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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Stre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. y errata id to nt ne pelure, ipon S 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 OUR f ARMERS. Their Condition and that of the Farmers of the United States. THE TWO POSITIONS COMPARED. Editor of Thk Citizen. ^SlE, — The second question correspondents have asked is : Why is it that the farmers of the United States, as a body, are in less prosperous circumstances than the fanners of Ontario ? I think that there can be no doubt about the implied fact. But let us examine into the truth of it before account- ing for it. The materials abound * for the subject has been very much discussed on the other side of the line. There is an embarass- ment of riches in the quantity. The New York Times, not long ago, in- BCltuted an investigation into the condition of United States farmers, and Bill Nye's comments fairly expreas the result. The humorist says : "The farms in our State are mortc;aged for over #700,000,000 (seven hundred million dollars). Ten of the West- ern States, I see by the papers, have got about three billion and a half dollars of mortgages on their farms, and that dou't cover the chattel mortgages iilod wich town clerks on farm machinery, atock, waggons and oven crops, by gosh ! that ain't two inches high under the snow. That's what the prospect is for farmers now. The Government is rich, b'Tt the men that made it, the men that fought perairie fires and perairie wolves and Injuns and potato bugs and blizzards apd has paid the debt and pensions and every thing else, is left high and dry this cold winter with a mortga£;e of $7,500,000,- 000 (aovea thousand five hundred million dollars) on their farms." The Wew York Timks says the farmers of the United States are stagaferin under a burden of mortgage indebtedness approxi- mating nine thousand mill'ons of dollars. The Times further says : "The greater portion of the money re- presented by the faces of these morcgages has not been expended in improv- ing the farms, because the larger proportion of the farms were supplied with buildings before the mortgages were laid. The money has been spent to enable the f!armers to live." / The Chicago Times says : " Farm mort- gages are swallowing up millions of acres of land in the Southern and Western States and Territories. " Professor Henry, lecturing in Richmond, Wisconsin, said : "One of the richest prairies in the United States is that of the St. Croix Valley in Wiscon- sin. Of that valley he said : " To-day the richest part of it is almost without fences ; the majority of the farm buildings, especially the barns, are poor, and the peo- ple complain bitterly of hard times," Frank Wilkeson, writing in Rradstrket's — an American writing in an American journal of high character — says ; " The ap- parent prosperity of Dakota is (lasud upon the expenditure of the capital procured by mortgaging the farm lands. The farmers are spending theii farms, mortgages are at 8 per cent, to 10 per cent., and the impoverished farmers have to pay an additional 10 per cent, on renewals, so that interest is really 11 or 12 per cent." The Cleveland Plaindealer says : "The mortgages on farms in Ohio amount to more than 700 million dollars, and are gradually increasing, and this, too, in an old*, well developed farming country." Mr. Cleveland, in one of his latest mes- sages to Cougreas, said of the farmers in the United Statos : "Their lands are deolining in value, while their debts iocreMae. ' A report imvde to the New York State Legislature in 1887 (vol. 2, ISo. 24, pap,e 16, N. Y. Senate documents, 1887), says : "It i8 an indisputable tact that the fanninii; lands of this State during fifteen years have depreciated at least 20 per cent, and many agiieultural localities are decreasing in population." A despatch to the >Jew York Tribune of February 8th says ot the farmers in Isew Jersey : "Many of the best and oldest of them 8ay they cannot make both ends meet, and that the outlook is not encouraging, Many tarmers have made assignments and others are in the hands of the sheriff." The New York Pont recently called atcen- tioB to the fact that one of its correspun- dents " counted in a drive on the main road from Lowell, Mass., co Windham, N.H., a distance of twelve miles, six deserted sets of farm buildings, besides several which had already gone v. ruin, while fields and pas- tures were growing up to wood." X There are scores ot just such witnesses, Now, Americans are not inclined to put tha worst features of their bocial conditions in front. They are not accustomed to parade to public view the "sore spots" of their country. Some one has wickedly, but wit- tily said of them that there are 65 millions of liars in the United States, all industrious- ly engaged in "booming" their country. When, then, they depart so widely from their custom and write about farm mortgages as they do, we must believe that in this instance they are telling, if not the whole truth, yet, a very large proportion of the whole truth. We would not have to add more than twenty-five per cent, to the nine thousand million dollars asserted to be the mortgage indebtedness of United Statos far- mers in order to get at a true statement. XYe may take it as proved that United States farmers are in a bad way.y But I may be told that the farmers of Canada are just as badly off as the farmers of the United States. The testimony as respects the United States farmer is that he is losing by reason ot depreciation in the value of bis laud, and by croing deeper and deeper into debt. If Canadian farmers are following in the footsteps of farmers across the line, then the records would show, hero as in the United States, increased foreclosure sales, increased enforced sales "*^ farm pro- perty- Iq order to obtain the materials to bring this point to ttio test, 1 examined the official Gazkites of the Provinces of Ontario Quebec, Nova Scotia, Now Brunswick and Prince Edward Island for the years 1878 and 1888, and found that there were in the former year 1,176 enforced sales of farm property in tho provinces named. In 1 888 there were but 494 such sales. If the farm ers ot Canada were in as bad a condition as the United States farmers, these records would surely show a larger number of sales in 1888 than in 1878. But I may bo told that these iigurcs only show that tlie farmers of Canada are now in a very much bettex condition of prosperity than they were in 1878. They tell nothing of the relative condition of the farmers of the two countries. I find the following statement in a Penn- sylvania paper, Jan. 10th, 1889: "The Sheriff of Berks County yesterday sold ten fine farms in this county, agairof^ating one thousand acres. Durinsr the present winter the same sheriff has sold some twenty other large tarn..3, was 1.4 per cent., while the increase in the value of lands and buildings was 1.7 per cent., it thus appearing that the value ot farm pro- perty has increased more rapidly than the area. Checking these returns by the reports of the land companies, I tind that the Erie and Huron Investment Company report for 1887 that the arrearages were only 4 per cent. of the capital invested; that they were 22 per cent less than in 1886; that only two-thirds of one per cent, came back in the shape of property through foreclosure, and that the farmers in the vicinity of the company's head- (juarters in Canada had placed in the com- pany's hands over a million dollars for In- veatment. The Canadian Compauy said through their president, Ist, that the com- pany had reduced their rate of interest by one per cent, in 1887; 2Dd, that the prices obtained in 1887 from the sales of land were 25 per cent, higher than in 18S6 like Morth of Scotland Canadian Mortgage Com- pany reported that the amount of real es- tate which, m 1887, had reverted to the company through foreclosure was but «30,00eoutof $3,000,000 invested. This same company reported in 1888 that there had been again a tailing off in the rate of interest obtained ; that while the company had £620,000 sterling of money lent in Canada, the amount of foreclosed property was less than $40,000. The Canada Land Company reported for 1888 that for the total lands leased and sold, the average was 33 per cent, over the estimated value of 1886. I find that having takeii up so much space in invebtigating the relative condition of United States and Canadian farmers, I must defer to another time the presentation of the reasons why the American is so much less prosperous than the Canadian farmer. George Johnson.