1,82 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
Das E-Book Prairie Farming in America wird angeboten von Charles River Editors und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:
agriculture; midwest; illinois; corn; canada
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 196
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
Ähnliche
PRAIRIE FARMING IN AMERICA
James Caird
LACONIA PUBLISHERS
Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this book, please leave a review or connect with the author.
All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.
Copyright © 2016 by James Caird
Interior design by Pronoun
Distribution by Pronoun
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRAIRIE FARMING IN AMERICA.
INTRODUCTION.: Present Position of Agriculturists in England.—Continued Rise of Rent.—Increased Rate of Wages not equally certain.—Competition in the Hire of Land.—Whence it arises.—Foreign Produce.—That of Lands of superior Fertility chiefly affects us.—Increasing Value of Live Stock.—Home Competition the true Source of diminished Profits.—Extent to which the Business of Farming is giving place to other Occupations.—Area of ordinary Farming thus curtailed.—Necessity for Farmers to thin the ranks of Home Competition.—Daily Consumption of Foreign Grain.—Offers a Good Prospect to the Emigrant.—The Prairies of Illinois a suitable Field for him.—Their Advantages.—Price.—Ague.—Stock Farming and Indian Corn.—Cost of Voyage and Journey.—The present a very favourable Time.
LETTER I.: Voyage in the “Persia.”—New York.—The Hudson River.—Barren Soil.—American Railways.—Saratoga.—Extravagant Prices.—Lake George.—Lake Champlain.—Sunshine and Storm.—Burlington in Vermont.—Maine Liquor Law.—The Boundary Line.—Poor French Canadians.—The St.—Lawrence.—Montreal.—The Victoria Tubular Bridge.—Grand Trunk Railway.—Ottawa.—The Lumber Trade.—Ottawa or Montreal as the Capital.—Shorter Water Route to the Western Lakes.—Value of Land.—Grants of Land.—Prescott.—Kingston.—Coburg.—Process of clearing the Forest.—Toronto.—Hamilton.—Complaint of low Wages and want of Employment.
LETTER II.: Falls of Niagara.—Canada West.—Mode of Farming.—Short Wheat Crop.—Average Produce.—London.—Price of Land.—Climate.—Diseases produced by Malaria.—Rich Lands more subject to them than poor.—Proposed Route to British Columbia.—Red River and the Valley of the Saskatchewan.—The Hudson Bay Territory.—Alleged Fertility of the Country.—Failure of the Selkirk Settlement.—Plague of Grasshoppers.—Mr.—Kitson’s Account of the Settlement on Red River.—Policy of Abandoning that Country to Canada.—Probable Over-estimate of its Value.
LETTER III.: Michigan.—Ferry Steamer.—Detroit.—State Agricultural Show.—Railway Hints for Home, to Prevent Dust, and communicate with Driver Shelter for Engine Driver.—Illinois.—Extent of the Rich Valley of the Tipper Mississippi.— Chicago.—Its wonderful Progress.—Railway Investments.—Development too rapid.—Encouraged by high Prices of Agricultural Produce.—Money Panic succeeded by Failure of Crops, and unhealthy Season.—Immigration suspended.—Capacity of Country for rapid Improvement.—View of the State of Illinois on a Line of Seven Hundred Miles.—Settlers from Vermont.—Galena.— Dunleith.
LETTER IV.: General View of the State of Illinois.—Comparison of Soil and Extent with England.—Dunleith to Mendota.—Vast Wheat Fields.—Experience of a Scotch Carpenter.—Farming by Shares.—Cost of Farm-houses.—The River Illinois.—Coal Lands of La Salle.—Corn Starch Factory.—Bloomington.—Settlers from New York State.—Account of his Operations by Pioneer of Settlement.—Unusual Failure of Wheat Crop.—Discouragement caused by this.—Temptations of Credit System.—Instance of Purchase and Cost of making a Farm.—History of an early Settler.—The Banking System of the Country.—Profits of Banking.—“Shin Plaster” Banks.
LETTER V.: Springfield.—Appearance of Country.—Cattle Show.—Stock Farming.—Experience of a successful Farmer.—His Mode of laying his Farm to Grass.—Novel Implements.—Merino Sheep Farming.—Account of it by the Owner of a large Flock.—System of managing Prairie Land recommended.—Sowing Grass Seeds on Snow.—Valuable Meadow.—Price of Merino Sheep.—Superiority of Prairie to Timbered Country.—The Governor of Illinois.—The Public Officers of State.—Manners of the People.—Decatur.—Lost on the Prairie.—The American Settler.—Mutual Help.—Fences.—Pana and its Neighbourhood.—Settlement of French Canadians.
LETTER VI.: Pana to Centralia.—The Grey Prairie.—Best Wheat Soil.—Fruit.—Tobacco.—Vines.—Silk.—Rich Mineral District South of Centralia.—Lines of Communication with Ocean by New Orleans and Chicago.—Probable Market for Wheat in Cuba.—Description of Grey Prairie.—Value of Oxen.—German Settlement.—Large Purchase of Land by Kentucky Grazier.—His Plan and Prospects.—Farina.—Trading Spirit of the People.—Urbana.—Complaints of Wheat Failure.—Peach Growing.—Large Grazing Farm.—Management of Stock.—Uniformity of Soil.—Coldness of Weather.—Steam Plough.—Machines for economizing Manual Labour in greater Demand.—Bement.—Kentucky Settler.—His Plan of managing Eight Thousand Acres.—Onarga.—Its Neighbourhood.—Dairy Farming.—Artesian Wells.—Kankakee to Momence.—Price of Land.—Broom Corn.—Country from Momence to Monee.—Management and Produce.—Monee to Chicago.
LETTER VII.: Soil and Climate of Illinois.—Nature of Prairie Soil.—Its Chemical Composition.—Rich in Nitrogen.—Wheat Culture and Produce.—Indian Corn.—Facility of Culture.—Oats.—Barley.—Sorghum.—Substitute for Sugar-cane.—Potatoes.—Stock Farming.—Prairie Grass.—Blue Grass.—Timothy.
LETTER VIII.: Average Prices of Agricultural Produce in Illinois.—Cost of Labour.—Cost of Indian Corn in England.—Cost at which Pork may be raised by it.—Profit of Farming in Illinois.—Detailed Example.—Lands of Illinois Central Railway.—Advantages of their Position.—The Company’s Terms of Sale for Cash or Credit.—Exemption from State Taxes till paid for.—Comparison between Farming in England and owning Land in Illinois.—Capital necessary to start one Farmer in England sufficient for four Land Owners in Illinois.—Profits of Sheep Farming.—Lands farther West only apparently cheaper.—Great Opportunity for Farm Labourers of Character and Skill.—Farming by Shares.—Facility for investing Money in Land.—Even the Labourer can so invest his Savings from Time to Time.—Prospects of Emigrants from Towns.
LETTER IX.: The Ague: Opinion of a leading Physician.—Easily curable.—Wisconsin.—Life-guardsman turned Implement Maker.—Success of Emigrants.—Madison.—Milwaukee.—Its Trade Facilities.—Schools.—Public Buildings.—Catholic Church.—Western Shore of Lake Michigan.—General Nature of Country.—Green Bay.—Early French Settlements.—Their Hold in the North-West.—Character of various Races of Settlers.—Price of Land.—Its Value dependent on cheap Access.—Interest of Money.—Credit low.—“Custom” pleaded for Abuses.—London Carpenter’s Experience as a Settler.—The Mississippi.—Nails and Glass only allowed by American Government to their Surveying Engineers.—River Steamers.—Anecdotes.—Lake Pepin.—St. Croix.
LETTER X.
St. Paul’s.—Route to Red River.—Minnesota.—Daily Newspapers.—Market Place.—Red Indians selling wild Ducks.—American Militia.—Fort Snelling.—Minnehaha.—Falls of St.—Anthony.—Lands and Funds set apart for Public Objects.—The Credit System.—Down the River to Dubuque.—Burlington.—Iowa.—Natural Obstacle to Progress of Population Westwards.—Wages.—Nauvoo.—St.—Louis in Missouri.—Slave State.—Iron Mountain.—Relative Cost of Production of British and American Iron.
LETTER XI.: The Ohio.—Cincinnati.—Vine Culture.—Kentucky.—Bourbon Whisky.—Cincinnati to Columbus.—Small Farmers decreasing.—Westward Movement of Population.—Indian Corn never fails.—Wheat precarious.—Average Produce very low.—Live Stock.—Profits of Farming.—Labour economised by Steam.—Quantity of Whisky produced.—Public Expenditure on Education.—Compared with England.—Rate of Taxation.—Crossing the Alleghanies.—Virginia.—Maryland.—Washington.—Baltimore.—Philadelphia.—New York.—Boston.—Home.
PRAIRIE FARMING IN AMERICA.
WITH NOTES BY THE WAY
ON
CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES.
BY
JAMES CAIRD, M.P.
AUTHOR “ENGLISH AGRICULTURE,” “LETTERS ON THE CORN CROPS,” “HIGH FARMING,” “THE WEST OF IRELAND,” ETC.
PRAIRIE FARMING IN AMERICA.
INTRODUCTION.
PRESENT POSITION OF AGRICULTURISTS IN ENGLAND.—CONTINUED RISE OF RENT.—INCREASED RATE OF WAGES NOT EQUALLY CERTAIN.—COMPETITION IN THE HIRE OF LAND.—WHENCE IT ARISES.—FOREIGN PRODUCE.—THAT OF LANDS OF SUPERIOR FERTILITY CHIEFLY AFFECTS US.—INCREASING VALUE OF LIVE STOCK.—HOME COMPETITION THE TRUE SOURCE OF DIMINISHED PROFITS.—EXTENT TO WHICH THE BUSINESS OF FARMING IS GIVING PLACE TO OTHER OCCUPATIONS.—AREA OF ORDINARY FARMING THUS CURTAILED.—NECESSITY FOR FARMERS TO THIN THE RANKS OF HOME COMPETITION.—DAILY CONSUMPTION OF FOREIGN GRAIN.—OFFERS A GOOD PROSPECT TO THE EMIGRANT.—THE PRAIRIES OF ILLINOIS A SUITABLE FIELD FOR HIM.—THEIR ADVANTAGES.—PRICE.—AGUE.—STOCK FARMING AND INDIAN CORN.—COST OF VOYAGE AND JOURNEY.—THE PRESENT A VERY FAVOURABLE TIME.
THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE agricultural body in the United Kingdom is interesting and peculiar. The landowner and the agricultural laborer are both profiting by the same cause, a limited supply of the commodity in which they deal. So long as this country continues to prosper, the value of land must increase, for there can be no increase of the land itself. But the demand for labour varies, and the supply is subject to causes which render it uncertain. While, so long as the present system of taxation continues, there must be a continued rise in the value of land, there appears to me no equal certainty of a progressive advance in the rate of wages.
But the hirer of land, the farmer, must inevitably suffer from the continued competition for its possession. He has not only to meet his own class, a necessarily increasing body, in this competition, but to contend with men who, having made money in other pursuits, wish to retire to the more pleasurable occupations of a country life. It is this competition which is the true cause of the reduced profits of farming, and this is more likely to increase than diminish. Great Britain is the most attractive place of residence on the surface of the globe, whether we regard its equable and healthy climate, its varied scenery and field sports, the almost sacred character of the rights of property in the eyes of its people, and the admirable combination of liberty and order which is preserved under its political constitution. Men will pay for these advantages, when they can afford it, a price which is not measured by the ordinary rates of profit.
Besides this competition, which raises the rate of rent, the farmer must now meet in his own market the produce of lower-priced foreign lands. He will, no doubt, always have the cost of transport in his favour, and this would generally be sufficient to balance the difference of rent; but the land of this country cannot be cultivated without manure, and the farmers of those foreign countries whose soil is rich enough to yield corn for many years without manure, are thereby able to undersell the British producer in his own market. The cost of labour when the value of food of the working stock is calculated, is nearly the same at home and abroad, and superior fertility alone will be found to turn the advantage in favour of the foreign producer.
The special adaptation of Britain for the production of live stock, and the constantly increasing demand for that branch of the farmer’s produce, have hitherto modified the effects of foreign competition in corn. But even these, excellent though they have proved, cannot permanently counteract the cause of the farmer’s diminished profits: viz., home competition for the possession of land. The soil here is now becoming more valuable for other purposes than ordinary farming, and the proportion between the producers and consumers of food is undergoing a rapid change. It appears from the Census that, in 1851, only 16 per cent, of the adult population of England was occupied in the business of agriculture. During the previous twenty years the proportion had fallen from 28 to 16 per cent., from no actual decrease of the numbers employed in agriculture, but from the far greater proportional increase of trade. The same gradual change is going on. At this time there is probably not more than one-tenth of the adult population of England employed in the culture of the land. The manufacturing, mining, and town populations are thus gradually absorbing the business of the country, increasing the value of the land and the profits of the landowner, but in the same proportion diminishing the area left for ordinary farming.
The time seems thus to have arrived when the farmers must thin the ranks of home competition by sending off the young and enterprising to countries where they may become the owners of a fertile soil, and profitably contribute to supply the wants of the old country, whose land can no longer meet the demands of her dense population. During the last year we have imported into this country at the rate of nearly one million quarters of grain each month. We have thus in addition to our home crop, consumed each day the produce of Ten Thousand acres of foreign land, a demand so vast as to offer to young men of our own country the strongest inducements to take their share in its supply.
Having, during last autumn, had an opportunity of making a pretty careful inspection of a part of the valley of the Upper Mississippi, probably the most fertile com region in the world, I have collected for publication, in the form of a series of letters, the notes made by me at the time. There may be other countries which present equally good prospects to the agricultural emigrant. I venture to speak only of that which I have seen. This seems to me to offer the very field which we want at present,—a virgin soil of easy culture, with no forests to clear, of extraordinary natural fertility, in a country traversed by a most perfect system of railways, where no settler need be more than ten miles from, a station, whose shore is washed by one of those great lakes through which an outlet is found to the Atlantic, and which possesses in the Mississippi itself a vast artery of commerce, navigable by steamers for thousands of miles. A great part of tire country is underlaid with coal, iron, and lime, thus affording a present supply of such minerals, and the prospect of a great increase of value should the people ever turn their attention to manufactures. There is a complete organisation of markets throughout the country; and, setting aside the export to England, there is a very large and increasing local demand for every article of agricultural produce. The price of labour is economised by the most extensive and profitable use of agricultural machinery, and by the comparatively small cost of maintaining horses and working cattle. The grazing of cattle and sheep is very profitable, and the production of merino wool, already large, admits of vast increase. The fee simple of this land can be purchased at from 40s. to 50s. and 60s. an acre.
As a mere investment, this land would pay well to purchase and hold for a few jean, and the increasing supply of gold, of which America herself yields an annual crop of ten millions sterling, will every year contribute to the higher relative value of land here and elsewhere. But the British emigrant, when he purchases this land, secures to himself not only the profits of farming it, but has also the growing increase in the value of the land itself a right to which he can have no share at home. The country is now brought within a fortnight’s journey from, our shores, and is actually more accessible from Great Britain than most parts of Ireland were fifty years ago.
There is one drawback to which I have several times adverted in these letters. Besides the ordinary hardships to which men are content to submit when they leave the comforts of an old country for the prospect of future great benefit to themselves and their families, emigrants to rich new countries, south of the 45th degree of latitude, are in certain seasons more or less liable to an attack of ague. It is very fatal to old people, but the young seldom suffer more than temporary inconvenience from it; and the climate which produces ague is nearly free from some other and more fatal complaints which are met with in colder latitudes. By degrees the emigrant becomes acclimated, and very many never experience the disease at all. Care and remedial measures prevent or remove it, and it gradually disappears with the general settlement and cultivation of the country. The population returns prove that the ague has no serious effect on the health of the people. A country whose people double in ten years, as Illinois did between 1845 and 1855, cannot be very unhealthy. Indeed, compared with many States in the Union. Illinois stands high in the tables of health. She is before New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, Eastern States which are generally deemed healthy. And in comparison with England, the mortality in Illinois contrasts most favourably,—De Bow’s compendium of the seventh census of the United States showing that her death rate in 1850 was less than 14 in the 1000, while that of England is at present rather more than 24. While I think it right to direct the emigrant’s attention to the ague as an element in his calculations, it forms in reality a very small counterpoise to the many advantages which are open to those who make judicious and well-chosen settlements on the Western Prairies.
There are two branches of his business to which I would specially ask the attention of the British emigrant to Illinois, viz. stock farming, and the cultivation of Indian corn. Full details will be found on both subjects in these letters. A good stock of cattle or sheep can be bought by a comparatively small outlay of capital; and, so long as the open Prairie is thinly settled, grass for half the year may be had for nothing, and hay for the other half for only the cost of saving it. In regard to Indian corn, both climate and soil are more suitable to it than wheat. It can be grown to any extent, with a certain measure of success, every year, and, unlike wheat, this grain may be harvested with safety over a period of many weeks. A small and regular supply of labour thus suffices for the management of a large extent of land. There is always a market for it, and the lowest price at which we have ever seen it in England will afford a very good return to the Prairie farmer of Illinois, after deducting all the charges of transport.
An emigrant from this country may be set down in Illinois at a total cost from Liverpool or Glasgow of 6l. 7s., inclusive of provisions.
The present is a most favourable time for commencing to farm in Illinois. The panic of 1857 has not yet been forgotten, and the prices at which every sort of contract (building, fencing, ploughing) may be executed, are 50 per cent, below the average rates.
LETTER I.
VOYAGE IN THE “PERSIA.”—NEW YORK.—THE HUDSON RIVER.—BARREN SOIL.—AMERICAN RAILWAYS.—SARATOGA.—EXTRAVAGANT PRICES.—LAKE GEORGE.—LAKE CHAMPLAIN.—SUNSHINE AND STORM.—BURLINGTON IN VERMONT.—MAINE LIQUOR LAW.—THE BOUNDARY LINE.—POOR FRENCH CANADIANS.—THE ST.—LAWRENCE.—MONTREAL.—THE VICTORIA TUBULAR BRIDGE.—GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY.—OTTAWA.—THE LUMBER TRADE.—OTTAWA OR MONTREAL AS THE CAPITAL.—SHORTER WATER ROUTE TO THE WESTERN LAKES.—VALUE OF LAND.—GRANTS OF LAND.—PRESCOTT.—KINGSTON.—COBURG.—PROCESS OF CLEARING THE FOREST.—TORONTO.—HAMILTON.—COMPLAINT OF LOW WAGES AND WANT OF EMPLOYMENT.
ON THE 4TH OF SEPTEMBER, 1858, I embarked with a friend on board the “Persia” at Liverpool, and loosed from our moorings in the afternoon to proceed on our voyage to New York. The ship had a full cargo and more than 200 cabin passengers. Great order and regularity prevailed on board, and though we had heavy head winds all the way across the Atlantic, and two severe gales, the voyage on the whole was pleasant and prosperous. On the evening of the twelfth day we reached New York.
The bright clear sky and the sunny look of the houses and public buildings, with the frequent cafes, reminded us that we were now in the latitude of Naples. And the appearance of the people was so different from that of Englishmen that we almost felt surprised to hear them speaking the English language. Everything was new and pleasant, except the manners of the people, and the extortionate charges of every one from whom it was necessary to obtain the slightest service.
After spending a short time pleasantly in New York we left it for Montreal, taking the Hudson River route to Albany. I was somewhat disappointed with the far-famed scenery of this river, the banks of which (as indeed is the case with land everywhere in America, at this season) are strikingly deficient in verdure. The aspect of the rocky cliffs and the broad river is very pleasing, enlivened as the latter was by numerous white-sailed little sloops passing up and down, and now and then by a white steamer trailing half a dozen loaded canal boats. After passing West Point the wooded hills in the foreground are backed by the Catskill Mountains, and the reaches of the river are here extremely picturesque. But the wood, though there is plenty of it, is little better than copse or brushwood. There are no fine trees, and the soil appears to be beyond measure barren. There are houses here and there, peeping out from the woods, with green outside blinds, and towers with tall steeples, all very white. But in the 150 miles between New York and Albany I saw no good land and no grass which any British ox would touch. From Albany to Troy the railroad cars were crammed with people, all hurrying about, and yet it was difficult to see what occupied them, as there are few signs of manufacture, and the soil is evidently unfruitful and neglected. There seemed nothing here to attract or create much capital. No cheapness of price would compensate for the natural inferiority of such land to good land in our own country. The lowland along the river is marshy and aguish-looking, and the upland seemed either bare rock or stiff clay. Between Albany and Troy there were some patches of Indian corn, but the country is very uninviting,—no verdure, and no pleasant homesteads.
I liked New York from its variety and picturesque novelty. But the country so far disappoints me, and the same barren aspect, changed from clay to blowing sand, continues to Lake Cham plain. The railways are very uneven and uneasy. When I awoke after my first day’s ride I thought myself at sea again, feeling the sensation which one experiences after a stormy voyage. This was at Saratoga, the great watering-place to which the Americans resort during the fashionable season. The season was now over, and only a few lingering visitors remained. The town is an assemblage of hotels, at which you are “taken in and done for” at 10s. 6d. a day. The hotel in which we stayed is the largest. It has beds for about 1000, and the waiters are all black, slow, and not very obliging. The prices of everything are enormous. A guide-book costs 8s. 4d., a bottle of sherry 8s. 4d. to 10s. 6d., Madeira 24s., Bass’ beer 2s. 6d., a cab for three miles 8s. to 10s. The horses are not unlike their masters. They hold up their heads, shake their little cocktails, and away they fly with the spider-wheel carriage which the fast Yankees drive. They seem in a desperate hurry at the start, and yet I have not found them more enduring than an English horse at the end of the day’s journey.
Lake George may be visited by spending another day, and it will well repay the time, being exceedingly beautiful, more so than Loch Lomond, which it resembles in size. The mountains are not so high, but are wooded to their summits. The hotel accommodation is excellent, and good sport may be had by boat-fishing. In driving down from Lake George to Ticonderoga, you pass through a little village with four conspicuous churches. One of them looks neglected; the driver “guesses she was a Baptist, but he reckons she didn’t pay, and they stopped running her.”
