V 
i89i 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
131 
THE FARMER’S CHANGED CONDI¬ 
TION. 
Mr. Rodney Welcher tells us in the 
Forum that during his childhood, which 
was passed on a rocky hill side farm in 
New England, farmers constituted a class 
more nearly independent than any other in 
the community. They were engaged in 
domestic husbandry, which embraced the 
care of cultivated fields, pastures, gardens, 
orchards and forests. They produced 
nearly all the food that was necessary for 
their families. Every farm-house was then 
a manufactory, not of one kind of goods,but 
of many. All day long in the chamber or 
attic the sound of the spinning wheel and 
loom could be heard. Carpets, shawls, 
bed spreads, table covers, towels and cloth 
for garments were made from materials 
produced on the farm, which provided 
nearly every article of food. In those times 
most of the trade of farmers was carried 
on by barter. Eggs, butter, cheese, and 
smoked hams were taken by country store¬ 
keepers in exchange for groceries, dry 
goods and notions. 
The farmer of the present day has no 
necessity for bartering his products. He 
has no occasion to use eggs instead of coins 
when he is making small purchases. Every¬ 
thing he raises commands a price, though 
it may be small. Still, the average farmer 
seldom has money in his purse for any 
great length of time. The sum he receives 
for his products is generally anticipated. 
He is ordinarily in debt to the grocer, the 
dry goods merchant and the dealer in agri¬ 
cultural implements. His place is mort¬ 
gaged and the interest due on his borrowed 
money must be paid annually. He often 
has to make sacrifices of live stock to ob¬ 
tain money to pay taxes. 
Still, with all these apparently beneficial 
changes, with machines to do nearly all 
the work, with money for their products 
instead of “ store pay,” with a market at 
the door, with more leisure and less 
drudgery,he doubts if farmers are any better 
contented with their lot, or if they obtain 
more enjoyment from life, than they did 
in old times. He also questions if they are 
more prosperous. They are generally in a 
condition of unrest, if not of discontent. 
Their social condition has not improved, 
as has that of mechanics and traders. Most 
of them are anxious to leave the farm for 
the store, the shop, the mine, or the loco¬ 
motive. 
In olden days every boy in the streets of 
Rome could recognize a countryman at a 
glance; while a resident of the city was 
distinguishable by his elegant manners, as 
well as by his clothing and language, when 
he visited the country for purposes of bus¬ 
iness or pleasure. This interesting history 
was repeated in France just before the 
revolution. With little doubt, it was the 
cause of that event. Cities had grown in 
wealth and power at the expense of the 
country. The taxes collected from farmers 
were used for the benefit of those who 
lived in the towns. For a long time the 
rural population submitted to constantly- 
increasing oppressions, but a day came 
when they rebelled, and in a week they 
righted the wrongs of many decades. 
The migration from country to town 
commenced in our Northern States near 
the close of the civil war, and it has been 
steadily increasing till the present time. 
It has included the most desirable and the 
least desirable of the inhabitants of the 
rural districts. It may sound strange to 
Eastern readers, but it is nevertheless true, 
that in the States of Illinois, Wisconsin 
and Iowa more farms have been deserted 
by their owners than in New Hampshire, 
Vermont and Massachusetts. In the New 
England States owners leave their farms 
because the labor spent in cultivating them 
is no longer remunerative, but such is not 
the case in the prairie regions of the West. 
There the owners of farms leave them for 
the reason that they can obtain sufficient 
rent from tenants to enable them to support 
their families in towns. Cities in several 
of the Western States contain hundreds of 
retired farmers. Springfield, Ill , and 
Janesville, Wis., are good examples of the 
towns in which these absentee landlords 
reside. They obtained land at a low price, 
and improved it with the intention of re¬ 
siding permanently upon it; but when 
they became independent they divided 
their farms into small tracts, erected cheap 
buildings on them, and leased them, gen¬ 
erally to persons of foreign birth. 
These retired farmers, or absentee land¬ 
lords, take little interest in maintaining 
good roads in the township in which their 
land is situated, or in sustaining schools of 
a high grade. As a rule they do not even 
keep up the improvements on their farms 
or commence new ones. They erect no sub¬ 
stantial buildings, plant no orchards and 
vineyards, and set out no ornamental trees 
and shrubs. Their farms are worked, as 
mines and quarries are, for the amount of 
marketable material they can be made to 
produce. As their tenants ordinarily lease 
the land from year to year, they have no 
interest in making improvements. Occa¬ 
sionally a stately residence, surrounded by 
lawns and pleasure grounds and affording 
evidence that it has been recently erected, 
is still seen in the country; but it is not 
often the home of a grain producer or of a 
general farmer. It is more likely to belong 
to a breeder of fine stock, to some wealthy 
man who moved out of the city for the im¬ 
provement of his health, to a person who 
is raising fruit or stock as a pastime, or to 
one of that much-ridiculed, greatly-abused, 
but very useful class known as “ fancy 
farmers.” The successful farmer now de¬ 
fers erecting a house of such a character 
till he has moved to the town. 
Wealthy farmers move to town because 
they wish better social, educational and 
religious advantages than are afforded in 
the country. The desire for amusements 
also exerts an influence. When one family 
of refinement and culture leaves a farming 
neighborhood, several are likely to follow 
its example, till finally the desire for 
agreeable companionship causes nearly 
every farmer of intelligence and refine¬ 
ment to leave the place which he had 
fitted up for a home. The result of this is 
the formation of a distinct peasant class, 
such as is found in Bavaria and Bohemia. 
In entire counties in Illinois and Wisconsin 
the English language is scarcely ever 
heard outside of the large towns. The 
church services are conducted in a foreign 
tongue, and instruction is given in it in the 
schools. The intellectual condition of the 
people who occupy farms there is not 
above that of the lowest class of laborers 
in our large cities. The townships they 
inhabit seem like detached portions of 
central Europe put down near the center 
of the new world. Nominally these men 
may be citizens, for town politicians have 
had them passed through the naturaliza¬ 
tion mill; but they know little and care 
less about the institutions of the country. 
Farmers have long been losing their place 
and influence in the councils of the State 
and nation. Our later Congresses have not 
contained enough farmers from the North¬ 
ern States to constitute the committees on 
agriculture. Our national law-makers 
have known so little about what would 
promote the prosperity of farmers that 
they have favored measures that have 
greatly injured agriculture. They have 
insisted on developing the national domain 
in advance of a demand for any more land 
for cultivation, and they have purchased 
Indian reservations of great size and have 
disposed of the land at a price that has 
scarcely paid the cost of surveying and the 
expenses of the land offices. By these 
means they have encouraged tens of thou¬ 
sands of persons to engage in farming who 
would otherwise have remained in other 
pursuits. The offer of free land, or of land 
at a nominal price, has tempted many to 
leave shops, mines and vessels, and to en¬ 
gage in agriculture. These have become 
the competitors of the producers in the old 
States who had spent much time and money 
in improving farms. They have overstocked 
the home and foreign markets with grain, 
meat, vegetables, fruits, dairy products 
and honey, and as a consequence the price 
of nearly every farm product has declined, 
sometimes below the cost of the labor re¬ 
quired to produce it. 
The rural districts have not shared with 
towns the recent great improvements in the 
postal service. In large towns, letters and 
papers are collected and delivered several 
times each day without cost to those using 
the mails. There are sub-postal stations as 
well as a general post office. At each of 
these, postal notes and money orders are 
made out and cashed. But in the country 
the postal facilities are hardly any better 
than they were a century ago. There are 
no money-order post offices, except in large 
commercial and manufacturing towns, and 
no free collection and distribution of mall 
matter. If a farmer wishes to mail a letter 
he must go to the post office, perhaps 10 
miles away, to do it. If his commission 
merchant writes him to forward his cattle 
or grain quickly, as the price is high, the 
chances are that he will not receive the let¬ 
ter till the market has fallen. 
No good reason can be assigned why 
money orders should not be issued and 
cashed at every post office in the country. 
As to the free collection and free delivery 
of postal matter, the people in the rural 
districts are as much entitled to them as 
town people are, although the service could 
not from the nature of things be performed 
so often in a sparsely-settled region as in a 
thickly-populated one. The general intel¬ 
ligence of any class largely depends on its 
facilities for learning what is going on in 
the world. Favoring one class gives it a 
special advantage, which in time will pro¬ 
duce marked results. Depriving country 
people of the postal facilities that are en¬ 
joyed by those who live in large towns, 
tends to lower their intellectual standing 
and to keep it below that of those who live 
in cities. In nearly all European countries 
the postal facilities are as good in the rural 
districts as in the large towns. In several 
of those countries country people have the 
advantage of the parcel post and of postal 
savings banks. They are not slighted be¬ 
cause they cultivate farms and vineyards, 
or raise cattle, sheep, and fowls. 
It is plainly the duty of our government 
to preserve the constantly-diminishing 
class once known and honored as country 
gentlemen. They were the fathers of the 
Republic, and for a long time constituted 
our true nobility. The little remnant 
should be preserved and, if possible, in¬ 
creased. The founders of our government 
never intended to foster absentee landlords 
and to create an ignorant rural peasantry. 
A Sudden Change of Weather 
Will often bring on a cough. The irrita¬ 
tion which induces coughing is quickly 
subdued by Brown’s Bronchial Troches, 
a simple and effective cure for all throat 
troubles. Price, 25 cents per box.— Adv. 
The Duty of the Government.—I t is 
the duty of the government to administer 
public affairs, and the duty of the people 
to manage their own private affairs.— 
Senator Carlisle. 
Meditating Mischief.— Congress is evi¬ 
dently preparing to do as much mischief 
by its meddling with the finances as it did 
by its meddling with the tariff, and that is 
saying a good deal.—Providence Journal. 
(Rep.) 
Always name The R. N.-Y. in writing to 
advertisers. 
NOTICE. 
The Vermont Farm Machine Go., 
of Mellows Fulls, Vermont, has been ap¬ 
pointed Sole Licensee and Agent for the sale 
of the Combined Mutter Extractor and 
Separator, and other manufactured product of 
the rmted states Butter Extractor Co. 
New York, Jan. 27th, 1891. GEO. HOADLEY, Pres’t. 
H. G. TAUBE, General Manager. 
EXT RTC T OR-sTPflRATOR. 
pared to supply tl 
Improved Mm 
ter lCxtractoi 
and giiarante 
it to do all that 
claimed for i: 
Itwill make a fin 
quality Of Buttt 
and dotlioroug 
andclean wort 
If It Is not desire 
to extract tli 
butter direct; 
from the milk.thc 
It can be used as 
Cream Separato 
i’or this purpo: 
is unequaliei 
We say to allske] 
tics that we wl] 
when so desired pi 
one in beside an 
S UFA MATO 11 
and will guaraii 
tee that itwill ski 
more milk, ar 
; ;do itmorethorous 
"than any SEPj) 
It ATOM of same price or no sale, 
it Is the BEST andoNLy Butter Extrac 
It is the H EST Cream Separator. 
SENDFOHiLJ.IjSTKATED’cXitCULAIWr 
VERMONT FARM MACHINE C0„ 
BELLOW, FALLS. V'l'. 
FOREST TREES. 
Catalpa Speciosa, 
White Ash, European 
Larch, Pines, Spruces, 
Arbor Vitas, etc., etc. 
' ‘ Catalpa Speciosa Seed. 
Forest and Evergreen 
Seeds. 
R,DOUGLAS & SON, 
Waukegan, III 
F OR SALE.—Seventy acres improved farming 
-land, located about 3^ miles south of New¬ 
burgh, N. Y. Has large barn (new) and double tenant 
h use. Good supply of water Is well adapted for a 
dairy or stock rarm. Three-quarters of a mile from 
s'ation of Krle Railroad. Address JOHN B. HALL 
Brewster Building. Newburgh, N. Y. 
The New Tomato! 
From Canada ought to be extra early, and as such it 
Is sent out. The reports of the experimental stations 
speak highly of It. and numbers tes ify to its earll- 
ness. productiveness. large size, roundness, rich color 
rud freed m from rot. Per package, 15 cis.. five for 
GO cents. You “ill And i* only in my seed catalogue, 
which will be sent FREE to anybody. 
J. J. H. GREGORY & SON, Marblehead, Mass 
SEEDS 
wl>ByS3r Hreenhovse- 
and HAR,DY PLANTS 
3C?R0SES,Bi/LbS 
f SEED P° h T 6 A S E 5 
C.EALLEN tJ8S?JSS$ 
AROOSTOOK VALLEY 
SEED POTATOES. 
FOURTEEN VARIETIES. 
Three thousand barrels grown upon our own 
farms. Pure and true to name. Catalogue free. 
H. 8. HARDISON «fe CO.. Caribou. Me. 
Rural New-Yorker No. 2. 
Seed tubers of this famous potato for sale. Guaran¬ 
teed pure. 
H. V. >1. DENNIS, Freehold. N. J. 
Berry 
Plants 
i>y 
Mall. 
8 doz. of 3 good kinds. 25e. 300 
of 4 kinds, early to late. # 1 .OO, 
I.OJUfor #1 and up. Pricelist 
free. P. R. Eggs, 50c. for >8. 
SLAV.MAKER & NON, Dover, Del. 
Yale Strawberry. 
A late variety, of large size, perfect blos¬ 
som. Splendid shipper and of excellent 
quality. Send for circular. Address 
STEPHEN HOYT’S SONS, 
NEW CANAAN. CONN. 
O n iAn QnaH Genuine South port (.lobe 
lllUll OCCU Buy at HEADQUARTERS. 
Also "and Wheel IIOEKand DRILLH. Ttiemost per¬ 
fect tools for Market Gardeners. Send for ratalogue. 
Manur’d by C. O. .IELLIFF At CO., Southport. Ct. 
The plant"r should always bear in mind 
THE FOUHDATION OF FINE FRUIT, 
and If you will send us your address, 
we should be happy to send you our 
catalogue, devoted to what 
WE BELIEVE TO BE GOOD TREES & FLINTS. 
H. J. HILLIARD & CO., Portland, Conn. 
Pyrus Japonica. 
FOR HEDGING. $5 PER lOO. 
All kinds of ORNAMENTAL Nursery Stock. 
Send for Descriptive Catalogue. 
SAMUEL, C. MOON, 
Morrisville, Rucks Co., I*a. 
RUGKEYE SENIOR 
Mamr ■ A UI1I 
Made in 
10, 12,14, 16 
and 18 inch 
cut. Most Re¬ 
liable Mower 
use. Easy to work. 
Strong and Durable. 
Also Manufacturers of the Rnekeye Hone Reel 
and Lawn Sprlnkler.Ir on Turbine Wind En- 
f lnes. Buckeye Force Pumps and Buckeye 
ron Fencing. Send for Illustrated Circulars to 
MAST, FOOS & CO., SPRINGFIELD, O. 
Oook Your Feed and Have Hulf 
the Cost with the 
Profit Farm Boiler, 
With Dumping Caldron, empties 
Its kettle in one minute. Tiie simplest 
and best arrangement for cooking 
food for stock. AIho make Dairy and 
Laundry Stoves, Water and Steam 
Jacket Kettles, llogNcalders, Cal- 
druiiM, Etc. Send for circulars. 
D. R. SPERRY & CO.. Batavia, III. 
jglWILLIBMS 
Grain Threshers, Horse Powers & Engines 
II partici 
8T. JOHNSVILL,E AGR’L WORKS, 
St. Jotuuiville, Montgomery Co., New York. 
FOR SALE OR EXCHANGE. 
FOR A GOOD FARM. 
A choice business property In a fine village in the 
famous Genesee Valley, consisting of three good mills 
and the entire water power of the Genesee River at 
this place. The mills are a flouring and custom mlD. 
a planing mill, shingle mill, sash door and blind ma¬ 
chinery and a good circular sawmill-all good 
frame bui dings run by good turbine water wheels 
doing a good business, 80 rods to Main Street: two 
railroads, free high school, good churches, g->od 
society, good opening for bu-lness man Price $18,000- 
terms easy. For particulars address immediately 
L. F. HULL, Belfast, N. Y. 
