118 The Tariff and the Farmer. 



the prices of manufactured goods have already advanced 

 to so high a level that, taking in the entire agricultural 

 community, the higher price of farm products has been 

 fully offset. The products of the farmers of the eastern 

 states have increased little if any in value. The gain, 

 so far as we have noted, has been mostly in western 

 products, and at the south in cotton. In Massachusetts 

 the retail price of milk, the farmer's great sale product, 

 has, until a few months, for many years, remained un- 

 changed. At least this is the case in Worcester County. 

 The recent advance has been chiefly caused by the higher 

 price of western grain. This and other factors have more 

 than offset all the gain made by the higher price of milk. 

 If the farmers as a whole have received a larger net 

 gain, give the manufacturers a little more time to tighten 

 the bands of group monopoly, and it is certain that agri- 

 culturists will not be burdened with much superfluous 

 cash, even if their farms produce great crops for which 

 high prices are received. 



SUMMAKY. 



(1) Ex-governor Boutwell is convinced that farmers 

 find it hard to make the two ends meet ; and W. J. Grhent 

 believes that a change is going on that will ultimately 

 reduce the farmer to the sixteenth-century level. 



(2) National statistics show that tenantry farming 

 has increased nearly 100% from 1880-1900; a gain four 

 times that made in farm ownership. In all the sections 

 and states, ownership is rapidly losing ground. 



