 But, on the other hand, enhance the condition of the farmer, 

 give him comforts and the means of education, and it will 

 show in the greatness, goodness and power of the nation. 

 Is there a need of investigating this feature of guarding the 

 business of farming? I answer, yes. The business of farm- 

 ing ought to be the best paying one in the country to-day, 

 but it is not, and if left without guidance, it will be worse in 

 the future. The individual farmer can do nothing to avert 

 this ; he may see the threatened danger, and exclaim against 

 it, but will be powerless to act. Let us enumerate some of 

 the threatened dangers, and then examine them a moment in 

 detail. The dairy interests are threatened by the evil of 

 oleomargarine. Unjust extortions by railroad corporations. 

 The injudicious clearing of forest lands. The organized 

 efibrts of speculators to depress prices. Changes in the 

 tariff rates. Foreign landlordism. The eflects of immigra- 

 tion, and many like questions we find in the list, giving the 



