506 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



This inequality of production is the result of temporary conditions, 

 which, it is hoped, the good sense and correct judgment of farmers will 

 remedy in the early future. The pioneer settler is far less a farmer than 

 a speculator. At present he is engaged in a land speculation, appro- 

 priating acres from an unoccupied domain to bequeath to posterity, 

 possibly a little reduced in productiveness, but certainly largely en- 

 hanced in price. And he finds it convenient to grow wheat year after 

 year, till the weeds choke out all growth, with little labor and no culti- 

 vation, to get the ready cash with which to construct houses and barns, 

 build fences, buy plows and reapers, and more cheap land. At a later 

 day the pioneer or his successor will be quite as progressive as the 

 advanced cultivator of the older settlements. 



It is conceded that we might possibly produce a surplus of bread- 

 stuffs sufficient to feed two or three small nations of Europe, but that 

 it would be both impolitic and unprofitable to do it. We have both the 

 land and the labor, but prefer to have a wiser distribution of labor in 

 production. Doubtless our customers in Europe would find it profita- 

 ble if unequal distribution of productive effort should produce a great 

 surplus of cotton, wheat, maize, or meat. Not many years have elapsed 

 since cotton-growers were compelled to accept $45,000,000 less for a 

 crop of four and a quarter million bales than they received for the pre- 

 ceding crop of three million bales. 



The facts of industry and wealth in history of nations show that gen- 

 eral thrift and national wealth do not depend on numbers, but upon a 

 wise distribution of productive forces. Labor that is inharmonious and 

 unequal in its distribution among the industries is unremunerative. 



If nearly all workers are in agriculture, there may be abundance of 

 food, and but few other comforts or appliances of civilization, and little 

 money to procure any. Agricultural nations are proverbially poor. In 

 India 70 per cent, are engaged in agriculture, yet its products have 

 been estimated at a value of $8 per capita; in this country 44 per cent, 

 are so engaged, and agricultural production averages $64 for every 

 man, woman, and child of the population. So it is everywhere in Europe 

 as well as in less favored quarters of the globe. 



Should we so unequally distribute labor as to be compelled to sell 

 grain to buy dry goods, there is a bar to the disposal of a large surplus 

 in the fact that few nations can afford to buy, or pay for if bought, except 

 to a very limited extent. Fifteen years ago, when our export of grain 

 was far less than at present, less than three per cent, of our wheat sur- 

 plus went to all other countries exclusive of Great Britain and her de- 

 pendencies. 



Again, while our agricultural surplus is greater than that of any other 

 country on earth, it is insignificant compared with the volume of our 

 consumption. We exported in 1883 products valued at — 



Three hundred and sixty-two million dollars, and the same year had to pay from 

 this sum two hundred and forty millions for food and drink imported, besides large 

 additional sums for transportation and commissions. When we remember that these 

 exports are reckoned in sea-board prices, and that farm prices are only half or two- 

 thirds as much, the difference between shipments and receipts is narrowed down to a 

 sum that is small, if not insignificant, compared with the value of the home consump- 

 tion. After paying for imports of food and beverages with exports, it is found that 

 only 2 or 3 per cent, of a net surplus of material for subsistence is left, and that is an 

 exceptionally large national showing. Other countries balance far more nicely their 

 little exchanges of food products. Nations must be independent in the matter of sub- 

 sistence or risk their very existence. We cannot depend on Europe for a market for 

 our farm products. There must be such distribution of labor here that the farmer can 

 get a fair price for his productions without hawking them around the world to be 

 eaten up by an army of carriers and forwarders. 



