THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



59 



the excellent situation, are often uothins clae but deep devices 

 to entrap the oppressed and unwary. Tixc grand secret of the 

 business evidently consists in a (lasliiag advertiseraent, artfully 

 addressed to the wants and requirements of the evil which it 

 professes to cure ; and when once the victim gets entani;lcd iu 

 the net, there is no danger of escape, until the impostor has 

 accomplished his object, and mulcted him of a considerable sum, 

 and frequently of sometliing much more serious. But the most 

 wonderful thing connected with this business is the fact that 

 with all its apparent publicity, it nevertheless, like masonry, 

 keeps itself a profound secret. No one, who has allowed himself 

 orherself to be victimized, daros to acknowledge the fa;;t ; or how- 

 ever smart he may have been compelled to pay fur his thir=t after 

 knowledge, he willingly submits, rather than sacrifice his own 

 character to e-xpose or discover the impostor. Now this is a 

 voluntary tax, which unquestionably produces a large revenue ; 

 for if the receipts did nothing more than pay the expsuse of 

 advertising and correspondence, &c., they must needs be 

 something considerable ; but we may infer that unless there 

 were some greater encouragement than this, the system would 

 soon fall to the ground. 



But if for a short time we step out of the arena 

 of what may be denominated regular impositions, and 

 set ourselves about inquiring into what may be considered a 

 more legitimate means of earning a livelihood, we shall see 

 taxation to a considerable extent carried out under the aus- 

 pices and with the full sanction of the tax-payers themselves. 

 We have artificial manures of almost every description, 

 brought to us from almost every clime, possessing every re- 

 quisite quality, composed of almost every material, and called 

 by names which hardly admit us to doubt their value. Now, 

 I should be sorry to condemn artificial manures, for I feel 

 convinced that by the aid of chemistry we shall be enal)led 

 to repair the exhausted condition of soils, by manures of a 

 much more portable and specific character than have hitherto 

 been employed ; but I complain of ths impositions that are 

 practised, the high commissions allowed to agents, and the 

 depreciation of their value by adulteration ; and although the 

 article may not be altogether worthless, it nevertheless costs 

 the farmer a price double its real value. Then we have artificial 

 food for cattle, anti-smut powder, for the prevention of smut 

 in wheat, cough-balls for horses, remedies for foot-rot in 

 sheep, cures for pluro-pneuraonia, specific for the potato dis- 

 ease, &c. &c. Now all these may possess a certain value ; 

 but I have still to be convinced, that any artificiil composition 

 which can be prepared will be superior to the best natural 

 productions of the earth, which are suited by nature to the 

 constitution of the animal, and compounded and prepared iu 

 the laboratory of that unerring chemist. We have frequently 

 brought before us the etfects of over-stimulating, when prac- 

 tised either upon animals or plants. A deviation from Nature's 

 laws, however apparently successful at first, ultimately pro- 

 duces a weakness of constitution, and consequently a liabdity 

 to disease ; a proof of which is afforded by the manifold 

 diseases, to which both the animal and vegetable creation of 

 this day are subject, in comparison with years gone by, when 

 ignorance of science compelled a more strict adherencs to the 

 laws of nature; and however time-honoured and generally 

 adopted may be the practice of dressing wheat aa a preven- 

 tive for smut, I have yet to learn of its efficacy, as fiequent 

 experiments have never yet shown me the difference between 

 the dressed and the undressed. Of course, for all diseases 

 there are remedies prescribed ; some of these may have !)een 

 discovered by accident, and their application during a lapse of 

 centuries may have established their good name; but why 

 they should be thus efhcacious, or how thi^y perform the cure, 



U'.ay never have been inquired into : it is sufficient to know 

 that whilst they are applied, a cure was effected. 

 The introduction of others may be traced to a more 

 recent date, and till that they originated from the investiga- 

 tiona of science, and from the known effects of certain of their 

 constituents to counteract certain symptoms by which the 

 disease is known, their efficacy must be doubted ; to a cer- 

 tain extent they may prove useful, and if they be not quacks, 

 aud positively injurious (vhich is not unfrequently the case), 

 they may somewhat assist nature ; but they will bo found to 

 come far short of tiiat uevcr-failiug remedy which they are 

 invariably represented to be. Accidents do require skill and 

 attention bestowed upon them ; diseases can be modified and 

 assisted to a cure; but that wild frenzy exhibited by some, in 

 having the farrier or medical man always by their side, their 

 unswerving faith in the potency of medicines, is a tax they 

 impose upon themselves, and one not lightly to be borne. They 

 will be sure to find those who will take advantage of their 

 simplicity, and gratify their very utmost wish; and having spent 

 their money for that which is not bread, and, after all, failed to 

 accomplish their end, they console themselves with the pleasing 

 reflection that they have at least done their duty. Their con- 

 dition is only a modification of that of the Wild Indian, who 

 inflicts upon himself grievous injuries as an atonement for past 

 misdeeds. When we consider the great sums which British 

 farmers must annually spend on such matters, I think it is at 

 least worthy of consideration whether they receive value for 

 their money. 



We now come to consider another description of taxa- 

 tion, which may not be altogether voluntary, but in moat 

 cases it is countenanced and approved by those who have 

 to bear the burden -I allude to the middle-man. I will not 

 style the speculator an unproductive labourer, because specula- 

 tion forms a reservoir in which the fruits of abundance are 

 stored up for a time of scarcity. I will not say that the 

 middie-man can be altogether dispensed with in this populous, 

 competing, and commercial nation ; but I will endeavour to 

 point out the manner in which a very numerous class obtain a 

 livine (and some a very lucrative one) upon almost every 

 commodity, from the time of its leaving the bands of the 

 manufacturer or producer, until it reaches those of the con- 

 sumer. The nature of transactions is a payment of money for 

 value received ; that value may sometimes consist of labour, 

 for by labour a small piece of iron may sometimes be rendered 

 worth double the value of its weight in gold. A value also 

 attaches to every article as it comes raw from the hand of 

 nature ; but for the additional price which is stuck on to com- 

 modities through the agency of the middle-man, no real value 

 is frequently received. I daresay I shall enumerate some for 

 which a certain value may be received, but the unlimited extent 

 to which it is carried renders it questionable whether the injury 

 does not frequently outweigh the advantage. If we consider 

 the necessaries of life, we shall find that even upon flour— 

 our staple article of consumption — a good many derive 

 profits and commissions ; and the farmer, as if unwilling 

 to deprive the miller of his profits, generally sells 

 his wheat to hira, and buys his flour for family 

 con?umption, subject of course to the miller's profits. He will 

 tell you, that he finds this to be the cheapest plan ; but why 

 should it be ? If so, it must be because imposition is prac- 

 tised. If we look into the trade iu live stock, we shall find the 

 dealer supplying the farmer or rearer with young calves. At 

 the age of two years or eighteen months he will purchase them 

 from tlie farmer again, sell them very possibly to another dealer, 

 who perhaps disposes of them to the grazier or feeder, who 

 having doae his part sells them again to the dealer who most 



