No. 4.] COMPETITION AND THE FARMER. 407 



but have furnished a surplus for exportation. Not only has 

 the power of production been multiplied, but cheapness and 

 rapidity of transportation have placed the products of what 

 seemed but yesterday the vast unknown at our very door. 



The policy of our government has been this : first, to 

 build the railroad ; then to say to the nations of the earth, 

 "Come to us ; buy a ticket over our road, and a farm is 

 waiting for you at the end of your journey at your own 

 price." The Swede, the Norwegian, the Pole, the German, 

 have nocked to these lands ; neither forest nor stones have 

 delayed their occupancy. These people have lived upon the 

 barest necessities of life ; the log cabin or dug-out is the 

 home, while a pair of horses, a plough, and a harrow consti- 

 tute the equipment. They are able at once to cast the seed into 

 land rich in plant life. The Massachusetts farmer stands but 

 small chance to meet competition in the products which this 

 settler can put onto our markets and obtain the same price 

 as those grown here. It is cheap land pitted against lands 

 that but recently have commanded a large price ; it is land 

 of abundant richness as against that in which the nitrogen, 

 potash, and phosphoric acid have become exhausted. In ani- 

 mal industry there is the advantage of a mild and almost, 

 winterless climate, as against our long and rigorous winter. 

 If large capital is invested, it is pitting the wholesale pro- 

 ducer as against the small retail grower. It is matching the 

 expenses of the rudest and simplest mode of living against 

 the rightful demands of a Massachusetts home. 



It is often asserted that, if our farmers would live as 

 frugally as our forefathers did, they might accumulate 

 money. They have no right to be content with any such 

 mode of living. This is an age of progress in the things 

 that contribute to man's well-being ; the farmer not only 

 has a right to a place in the procession, but should demand 

 it. 



From a broad and patriotic stand-point (the true point 

 from which to look), this policy of our government has 

 doubtless been wise. Should not all patriotic citizens 

 rejoice at the size and productiveness of Uncle Sam's farm, 

 stretching as it now does with an almost unbroken furrow 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific ? Abundant food must ever 



