i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
653 
around to be the fashion once more,” and 
here we have a return of the good old times 
when the office sought the man. When, at 
the earnest solicitation of his farmer and 
granger friends, Mr. G. consented to become 
a candidate, he plainly told them he could 
never resort to the methods of the ordinary 
politician—he had no money, and if he had, 
he would scorn to use it for such a purpose, 
and as for canvassing the district, he had 
not the time, and if he had, he feared his 
self-respect would not allow him to do so. 
The reply was: ‘ We want you for these 
very reasons.’ So the matter was left in 
the hands of the farmers, and it causes 
great rejoicing among all who believe in 
purer methods in politics, that while 
those who resorted to trickery and cor¬ 
ruption ‘ got left,’ the man who stayed at 
home, and attended to his legitimate 
business, was the choice of the people. 
Mr. Gifford has long been prominently 
identified with the Grange, having served 
as an officer of the State Grange for the 
last 10 years, and was last winter elected 
Master at the annual session of the State 
Grange held at Watertown. He is also a 
charter member of Union Grange No. 244, 
of Jamestown, which is probably the 
largest Grange in the world, having a 
membership of about 475. He has also, for 
many years, been engaged in the work of 
fire insurance for farmers, having held the 
position of secretary in the Chautauqua 
County Patrons’ Fire Relief Association 
since its organization—an institution which 
he was largely instrumental in building 
up, and which has saved many thousands 
of dollars to its members, and now carries 
$4,000,000 risks on farm property. He is 
also secretary of the New York State Cen¬ 
tral Organization of Co-operative Fire In¬ 
surance. He is, and always has been, a 
farmer, laboring with his own hands, and 
living on the same farm on which he was 
born, 60 years ago.” 
THE ISSUE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
The crisis is here. The division lines are 
drawn. Farmers, laborers of tlfis great 
State, open your eyes and act before the 
golden opportunity has passed by forever ! 
Is it necessary for the press to explain to 
the farmers of the State their depressed 
and unsatisfactory condition ? Do you not 
behold in whatever direction you cast your 
eyes, labor controlled by plutocrats and 
corporations; families in a starving condi¬ 
tion in a land of plenty, yea, of super¬ 
abundance ; while the employers are erect¬ 
ing magnificent palaces and living sump¬ 
tuously on the life and sinews of the poor, 
depressed and unprotected farmers ? The 
time has arrived when you cau undoubtedly 
change your present condition, regardless 
of Democracy or Republicanism. The 
choice is between right and wrong; be¬ 
tween corporations and honest labor; be¬ 
tween Monopoly and exorbitant prices for 
manufactured goods, and Labor with fair 
profits for agricultural products. Farmers 
are you satisfied to sell all your products 
for rom 25 to 50 per cent, less than the cost 
of production? Can you afford to sell 
wheat for 80 cents per bushel, the raising of 
which costs, in most sections, $1 ? Can 
you afford to pay nearly all the taxes, both 
direct and indirect ? Do you know that out 
of $41,000,000 of taxes raised in Pennsyl¬ 
vania you pay $34,000,000, while your prop¬ 
erty represents $250,000,000 less than the 
other property in the State ? Do you know 
that your land has depreciated in value 
from 30 to 50 per cent, in recent years ? Do 
you kuow that the sheriff sells, on an aver¬ 
age, 20 Penusylvauia farms per day ? Do 
you know that you cannot afford to pay 
your hired hands more than $10 to $12 each 
per month, while corporations can easily 
afford to pay from $40 to $100 apiece to 
their men for the same time ? 
Do you kuow that your votes send to the 
legislature and Congress, men who work 
in behalf of corporations who take 
your money and squander it? Do you 
know. that the two tax bills passed 
by the State legislature were finally de¬ 
feated by corporations by underhand means 
and intentional accident? It was not for 
want of proper legislation that the equali¬ 
zation tax bill failed to become a law three 
years ago, since it was passed by a large ma¬ 
jority. On the contrary, it was defeated by 
the President of the Senate and the Gover¬ 
nor. The intelligent farmers place the blame 
entirely upon the latter. The Chief Execu¬ 
tive is a necessary factor, and right here 
our representative erred when he said: “ I 
no not think the farmers need have any 
great interest as to who is Governor.” 
I contend the first requisite for the farmer 
is to see that the Chief Executive is a fair, 
honorable, intelligent man who dares to do 
right; wbo dares to sign bills properly 
passed by the legislature even though op¬ 
posed to the interests of corporations; a man 
who holds sacred honor first and pecuniary 
matters second. There is no trouble in hav¬ 
ing these honorable measures passed by the 
legislature since the enlightened farmers 
and laborers unite in sending petitions to 
their representatives with such large lists 
of names that they dare not fail to uphold 
their cause and many are compelled to 
pledge themselves before their election. 
W. M. BENNINGER. 
ILLINOIS FARMERS AROUSED, 
I am not a farmer, nevertheless I was 
brought up on an Illinois farm, and 
followed it until I was 21 years old. I feel 
to-day as though I was as much interested 
in the welfare and happiness of our farmers 
as if one of their number. My parents 
were among the first settlers of Central 
Illinois, having migrated to this State in 
the fall of 1819, and settled on what was, 
and is known as the South Fork of Mau- 
vaisterre, eight miles south-east of where 
Jacksonville, the county seat of Morgan 
County, is located; a beautiful inland 
town, 18 miles east of the Illinois River. 
Central Illinois contains the finest and 
most productive land in the great ‘‘Mis¬ 
sissippi Valley,” and ought to have the 
most prosperous and happy people in the 
world; bat, alas ! nearly half of the farms 
are covered over with mortgages held by 
Eastern capitalists and manufacturers. 
I have spent over 66 years of my life 
within a radius of 50 miles of this place, and 
have been a close observer of things; but I 
have never seen so much uneasiness and 
dissatisfaction among farmers as at this 
time. It seems that they are unanimously 
flocking to the Farmers’ Alliance and other 
farmers’ organizations. This (Menard) is 
a small county, yet small as it is, there are 
in it 36 different lodges of the Farmers’ 
Alliance. From present indications, the 
two old parties (Democratic and Republi¬ 
can) will be sadly disappointed after the 
November elections. The farmers all say 
they mean business this time and intend 
to vote for no one for either Congress or 
the State legislature, who is not pledged 
to their interests and principles. I am confi¬ 
dent that when our State election is over in 
November, the Alliance will have the bal¬ 
ance of power in our legislature; then look 
out for a readjustment of the legal rate of 
interest in this State; it is pretty cer¬ 
tain to be reduced from eight to six per 
cent.; and a law will provide that all 
mortgages must be on the assessors' books 
for their full amount, or not be collectable. 
A stern effort will also be made to get Con¬ 
gress to lower the tariff on the necessaries 
of life and put the extra taxation on the 
luxuries, and also a law will be advocated 
to suppress all pools and trusts. The 
farmers of the West are determined to 
have a more extensive market for their 
agricultural products. The home market 
is not sufficient to consume their beef, pork, 
wheat, corn and oats. This and some of the 
adjoining States, when they raise aver¬ 
age crops, can ship one-half of all their pro¬ 
ducts and then have sufficient for home 
consumption. T. P. antle, m. d. 
THE GENEVA BUTTER SCHOOL. 
(RURAL SPECIAL REPORT.) 
The fourth and last of the series of butter 
schools of the season, under the auspices of 
the State Dairymen’s Association,was held 
at the Experiment Station, Geneva, from 
September 2 to 5 inclusive, and, all things 
considered, was the most successful of the 
series; not that the students were more in¬ 
dustrious or intelligent or did more or 
better work ; but because of other causes. 
First, the improvement in the place of 
holding it—it being the Experiment Sta¬ 
tion with its large, roomy buildings and 
beautiful grounds; then the numerous and 
novel attractions which the place presented 
and the presence in person of Mess. Collier, 
Van Slyke, Whalen and Emery, each of 
whom rendered valuable aid in addresses 
before the class and in answering the 
queries found in the question box. Indeed, 
but for their valuable assistance, especially 
on the last two days of the session, Presi¬ 
dent Gilbert would have had to “ go it 
alone,” as Colonel Curtis was forced to 
leave on the evening of the second day. 
The Hon. Josiah Shull, Secretary of the 
State Association, presided, and after a few 
remarks of an explanatory nature, intro¬ 
duced Col. Curtis, who made the opening 
address with the following headings as 
texts: Plants and Animals; Nutrition; 
Compensation; The Cow; Foods; Tield; 
Solids; Fats, etc., etc. He said farmers 
were too Becluded and retiring, as i? 
ashamed of their calling. They should 
hold up their heads. Their occupation is 
one of the highest and noblest. They 
should meet oftener. The time is at hand 
when they will see the importance of more 
mutual conference, and it will be brought 
about by just such meetings as this. Co¬ 
operation is as necessary among farmers 
as among those who follow other indus¬ 
tries. He had been present in New York 
City on Labor Day and witnessed the 
demonstration and parade. Almost every 
conceivable industry was represented, ex¬ 
cept that of the farmer. Co-operation 
brought them together. Every branch of 
labor but that of farming has an organiza¬ 
tion. Farmers are exclusive, each travel¬ 
ing alone, and each a competitor with his 
neighbor, and every other farmer is com¬ 
peting with him. He will not take the 
time to perfect an organization. Where are 
the farmers and their families who are liv¬ 
ing so near us ? They are at home. They 
think if they follow in the footsteps of 
their fathers and grandfathers they are 
doing well enough ; but they are not. Com¬ 
petition necessitates more knowledge. The 
farmer is a manufacturer, and the world is 
constantly calling for a better class of prod¬ 
ucts. If the farmer does not realize the im¬ 
portance of this fact and square his actions 
to conform thereto, he will be left in the 
race. The market will no longer accept 
dairy products and pay the best prices for 
them, when made on the old plan. Only the 
best fresh goods sell at remunerative prices. 
The manufacturers of other goods are con¬ 
stantly improving them and lessening 
their cost by the introduction of new and 
improved machinery, and they become 
acquainted with all the details of their 
work. The farmer must do the same. Go 
home and into the parlor; open the windows 
and let in the sunshine; get a pencil: call 
in the family and hold a conference with a 
view of seeing if you cannot make an im¬ 
provement in your method of farming. 
Then go out into the fields and study plants 
and animals. We are each of us walking 
plants, and do not know enough of plants 
and animals. 
The first requirement to obtain good but¬ 
ter is a good cow, then she must be well fed 
with proper foods, nutritious and properly 
prepared. Nitrogenous and carbonaceous 
foods should be properly balanced. (These 
were shown by the charts and their analyses 
explained.) It is through such methods 
that compensation is derived. Thousands 
of acres in this State have been deserted be¬ 
cause their owners have impoverished the 
soil by the constant cropping of 100 years, 
selling the crops, removing them from the 
farm and refusing to restore the plant 
food which had been taken from the soil ; 
therefore no compensation has come to 
those farmers. Such plant food cannot be 
restored without growing nutritious crops 
which will feed the animals and the soil at 
the same time. There is a law which, if 
obeyed, will produce this result: the dairy¬ 
man should study and obey it, if he would 
derive compensation. All successful dairy¬ 
men are doing it. There is too much preju¬ 
dice among the majority of farmers against 
what they term “ book farming,” and “ sci¬ 
ence.” We should all be friendly to science. 
There are thousands of acres of what is 
known as fodder corn grown every year, 
that are not worth harvesting because of 
the way the seed has been put in. If the 
planters of this corn had more science and 
less prejudice, they would not pursue such 
a course Butter should contain no fertil¬ 
ity, but some of it does hold a good deal. 
The cow is the farmer’s machine for 
manufacturing dairy products; therefore 
he cannot know too much about her. We 
do not spend time enough in observing her 
habits and ways. There are no two alike. 
Each has her own individuality for the 
special purpose of putting solids in milk. 
Some cannot put any in because they were 
not made so that they could. One-third of 
the cows in this State are of that character; 
therefore they are unprofitable. No cow 
can produce something from nothing; yet 
some owners think she can, and feed heron 
that line. Study the characteristics of 
your cows; test them; keep only good ones— 
those that will pay for what they eat, and 
feed them only such foods as will produce 
the best results. There were 12.76 to 33 
pounds of milk for one of butter, at the 
institutes last year. No other class of 
manufacturers could do business on that 
line. The result is due to indifference, 
carelessness and ignorance on the part of 
the owners. Not in Central Africa can be 
found a company of men practicing such 
ruinous methods. This state of affairs in 
the dairy extends into every State, but, 
thanks to the work done at the butter 
schools and conferences, and at the farm 
institutes, improvement is seen all along 
the line, and to-day our dairy products are 
selling at top prices in the markets. 
At the close of the lecture an opportunity 
was given for questions and answers, and 
then an adjournment was taken to Wed¬ 
nesday morning. 
(To be continued.) 
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