THE BUSINESS SIDE OF FAKMING. 245 



protect its interests because of that love? Alas, I know of 

 none. Farmers, that question is in your keeping, — you must 

 organize and protect yourselves. All you can do alone and 

 unaided is to spare the old button ball tree in the side yard, 

 and perhaps neglect your alder swamp ; but that is not the 

 question of forestry. There are large tracts of forest lands 

 in all sections that the wanton spirit of destruction is ruhi- 

 ing ; drouth and barrenness will surely follow. It is our 

 business to protect ourselves in this matter. 



As one of the threatened dangers to agriculture against 

 which we must guard by organization, I have mentioned 

 speculation. Humanity has always been prone to indulge in 

 it, but I think that the genus homo as produced on Ameri- 

 can soil is more of an adept at it than the European variety. 

 Abroad gambling is not looked upon with much disfavor. 

 Here all good society discountenances it. The would-be 

 gambler turns speculator, and is honored by all classes, 

 except the farmer ; he has learned that the prices of the great 

 staple crops are not regulated by the law of supply and 

 demand, but by " corners," " puts," " calls," " futures," etc., 

 and every one of these acting as a depressor to his interests. 

 At the first glance we should say that it could not l)e 

 checked, but upon investigation we find that it has been 

 very efiectually restrained by farmers who have by organiza- 

 tion learned of the true state of the market, have built their 

 own elevators, stored their grain, organized their own banks, 

 from which they could obtain loans upon their crops so 

 stored if necessary, and thus defy these deliberate acts of 

 systematized robbery. Repeatedly have these co-operating 

 farmers saved their crops by so doing. I am of the opinion 

 that they understood the business side of farming. 



Tariff rates. A bone of contention, producers desiring 

 that it shall be one way, and manufacturers insisting upon 

 another, and neither just agreeing with the consumer. The 

 merits of this subtle question we will not pause to discuss at 

 present, but content ourselves with the statement that a 

 protective tariff benefits the farmer, and in order to secure 

 and maintain it, organization and co-operation of labor are 

 necessary. Sheep husbandry in the United States offers us 

 a suitable example. Why is the industry declining? Simply 



