The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
379 
Money  Lost 
HIO  CONDITIONS— I  write  on  Lick¬ 
ing  Co.,  Ohio,  finances?,  which  will 
apply  to  other  counties  in  all  the 
States,  and  clearly  show  cause  for  a 
good  share  of  the  conditions  so  un¬ 
satisfactory  to  the  farmers  in  them. 
I  came  here  in  1S7G  when  there  were  273.000  sheep, 
and  now  there  are  but  73,000.  I  did  not  cause  that 
reduction.  It  was  the  junkmen.  They  could  grow 
••wool”  for  about  a  cent  a  pound,  while  it  costs  con¬ 
siderably  more  to  get  it  from  pasture,  hay  and  grain. 
This  falling  away  reaches  back  47  years,  but  the  re¬ 
sults  of  the  following  calculation  are  so  startling  that 
T  use  but  20  of  them.  The  county  has  been  short 
200.000  sheep  for  20  years,  equal  to  4.000.000  for  one 
year.  A  moderate  calculation  for  the  net  revenue 
from  a  sheep  should  be  one  dollar  a  year,  so  we 
have  lost  the  awful  sum  of  $4,000,000. 
had  ever  had  it.  others  would  have  had  a  chance  at 
it,  but  this  little  speck  of  land  shows  that  appalling 
waste,  and  there  are  other  specks.  Every  reader 
knows  that  for  10  years  we  have  been  working 
towards  this  depression,  and  that  if  interest  on  the 
investment,  of  land,  machinery  and  their  repairs, 
fertilizers,  twine,  wire,  containers  and  the  labor  of 
horses,  men,  women  and  children  were  counted, 
farmers  were  losers.  Also,  the  farm  improvements 
like  buildings,  fences  and  enriching  soil  have  been 
neglected.  Listen  to  the  national  wail  about  land 
banks  and  credit  for  the  farmers.  If  iliis  county 
had  that  sheep  money  would  one-third  of  its  farmers 
need  to  borrow  to  pay  their  taxes?  Only  a  few 
more  years  and  the  bankers  will  scoop  in  a  lot  more 
land,  and  we  cannot  blame  them.  Is  it  not  about 
time  men  should  quit  trying  to  whoop  up  production, 
talking  about  foreign  markets,  and  turn  to  deficit 
hundred  thousand  acres  there  would  not  be  such  an 
expense  at  planting  time,  neither  such  a  glut  of 
vegetables  going  through  Camden  and  Jersey  City. 
The  dooryards  and  barnyards  would  not  be  covered 
with  hampers,  and  those  loaded  wagons  and  trucks 
that  start  for  the  dawn  markets  would  have  buyers 
meeting  them  on  the  roads.  Also,  these  sheep  would 
be  enriching  some  of  the  ground  and  making  wool 
and  mutton  of  all  that  shrubbery  (except  the  laurel) 
and  their  owners  gathering  in  some  easy  money. 
WORKING  FOR  PURE  WOOL.— Men  less  modest 
might  try  to  figure  the  loss  to  the  whole  country 
from  that  one  deficit  sheep  industry,  a  deficit  caused 
by  our  own  carelessness  while  we  wore  the  sheep 
poison,  shoddy.  We  are  short  tin*  revenue  while  we 
wore  and  rewore  “all  wool”  garbage.  Imagine  the 
power  of  the  farmers’  united  minds  and  money  if 
they  had  seen  and  blocked  this  destruction  of  an 
— 
Rome  T/iitle  Manufacturers  of  Virgin  W  ool 
COST  IN  CROPS. — That  is  not  all.  Counting  one 
acre  for  pasture,  hay  and  grain  for  five  sheep,  they 
would  have  needed  800.000  acres.  This  expanse  was 
devoted  to  hay,  grain,  vegetables,  etc.  which  during 
the  past  10  years  meant  swapping  dollars.  At  least 
half  of  it  was  cropped,  so  we  will  cut  the  number  in 
two  as  we  did  the  years.  There  was  no  fertilizer 
from  sheep  on  this  400.000  acres,  but  at  least  a  dol¬ 
lar  an  acre  was  spent  for  commercial  fertilizers. 
The  implements,  repairs,  supplies  to  crop  it  were 
more,  and  the  bone  labor  greater  than  both.  I  wish 
readers  would  run  over  this  very  carefully  and  criti¬ 
cise  it  thoroughly.  Farmers  are  beginning  to  think, 
and  panaceas  and  prescriptions  without  number  are 
handed  to  them  by  politicians,  professors  and  busi¬ 
ness  sharks,  so  we  want  to  find  if  a  common  old 
farmer,  a  country  school  graduate,  can  give  the  main 
reason  for  farm  depression. 
FARM  DEPRESSION. — Licking  Co.  is  short  In 
farm  money  or  farm  improvements  not  less  than  $0. 
000,000,  and  the  general  circulation  the  same.  If  we 
prodin  lions  before  we  become  irretrievably  finan¬ 
cially  emaciated? 
INCREASING  OUTPUT.— On  the  other  hand  if 
the  poultry  raisers  and  milk  producers  will  increase 
their  output*  10  per  cent  they  will  get  smaller  re¬ 
turns,  and  if  they  increase  50  per  cent  the  returns 
will  he  cut  in  two.  The  rule  will  hold  on  everything 
produced  except  deficits.  Think  what  a  stupendous 
loss  Ohio  has  suffered  because  it  was  not  awake  to 
the  dangers.  It  did  not  think,  but  ran  along  in  the 
easiest  groves,  letting  business  work  it.  We  would 
stock  up  with  sheep  only  to  clean  them  off  again,  or 
to  the  number  needed  for  scavengers,  and  take  no 
thought  about  a  remedy  for  the  trouble.  New  York 
had  over  4,000.000  at  that  time,  and  now  half  a  mil¬ 
lion.  Let  its  citizens  do  their  own  figuring  on  the 
loss  of  3, r> 00.000  sheep  for  30  or  40  years  and  find  it 
fearful.  Then  bright  minds  and  business  sharps 
prate  about  the  cause  of  dull  conditions. 
SIIEEP  TN  NEW  JERSEY. — New  Jersey  now  has 
10.000  sheep.  If  it  had  a  million  to  live  on  a  few 
essential  American  industry.  See  the  power  of  that 
shoddy  crew,  not  one  per  cent  of  the  people,  in  bus! 
ness  and  in  Congress.  Silent  forces  have  held  back 
a  Federal  law  to  tin*  loss  of  all  the  people.  Then  see 
the  evidence  of  tin*  power  of  w.22  •»-  thinking  sheep 
men  who  are  determined,  tin  ume,  to  restore  the 
sheep  industry.  Every  person  making  money  on  wool 
substitutes  is  on  guard,  in  every  State.  It  is  a  fight 
now  to  a  finish.  We  have  learned  our  power,  and 
we  promise  to  make  a  progressive  reduction  of  the 
surplus  and  furnish  honest  material  to  clothe  the 
public  1\  e  have  fallen  down  on  a  Federal  law  from 
(his  Congress,  but  are  nearer  the  Legislatures  and 
have  drastic  hills  in  Texas,  Kansas,  Wisconsin  and 
South  Dakota.  Other  States  will  follow.  At  the 
clothiers’  conventions  in  these  States,  the  president 
of  the  national  clothiers  attends  and  rants  against 
fabric  legislation,  which  shows  the  people  there  that 
they  owe  nothing  to  the  clothiers. 
DEMANDING  PURE  WOOL.— Already  we  have  a 
market  for  wool,  but  the  people  must  call  for  it  to 
