442 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JUNE 22 
2. Some are shipped, but the hogs mainly 
go to our packing houses and the cattle are 
slaughtered. Oats go to our oat-meal mill, 
milk to the creameries, and a small portion of 
the corn is shipped. 
3. Quite satisfactory; prospects good. 
4. The prices realized are pretty uniform. 
5. I think an improvement may be justly 
claimed, but there has not been much change 
in the kind of farming. Our farmers try to 
cover too much ground—they take off too 
much and return too little. Much of the 
manure that accumulates in our city goes to 
fill wash-outs, at the expense of cartage. 
Cedar Rapids. A. C. K. 
FROM INDIANA. 
1. Corn, hay, oats, clover seed and wheat 
are the chief crops raised here, all of which 
are fed to stock except the last two. 
2. Our stock are sold mostly at Cincinnati 
and Indianapolis. Some good stock are ship¬ 
ped directly East, having been sold to local 
buyers. 
8. Prices of agricultural products have 
gradually decreased during the last few years 
except those of hogs. N one of us can see a 
shadow of hope for better prices. Prospects 
for future production are good. 
4. Prices are generally uniform and so are 
the products. 
5. Farming has changed, for the work is 
more thorough, but there is plenty of room 
for improvement. T. E. H. 
Greensburg. 
1. Wheat, corn and considerable oats, hay 
and potatoes. 
2. Local dealers usually buy all. 
3. Prospects are not very flattering for 
farmers who try how much ground they can 
till; but for good farmers, small fruit and po¬ 
tato growers, prospects are fairly good. 
4. Same prices are usually got by all, but 
those in debt and who hasten to sell usually 
make a sacrifice. 
5. There has been very little change in 10 
years, but potatoes and small iruit have been 
grown more extensively, and find ready sale, 
and some make them very profitable. Noth¬ 
ing could profit farmers more here than to 
work in harmony for their own interests. 
Bourbon. J. H. P. 
1. Wheat is now and always has been the 
staple money crop; but corn, oats, vegetables 
and stock of all kinds are very profitably 
raised. 
2. Farm products are usually sold at home 
to men engaged in the purchasing business; 
some of them are commission agents, but 
most of them are men who use their own 
capital. 
3. Prices for all farm products have gen¬ 
erally been low and the prospects are not very 
encouraging. 
4. It is very seldom that farmers get more 
than the market price for anything except 
for butter, and when they do get more it is on 
account of the superior quality of the product. 
5. Farming has changed considerably in the 
last 10 years, principally in the raising of 
more corn, oats and stock. Farmers are 
learning that it is more profitable to feed 
stock and use up all their grain and rough 
feed on the farm than to ship the grain and 
waste the rough feed. One of the best and 
most profitable changes for the farmers would 
be for them to organize themselves into com¬ 
panies and all stand for each other as one 
man. J. s. 
Lima. 
1. Mainly wheat, corn, potatoes and small 
fruits. 
2. Dealers in our home market buy the 
products. 
3. Prices are low when crops are good. 
Prospects for the future are fair for a first- 
class article. 
4. Some find a readier sale for their prod¬ 
uce, by offering a first-class article in proper 
shape but very little if anything is obtained 
above the average price. 
5. More are going into growing potatoes 
and small fruits. Five acres of potatoes are 
planted now to one 10 years ago. 8ome ex¬ 
pect to make a success with small fruits re¬ 
gardless of having a liking for the business. 
South Bend. T. a. p. 
1. We depend principally for money upon 
corn, using wheat, oats, barley and rye to 
change the land. 
2. We sell the corn to our grain-dealers, 
also to starch factory and cannery. 
8. Average price of corn 30 cents; rye 40. 
Copious rains have made the future prospects 
for crops at present very flattering. If the 
harvest proves fine it is hard to tell what 
prices will be. 
4. Farmers who can hold their grain get 
from the average to the highest prices. 
5. Farmers seed their land to clover and 
Timothy, feed their farm products to hogs 
and cattle and depend more on grass crops 
than in the past. To obtain better results 
foul land must be restored by seeding to grass 
and the most profitable stock must De pro¬ 
duced. Deeper plowing on old land would be 
a good change, and if farmers would use 
more fertilizers and raise more vegetables 
their profits, comfort and health would be in¬ 
creased. T. R. 
Atlantic. 
FROM NEW JERSEY. 
1. Milk, hay, potatoes, rye straw, green 
corn, truck, apples, cider, vinegar, small 
fruits, poultry and eggs. 
2. The products are sold in the small towns 
around, or in New York. Some sell to con¬ 
sumers, to store-keepers, and to buyers who 
gather up and take to Newark. 
3. Prices have averaged fair the past few 
years. The prospects for future look dull 
tome. 
4. The farmers who get the best prices sell 
good articles to consumers. 
5. I think farming has not changed much 
in the past 10 years. We are not good farm¬ 
ers here. A number act as agents for ma¬ 
chinery, fertilizers etc., or do team work. 
The general opinion is that “ farmin’ don’t 
pay ” well. I think there is need of mere 
manure, labor and brains. Too many farms 
are rented and skinned; the land is strong and 
somewhat hilly. O. R. w. 
Westfield. 
1. All that may be included under the 
term ‘truck,” more especially early potatoes, 
tomatoes, canteloupes and sugar corn; also 
late tomatoes of which a large percentage are 
contracted for by local canneries, and 
small fruits, more especially strawberries. 
Late cabbages have been increasingly rais¬ 
ed and until the last year at a good profit. 
Probably one third of the farm profits here¬ 
abouts is derived from dairy products, chiefly 
in the form of milk. 
2. The greater part of all these is consum¬ 
ed in Philadelphia and Camden and their 
environs. Strawberries and late cabbages 
are largely shipped to distant points by com¬ 
mission dealers. 
3. Prices have averaged very near the 
starvation point for encumbered farmers for 
the last three or four years. Wnere one arti¬ 
cle has brought a fair profit, there are two 
that scarcely pay the cost of production. 
Future prospects of better times are based 
wholly on uncertainties mainly the weath¬ 
er. The past year has proved that a season of 
universal moisture is a boon solely to the con¬ 
sumer in its first effects. As to the future, 
some farmers are being driven out and this 
may help those who are able to remain; but 
there are many other factors to be considered 
ere a man can exercise the gift of prophecy 
to advantage. 
4. Of late years, those who have produced 
goods of a superior quality have often found 
that the highest prices received were not, as 
formerly, in proportion to the increased cost 
of production. Nevertheless, it is only those 
who aim at the highest quality consonant 
with a paying quantity, who get along at all. 
5. Our farming methods and the character 
of farm products have materially changed in 
the last decade. Southern competition In 
early fruits and vegetables, combined with 
the enormous increase in city populations, 
has diminished the interest in early truck¬ 
ing and increased proportionally the dairy 
interest of our locality. In the highly perish¬ 
able class of small fruits and vegetables, 
Southern competition cannot materially affect 
the home market for home products, and 
hence the demand for and production of these 
are ever on the increase. The immense can¬ 
ning industries of our State conduce to the 
same end. s. m. s. 
Haddonfields. 
FROM CONNECTICUT. 
1. Milk, butter, poultry and general farm 
crops; small fruits, largo fruits, and all kind 
of fruits possible to raise. 
2. Milk, poultry, eggs, butter and a great 
deal of produce are sold direct to the consum¬ 
ers, large gardeners and stores. 
3. Prices have been good to fair. Good, 
fresh produce generally brings a fair price. 
4. Yes; by being first with everything in 
its season, dealing honestly and selling to the 
consumer for cash. 
5. There have been many changes, with 
the young men especially. A good creamery 
would bring profit both to farm and farmer. 
Birmingham. G. M. d. 
FROM ALABAMA. 
1. In spring, vegetables, such as potatoes, 
cabbages, peas, beans, cucumbers and toma¬ 
toes; in fruits, such as strawberries, plums, 
peaches and pears. I won’t state the prices 
obtained as they might look too big. 
2. Our products are sold in Western cities 
through commission merchants. 
3. Prices have averaged good for the past 
few years and the prospects are good for all 
that can be raised in the future, because not 
one acre in 100 is under cultivation. 
4. Some of our farmers generally get 
prices above the average, usually because 
their products are nicely assorted and packed 
in good shape. 
5. Farming has changed very much in the 
last 10 years, owing to new facilities for ship¬ 
ping and the remunerative prices obtained for 
vegetables and fruits. 
6. Yes, our lot would be much better by 
the destruction of those abominable frauds 
called express companies. 
Let the railroads give us rapid transit at 
reasonable rates, and let Congress initiate 
the movement by amending the postal laws 
so as to give us a parcel-post at about four 
cents per pound. Such a law would not affect 
vegetables and fruits, but it would every¬ 
thing else. c. c. w. 
Grand Bay. 
FROM WASHINGTON. 
1. This immediate neighborhood has been 
settled but a few years, and a large part of 
the people have not cleared enough to make a 
living on the ranch, so they work out in log¬ 
ging camps to raise money. Those that make 
money for support at home, make it on hay 
and cattle; but there are few of them. 
2. To lumbermen. 
3. Prices are good, ana prospect very good. 
4. So far, prices are about equal for all. 
5. No changes have been made. Farmers 
still raise oats on the diked tide lands; fruits, 
vegetables and hay, on the river valley lands. 
There will be many changes, however, as the 
country develops, and transportation be¬ 
comes more convenient. This valley is 
heavily timbered, and most of the people 
came here poor; but the climate and soil are 
hard to beat. No such thing as failure is 
known, and coal, iron, and gold are found, 
the two former in abundance, and there is no 
end to the lumber supply. Money seems to be 
pretty plentiful. Immigrants are coming in 
large numbers. R. H. p. 
Mt. Vernon. 
FROM MICHIGAN. 
1. Wheat, wool, beef and pork. 
2. Wheat and wool are sold to elevators, 
and beef and pork are sold on foot to drovers. 
3. Prices of wheat, wool and pork were in 
1888 better than usual; but those of beef were 
very low. Calves are selling for $1 to $3 
apiece now. The future looks bad. Farms 
are selling low. 
4. None. 
5. There has been a change this year to the 
production of early lambs by using a Shrop¬ 
shire buck on Merino ewes. We are also 
raising more coach and carriage horses. 
Farmers stick steadily to mixed farming. 
Almont. J. f. f. 
1. Wheat, hay and wool. 
2. Wheat is sold to the millers and shippers ; 
bay to shippers at the railroad stations; wool 
to the woolen mills and to Eastern buyers. 
3. Wheat has brought from 70 cents to 
gl 18 for No. 1; hay from $6 to $16 per ton; 
Wool, unwashed, 12 to 20 cents; washed 20 to 
40 cents, according to quality. Prospects for 
wheat and hay are good. 
4. The better the farmer the better the 
grain and price. 
5. Farming has grown better; we have 
better stock, and building improvements are 
made every year. Perhaps dairying would 
pay if properly managed. We have cream¬ 
eries in the county, but they claim to pay 
only expenses. I. G. D. 
Grand Blanc. 
FROM NEBRASKA. 
1. At this point corn and oats «>re the main 
crops,with occasionally some flax. Very little 
wheat is raised on account of low prices and 
poor yields. 
2. The corn is sold to cattle feeders and 
some of the farmers feed it to stock them¬ 
selves. 
3. Prices for corn and oats have ranged 
from 15 to 40 cents. Some corn and oats last 
year sold for 40 cents; they are selling now 
at 20 cents per bushel. 
4. Those who get more than the market 
prices are men who are able to hold their 
crop until corn becomes scarce. 
5. I don’t think there has been much change, 
only in raising wheat. The price of the crop 
has been so low and the yield so poor that 
very little has been raised for the last two 
years. The price of wheat has been from 30 
to 50 cents; but good wheat is now worth 85 
oents. J. M. 
Gibbon. 
FROM SOUTH DAKOTA. 
1. Wheat and flax seed. 
2. We sell to warehouses in the towns, 
owned and run by large grain companies. 
3. The average prices have been about 50 
to 60 cents for wheat; $1 for flax. Farmers 
will get better prices by having their own 
warehouses, as they are beginning to do 
through their “Farmers’ Alliances.” 
4. Yes, by having clean, sound grain to sell. 
5. There have been no changes as the 
country has been settled only six years. 
Still farmers are raising more corn, as they 
are finding it pays well. c. H. s. 
Holabird. 
1. In the Black Hills farming is conducted 
as a side issue to stock raising. 
2. We have a handy market at our mines of 
gold, silver and tin, for our surplus cereals 
and vegetables, and we ship fat stock and 
wool East. 
3. Prices have been good in the past and 
prospects look brighter as our mines are be¬ 
coming more developed. 
4. No. 
5. Not much has been made. As in all new 
places, we scratch the ground a little, put in 
the seed and trust to luck. Wool raising is 
my source of revenue. J. w. b. 
Hermosa. 
FROM ILLINOIS. 
1. Strawberries are the principal products, 
then oats and the products from a little mixed 
farming. 
2. In Chicago and towns north ot it by 
commission merchants. 
3. The prices have been low and prospects 
are very dull. 
4. A few, by having something that is fancy. 
5. Farming has changed a little. Years 
back we raised wneat as the principal crop 
and gome hogs. Then the chinch bug became 
so troublesome and prices so low that almost 
every one quit raising wheat. There seems to 
be an opinion that more meadows would be 
better for us here. J. k. 
Centralia. 
1. The products of mixed farming. 
2. At the nearest shipping points where 
they are bougnt by commission dealers. 
3. Prices have been very low with the ex¬ 
ception of pork, which has been from four to 
five cents per pound. Cattle have not paid 
expenses. Horses have been profitable: quite 
a large number have been shipped from here 
to St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver and to the 
Eastern markets. 
5. Improved machinery, a more thorough 
cultivation, a better knowledge gained from 
reading agricultural papers, have caused a 
great change in farming. No paper in my 
estimation is equal to the Rural New- 
Yorker. J. t. H. 
Mendon. 
1. We depend principally on corn and hay 
in connection with stock raising. 
2. A large portion of the corn is fed to hogs, 
which are sold to local buyers, or middlemen 
who ship them mostly to Indianapolis. 
The corn not fed at home is sold to local 
grain dealers at the nearest shipping points. 
Hay is sold to dealers at the nearest points, 
who bale it and ship it mostly to the Southern 
markets. 
3. The average prices for the last four 
years have been as follows; hogs live weight 
$4 50 per 100 pounds; corn about 28 cents per 
bushel; hay from $6.00 to $10.00 per ton, ac¬ 
cording to quality, averaging probably $8.00 
at home. 
4. By securing a good, clean, well-cured 
crop of Timothy hay cut at the proper time, 
say, as soon as the bloom is off, farmers may 
get an advance of, say, $2.00 per ton on the 
above prices, and an advance on hogs by hav¬ 
ing the best of well-bred stock well fatted. 
5. Down to 10 years ago farmers depended 
mostly on raising wheat and selling it and 
other grains to grain dealer's to get cash. 
Now they teed more of their grain on the farm 
than heretofore, thereby increasing the a- 
mount of manure and increasing the value of 
their products. I would suggest that if the 
farmers of this section would turn their at¬ 
tention more to sheep raising and the dairy, 
and to the improving of their breeds of 
cattle, they would make more money, and 
get better prices. The average prices for al¬ 
most all farm products are low at this time: 
corn 25 cents; oats 18 cents; wheat 75 cents; 
potatoes 0,00; hay $6.00 to $7.00per ton in the 
stack or barn; sheep $2.00 to $3.00 per head, 
clipped; wool 24 to 26 cents per pound. Cat¬ 
tle, butchers’ stock $2.50; the shipping grades 
$3.00 to $3.50 per 100 pounds. K. J. M. 
Sbelbyville. 
1. Southern Illiuois.or this part of it,is pretty 
evenly divided between timber and prairie 
land. The ways or means of raising money are 
many; not one alone would do to depend on. 
On the prairie, Red-top, oats, and cattle; on 
the timber, wheat, clover-seed, hogs and cat¬ 
tle. 
2. At our nearest railroad stations, five of 
which are about equally distant—nine to 12 
miles—to local buyers. 
