Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1877 — Good Times for Farmers. [ARTICLE]

Good Times for Farmers.

We wish we had a table at our hands by which we could draw a comparison between the present purchasing value of a dollar and that time during the war when gold was highest and greenbacks lowest. As near as we can ascertain, our agricultural population should st this time be the most fortunate among our people. Wheat now sells at nearly the highest war prices, and the value of the money received is nearly three times that during tho war period spoken of. A farmer brings n load of wheat to town today of say 40 bushel#/- it sells for 80 dollars. There were periods during the war, if we mistake not, when the same load would have brought $l2O. But at this time the real purchasing value was worth but one dollar in gold. The purchasing value of greenbacks today is within a few cents of gold, so that the real value of wheat to-day is nearly double that of the highest period during the War: Everything but produce is down to nearly ante war prices; some things even cheaper: sugar, coffee, and tea; calicos, dress goods, furniture, hardware, etc. While this condition of things is peculiarly favorable to the farmer, it# is severe oik nearly every other class of people. The laborer’s wages have been reduced to ante war rates—to 75 cents to $2.50 per day, and flour quoted at $lO 50 per ba-tel. The profits of the tradesman and manufacturer are small. The employer cannot afford to pay more than he is paying, for he finds the market for jinx goods inactive, his competition strong, and he must sell very cheap to effect sales at all. Take it in the long rim 01* farmer has the advantage of ua all.— St Joseph Vulley Ret/uttr.