142 



as well? Hundreds of cases like the above can be cited. 

 What better proof need be furnished to prove that good 

 farming does pay. An era of low prices is upon us. There 

 are causes that have long been at work and are still work- 

 ing, and we must expect lower rather than higher prices 

 in the future. The tendency in all departments of indus- 

 try is towards cheaper production, and there is no reason 

 why we farmers should be able to buy a lumber wagon, a 

 mowing machine, a shovel or hoe, a pound of sugar or a 

 yard of cloth for half the price of twenty years ago, with 

 out a corresponding reduction in the price of goods we 

 have to sell. 



Now comes the question, " Can Massachusetts farmers 

 at present prices get fair pay for their labor and interest 

 on capital invested?" In answer to which I will say it 

 depends upon how they farm. If he follows in the old 

 rues made by his father, and sells hay, small and inferior 

 vegetables and poor butter, I will answer no. But if he 

 farms intelligently, making every acre cultivated pro- 

 duce a good crop of somethingthat the market demands 

 or that can be fed upon the farm, and thus be condensed 

 and converted into more valuable forms, I answer yes. 



The farm is a factory where the raw materials are taken 

 and converted into more valuable forms. The further we 

 continue this process, provided the machines (animals) are 

 good ones, the better it is for both farm and farmer. With 

 eggs selling at thirty cents per dozen, and cabbage at fifty 

 cents per barrel, just think how much easier it is to mar- 

 ket a certain number of dollars worth of the former than 

 the latter. Thirty dozen of the former can be put up in 

 one hour and carried to market in a light wagon and will 

 bring nine dollars. ^^It takes eighteen barrels of cabbage 

 to come to that sum. It will take a man half a day to cut 

 and barrel that amount, and a man and heavy team half a 

 day to deliver it. The cost of putting up and marketing 

 the eggs will not exceed one dollar. The cost of putting 



