SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 673 



the lesson. It is no new matter. It has been a common practice in anc- 

 ient times but has survived through its own vitality and absolute 

 necessity in the practice of agriculture. And hence the common adage 

 above quoted. 



The greatest advantage of it is, that the otherwise waste products 

 of a farm may be turned to very great profit. These products may be of 

 home growth or may be purchased in the markets. An instructive exam- 

 ple may be given from foreign sources, where sheep are even purchased 

 and carried three thousand miles, and more, and the feeds as well are 

 procured in a similar way. The farmers of Great Britain, Germany, and 

 other European countries, carry on this business quite largely, and very 

 profitably. Here we have the sheep and the foods all at our gates, at a 

 much less cost than to our competitors, and the transportation to the 

 European markets costs no more for us than for them. Why do not our 

 farmers do this business themselves, and not only make the profit of the 

 feeding, but the saving in the cheaper transportation from this side to 

 Europe, and what is worth considering, the manure made as well? We 

 certainly need the money to be so made, and it will go far to increase 

 the values of our lands, worth now only a fourth or less than the farms 

 in Europe. We need, too, the manure made in this way to increase the 

 products of our farms to an equivalent with the more productive fields 

 across the ocean. We need our sheep, too, on the most important prin- 

 ciple of industrial economy, to the effect that finished products only 

 should be sold from the farms, so that these profits so made may inure 

 to our own lands and farmers. Thus we preserve the natural fertility 

 of our lands, instead of selling it abroad in the form of raw products, as. 

 the corn and other feeding stuffs, all of the exports of which, fed abroad, 

 becomes an equivalent of the selling the natural fertility of our farms; 

 which, in this way, is sent abroad to enrich foreign fields at the expense 

 of our own. 



We see, thinking over this matter from these practical and scientific 

 points of view, that we are throwing away great opportunities of enrich- 

 ing our lands, and people, by putting our own native sources of agri- 

 cultural wealth into the hands and pockets of our competitors, when 

 the most clearly apparent facts go to prove conclusively that we may 

 turn all of them to our own benefit and advantage, by using our own com- 

 mon sense in the matter. It is a clear and simple proposition for us to 

 consider, and turn to our own advantage. Some may say, "let the farm- 

 ers rear their own sheep then and thus get the fat from both sides of the 

 opportunities." This very plausible proposition may be disposed of in 

 the mere statement that it is opposed to the science of business. This 

 is to the effect that all raw products should be completely finished at 

 home, and in this way labor is aided at home, and the profits are kept 

 in our own pockets. 



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