88 AMERICAN FARMS. 



London than the fruit districts of Ontario ; but it costs 

 more to put apples into the London market from the 

 former than from the latter. These centralizing influ- 

 ences gain more strength every day. 



But perhaps the most trying feature of our develop- 

 ment is the competition growing up between individual 

 operators, the big and the little. How is the small or- 

 chardist to live, who, for instance, is depending chiefly 

 upon his crop of two hundred barrels of apples, in com- 

 peting with the capitalist merchant, lawyer, or banker, 

 as great orchardists, who are satisfied with a small in- 

 terest on their investments. 



There are orchards in America which now turn out 

 from twenty-five to forty thousand bushels of apples. 

 Three hundred acres is the average of a fair-sized or- 

 chard in some parts of the United States, and there are 

 orchards in Canada coming into bearing, which are ex- 

 pected soon to turn out their five to ten thousand 

 barrels annually. 



The small farmers, in competing with their bonanza 

 competitors, must support families and provide them 

 with the necessaries of life through the whole year. The 

 large capitalist operator needs to the amount produced, 

 but a fraction of hired help, and needs it but a short 

 period in each year. 



But this is not all. The odds are entirely in favor of 

 the large operator every time an article is purchased 

 for use upon the farm. Special rates are always for 

 the capitalist's benefit in the commercial world. Thus, 

 we are forced to the conviction, that unlimited com- 

 petition, bearing on the typical American farmer, is a 

 condition which should be regarded as one of utmost 

 significance, 



