SALE OF SURPLUS PRODUCTS. 261 



Mormons to-day are living in a garden where once was 

 nothing but a desolate plain. 



Mr. Sjnhth (of Colrain). I would like to ask the gentle- 

 man from England what we should do with the surplus prod- 

 ucts of this country if we did not export them. It seems 

 to me that it is a great blessing to the agricultural com- 

 munity that there is a foreign market for our products in 

 the way of animals and grain. Of what use would it be to 

 our Western farmers to keep the fertilizing elements at home 

 to be returned to the so.il, if they could not sell their prod- 

 ucts? It is because we have tliis outlet for the products 

 of this country that we farmers can afford to buy manures, 

 and there is enough profit remains for them to buy these 

 fertilizers. Farmers do not care any thing about the fertility 

 of their land, if they are unable to sell the products. What 

 difference does it make to a farmer whether his soil is barren 

 or fertile, if there is no demand for the crops or animals 

 raised on his farm ? The population of the United States 

 is not sufficient at the present time to consume the grain and 

 the meat produced in the country ; and, if there is to be no 

 export, what are we to do with those things ? 



Mr. Whitaker. So far as that matter is concerned, I 

 have notliing to say. I simply stated the fact that that was 

 the condition of tilings. I do not know that we can get 

 away from it; but it is a fact that we are sending these 

 things abroad. The next question that comes up is. What 

 are we getting in return for what we lay out ? I said that 

 the great question of to-day is, how to bring back the 

 fertility of these lands. If I have made a statement which 

 is not strictly correct, I am willing to be corrected; but if I 

 state a fact, and somebody else is bound to butt against it, 

 I have notliing to do with that : it is a simple fact. I don't 

 believe any one of us can get away from it. Here is the 

 point in a nut-shell : we cannot take the produce from the 

 farm and send it away, either in the shape of milk or any 

 thing else that comes from it, without reducing the fertility 

 of that farm ; and it is. a question with us, how we are to 

 keep that up. Now, the same rule will apply to the wliole 

 country that applies to the single farm. It is a question of 

 political economy. 



Adjourned to evening. 



