336 
Annual Report of the 
very rapid settlement of the West. The Middle States scarcely 
changed their production during this time, while the yield of New 
England decreased. 
These statistics show that there is in the West a large over-pro¬ 
duction of corn and wheat, and that this over-production is so great 
that when the requirements of the other states are supplied, there 
is still on hand a large surplus for which a market must be sought 
abroad. This is exceedingly gratifying as showing the great capa¬ 
bilities of the West to furnish bread for the world, and as an index 
of the rapid progress and development of its agricultural resources. 
But when regarded with the full bearing that they have upon the 
permanent prosperity and happiness of a great portion of the coun¬ 
ty, they become serious questions, demanding careful and thought¬ 
ful consideration, not from a single standpoint merely, but in all 
the relations, both near and remote, which they bear to the indus¬ 
try and wealth of the nation. Already have they brought upon 
the West the great problem of “ Transportation,” that will require 
for its proper solution, not only time, but careful and wise action 
as well, and they are to-day pointing to more intricate problems, 
% 
and to harder times for the Western farmer if .the lesson of the 
hour is not well heeded. 
‘It has been quite the custom for farmers to regard theirs the 
most independent of all professions. Fifty years ago, when the 
wants of all men were fewer than they now are, when the farmer 
threshed his grain with a flail, when he mended and often made 
the shoes for the family, when the wife spun the flax and wool, 
wove the fabric and made their clothing, when reapers and mowers, 
gang-plows and horse-hoes, seed-drills and corn-planters, hay-ted¬ 
ders and horse-forks were unknown, farmers were in a high degree 
independent. But the farmer of to-day is living in quite another 
age. He is now but the producer of the raw material, and is just 
as dependent upon men following the other various pursuits of life 
as they are upon him. 
The tendency to a minute division of labor which has come, with 
the advancement of civilization, while it has greatly increased the 
prosperity of the farmer, has at the same time taken from him 
whatever independence he once possessed, and made him but one of 
many equally important agents in society. At the present time the 
western farmer finds himself a producer of two commodities, corn 
