ANNUAL MEETING. 153 



importanco in this connection. It may be interesting to some to hear quoted 

 the rates on some products more distinctly agricultural. 



All grain for seed pays 20 per cent. Oats, 10 cents per busliel. Barley, 

 15 cents per bushel. Wheat 20 cents i)er bushel. Peas and beans for 

 consumption, 10 per cent. Hay pays 10 per cent. Live stock of all 

 kinds 20 per cent. Improved stock, imported for breeding purposes, free, 

 under proper certificate. All faim implements and machinery of wood and 

 iron, 35 per cent. Where steel is chief value, 45 per cent. Wools, merino 

 or down clothing wools, unwashed and unscoured, and whose value is 32 cents 

 or less per pound, 11 cents per pound, and 10 per cent; of greater value 12 

 cents per pound and 10 per cent; combing wools, such as Cotswold, Leicester, 

 etc., in the same condition and of the same value, pay the same rate. Carpet 

 wools of low grade, such as we do not produce, value 12 cents or less per 

 pound, 3 cents per pound ; of greater value, 6 cents per pound. 



Iwports and Exports. The imports of flax seed, whicli, however, is not 

 used for seed, but for extracting oil, and is decreasing in quantity each year 

 on account of the increased product here, is 81,^50,580 in value ; all other 

 seeds pacing duty, $462,526 value. Of grains, barley 1),528,6I6 bushels; 

 oats 64,412 bushels; rye4?3,925 bushels; wheat 200,0(>0 bushels; peas, beans, 

 and other leguminous products, 365,656 bushels; flax straw 5,000 tons, whde 

 at the same time thousands of tons are wasted in the west for want of facili- 

 ties to use it. Potatoes in 1881, 2,170,000 bushels. The present year they 

 will not be one-fourth that. 



Imports: Wool, 55,964,236 pounds. The domestic product is 240,000,000 

 pounds. Exported, paradoxical as it may seem, 5,578,989 pounds. Imports 

 of carpets, 1«72, 5,072,247 square yards. In 1882, 991,947 square yards, not- 

 withstanding the great increase in the quantity used. 



Live stock imported other than breeding stock is not large, and is mostly 

 from Canada. Imports of breeding stock are now heavy, and have vastly 

 increased, particularly in cattle, sheep, and horses from Great Britain; horses 

 from France and cattle from Holland. 



Our exports for the year ending June 30, 1882, were: apples, dried, 

 $1,247,891 ; green or ripe, $2,301,334. Total apple product exported, 

 $3,549,225, not including that in cans or preserves. Other fruit exported, 

 $361,217. Preserved fruit, $529,277. 



Exports of oil cake, $6,284,364. Cotton seed, $147,543. We are sending 

 too much of this excellent food to other countries. To retain and feed it 

 would add to our meat product, and we lose also the manure product, which 

 feeding it would greatly increase. Clover, timothy, garden, and all other 

 seeds exported, $915,223, so that, not including flax, our exports are more 

 than our imports. Through the coui'tesy of Prof. Tracy I have a letter from 

 the firm of D. M. Ferry & Co., the largest seed dealers in the world, and also 

 have a note from Mr. Peter Henderson, a prominent vegetable gardener, 

 florist, and seed dealer in New York. Prof. Tracy writes: 



"In reply to yours, we would say that there are certain seeds, notably cab- 

 bage, whicli give a much greater yield abroad than with us, so that from this 

 cause combined with cheap labor, they can be afforded there at much lower 

 rates than they can be grown for here. In tlie case of some varieties of cab- 

 bage and turnips the foreign seed is inferior in quality to tliat of American 

 growth, so much so that in the trade they are quoted at different prices, and 

 the foreign seed is never used, — or at least we do not use it, — lai'gely except in 

 case of a failure of the American crop, and then with the understanding that 



