MONTHLY REPORT. 



Departmrivt of Aoriculture, 



Washington, January, 1866. 



The report for this month lias several statistical tables relative to the imports, 

 exports, and value of leading articles produced or consumed in the United 

 States. The greatly decieased importation of foreign wool in I860, being 

 22,541,674 pounds, is a gratifying decrease, for it shows the progress that is 

 making in supplying the domestic demands of the country in a commodity so 

 essential to its wants and comfort. But the increased import of woollen goods, 

 being in value $4,632,620, shows that there is still a demand upon both the 

 grower and manufactui-er of wool which they should meet, and which they 

 ought under the present high tariflf duties. We import nearly a million dollars' 

 worth of cigars ; these, we suppose, are mostly of the best Havana; but if, as is 

 alleged by the cigar manufacturer, this import is occasioned by the internal tax 

 being greater than the duty on the foreign article, such an inequality ought not 

 to be permitted. 



The adjustment of the claims of different interests affected by the internal 

 taxes and the tariff duties is a subject now earnestly pressed upon the attention 

 of Congress. Several conventions, representing the growers of the raw material 

 and of its manufacture, have been hel 1, and their delegates sent to this city. 

 Views have been advanced which I regaid as in conflict with the welfare of 

 the farmer, and claims made antagonistical to his equal rights. The leading 

 article in this report reviews some of them. Whilst all classes should be ready 

 to meet their equal share of ihe public burdens, none of them should seek ex- 

 emption, especially by the oppression of others. 



In this report will be found an article in rcjdy to complaints from individuals 

 in Minnesota against the estimate made by this department of the wheat crop 

 for l;^65 of that State. No other basis of error has been presented than au 

 alleged export of wheat in 1865 from several localities in that State, amounting 

 to between seven and eight millions of bushels ; yet the most prominent ob- 

 jector to the correctness of the estimate of the department, in a published letter, 

 says : 



"Owing to the low stage of water in the Minnesota river for the last three years immense 

 quantities of wheat have accumulated in the southern an<J western sections of the State." 



This declaration sweeps away the very grounds upon which an error is al- 

 leged in the estimates of the department. 



Every person holding an important official position is subject to the scrutiny 

 of all. This is right, for it is one of the best safeguards against official wrongs; 

 but such scrutiny should be exercised in good faith : it should have a grf-ater 

 regard to })ublic good than to private and personal objects. To distinguish 

 whether an objector is governed by the one or the other is not at all times 



