DOES FARMING PAY? 27 



our ftirms, and so quietly was it done, so silently did the 

 ingathering go forward at ten thousand different points, that 

 this enormous value was stored almost without the notice of 

 the bustlinsr, clamorous world of trade and manufactures. 

 That very year they besieged the government for special 

 privileges and direct aid by the adjustment of the tariff, the 

 opening of new lines of communication and new marts of 

 traffic, though the value of their products, as the result of 

 labor bestowed on raw material, if we include all the leading 

 manufactures, cotton, woollen, boots and shoes, and all iron 

 products, was small compared with the products of farms; 

 and the government itself hardly recognized what was going 

 on until the great result "was spread before it. I have not 

 been able to obtain the official report of our manufacturing 

 industries of that year, but they will probably show about the 

 same proportion as at the previous census, when the value of 

 our farm-products was more than the greatest of them, and 

 about equal to them all. 



But again, ftirming pays the nation by its contril)ution to 

 our foreign exchanges. Every nation should strive to supply 

 all the wants of its people just so far as its soil, climate, 

 natural advantages and mechanical skill will allow, but should 

 always produce that which under all circumstances it can do 

 most advantageously. But in any event, it should sell more 

 than it buys, or it will end in bankruptcy. The wants of a 

 community of savages are few and easily supplied ; but as 

 they ascend in the scale of intelligence and civilization, their 

 wants rapidly increase, requiring a large field, a varied cli- 

 mate, and educated skill, to procure the means of their grati- 

 fication. The people of the United States stand on the high- 

 est plane of civilization, and have a legion of wants, real and 

 imaginary, which are fostered by our national ambition and ex- 

 travagance to such an extent that we have become — accord- 

 ing to our wealth and population — the largest purchasers of 

 foreign products and commodities of any nation on the earth. 

 We send our commercial marine to every nook and corner of 

 the world, explore all lands, and make ourselves acquainted 

 with the peculiar productions and manufactures of all people ; 

 and, unlike Old England, not so much for the purpose of sell- 

 ing our own surplus, as to buy of theirs. We import choice 



