PRACTICAL PAPERS. 
2 77 
adding to the price, until the amount he pays is like the Irish¬ 
man’s definition of preaching, “all cost and purty much al 
profit.” It is safe to estimate that he pays a trader’s profit of from 
10 to 100 per cent, over the cost of manufacture and transporta¬ 
tion on nearly all that he is compelled to purchase. Submitting 
to this double toll, is it a wonder that the farmer, the most frugal 
of men, can scarcely make ends meet, and keep off the dreaded 
mortgage, which like a millstone drags him down to insolvency l 
Is it a wonder that he looks over the field with a rueful eye, when 
he sees but little, if any, added wealth as the result of his unre¬ 
mitting labor and depreciated soil ? It is evident that something is 
wrong here. The fault is not in Providence for sending poor 
crops. It is not altogether, though in a large measure, in rail¬ 
roads for charging exorbitant freights, nor is it to the extent that 
some political economists suppose, attributable to tariffs. It lies 
mainly, I believe, in the fact that the farmers are tolerating a 
cumbrous, imperfect method of effecting exchanges, and are pay¬ 
ing very dearly for it. It is a system which, while it draws 
legions from the productive walks of life, lacks a single element 
of economy, and is likened to that system of civil service which 
multiplies offices, and thus renders the transaction of public busi¬ 
ness tedious, complicated and expensive, for no other reason than 
to furnish a government an excuse to employ an exceeding great 
multitude of officials, which no tax payer wishes to number. 
The old times of few and simple wants have gone by. Civili¬ 
zation, a!s it advances, is constantly increasing our wants, con¬ 
stantly placing before us the temptation of new objects of desire. 
The list of articles we must purchase is almost certain to increase. 
On the other hand, the vast and increasing competition in agricul¬ 
ture is likely to keep down the price of farm products, and our 
western system of farming, as at present conducted, is likely to 
keep down the yield. It would seem, then, that a system should 
be devised by which the farmer can buy and sell to the best pos¬ 
sible advantage. How this can be done, is a question that is 
freighted with much importance, and one that is worthy of pa¬ 
tient study and careful experiment. 
For the accomplishment of this result, various methods have 
been suggested, and all proceed upon the idea of co-operation or 
