364 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



farmers don't expect to get 10 per cent, interest on 

 their investments, though they have as good a right to 

 it as the capitalist or merchant. Then there is one 

 other thing which I did not take into account. The 

 stalks have no cash value, but they furnish fodder for our 

 stock. The only thing that has saved the Illinois far- 

 mer from complete ruin and bankruptcy has been his 

 stock. After our corn has been husked, we turn our 

 cattle into the fields and they will come out in the 

 Spring fat. I said that I would tell you why a large 

 farm might be made to pay, where a small one could 

 not. If a man has a large farm and capital enough he 

 can make money raising stock and hogs, because each 

 will get a certain percentage of its growth from material 

 on the farm that has no market, and is, therefore, really 

 of no value unless used in this way. Beside, the corn 

 which I feed to my stock and pigs, brings me much 

 more than twenty cents a bushel. 



" i I can give you some striking examples of the pro- 

 fit of raising corn and wheat in this vicinity, if you de- 

 sire. One forenoon a man went past here with a load 

 of sixty bushels of corn. He said that he had come a 

 long" distance had started at four o'clock in the morn- 

 ing. As he returned in the afternoon, I asked him how 

 much he had got for his load of corn. He held up two 

 pairs of boys' boots, and said that his sixty bushels of 

 corn, and $1 in cash, had just purchased them. It 

 took at least seven days' labor of a man and team to 

 raise that corn, and another long day to haul it to mar- 

 ket, to say nothing of interest on the farmer's invest- 

 ment and other expenses. I judge that each pair of 

 boots cost about five days' labor, or its equivalent. I 

 knew another man who took a ton of corn to market 



