1S2 



who, either from the interference of public authority, or from their own 

 misguided choice, have tried them, since the same labor otherwise bestowed 

 would, through the medium of commerce, have procured a greater quan- 

 tity and better quality of the desired product. 



Mr. Say speaks of the loss sustained by the French people, when, at 

 one period, their government compelled them to cultivate sugar beet 

 and woad instead of grain, vmder the impression so common at the 

 time, and which still lingers in the minds of many, that it is better to 

 produce at home, an inferior article and at greater expense, than to pro- 

 cure a better and cheaper product from abroad. In regard to the exper- 

 iment, after citing the estimate of Humboldt, that " seven leagues of 

 land in a tropical climate, could produce as much sugar as the utmost 

 consumption of France, in its best days, ever required." Mr. Say re- 

 marks : "Suppose that Avine had been grown, instead of the sugar of 

 beet-root, or the blue dye of woad, the domestic and agricultural indus- 

 try of the nation would have been quite as much encouraged. And, 

 since the product would have been more congenial to the climate, the 

 wine produced from the same land would have produced a larger quan- 

 tity of colonial sugar and indigo through the channel of commerce, even 

 if conducted by neutrals or enemies. The colonial sugar and indigo 

 would have been equally the product of our own land, though first 

 assuming the shape of /vine ; only the same space of land would have 

 produced them in superior quantity and quality. And, the encourage- 

 ment to domestic industry would be the same, or rather would be greater, 

 since a product of superior value would reward more amply the agency 

 of the land, capital and industry engaged in the production." 



I have selected these instances of the perversion of the powers of 

 nature, from many which might be adduced, because agriculturists of 

 our own country are constantly being urged to try the same or similar 

 experiments, which, with a slight knowledge of political economy, they 

 would never meddle with. At one time they are made to believe they 

 can become independent of their southern neighbors and make their for- 

 tunes by cultivating the sugar of beet. At another, they are urged to 

 destroy their corn crops by cutting them in the milk and extracting sugar 

 from the stalks. Again they are taught that they can compete with 

 their neighbors of the tropics in the production of coloring matter, and 

 woad and madder are all the rage. And then again they are lectured on 

 the bad economy of depending, to so great an extent, upon other regions 



