SOLON ROBINSON, 1843 379 



fashionable; our ropes, and even our bags to carry our 

 wheat to market in ; and our 



"Yes, and our tobacco." 



Rightly said. Yes, and our tobacco. And what don't 

 we import in return for our wheat? And if the sea- 

 son prove bad and the crop fail, then we go ragged, 

 and 



"Smoke on credit." 



Right again. And not only smoke on credit, but some- 

 times smoke our creditors most confoundedly. 



And let me tell you, that we never shall smoke the pipe 

 of peace, while we rely so much upon one single article 

 of export, and depend upon buying almost all else that 

 we eat, drink, wear and 



"Smoke." 



Yes, and smoke — for smoke we will, and therefore 

 ought in that, as well as hemp and wool, to smoke "home- 

 made," and wear home-spun," and 



"Hang ourselves with a home-made rope." 



Exactly: "and thereby hangs a tale," that cannot be 

 too often told to prairie farmers. But I suppose that the 

 critical personage who appears in this tale to be every 

 now and then inclined to slip in a question or remark, 

 by way of sarcastic objections to my argument, would 

 say that this country is yet too new to expect such things. 

 Perhaps it is ; but it is not too new to begin to raise wool, 

 hemp, flax and tobacco, to tan our own hides, make our 

 own ropes, and a score of other things. It certainly is 

 not wisdom for us to rely so much upon one single kind 

 of produce, which, if it fail, all fails. I have heard some 

 farmers say that they intended to get a flock of sheep as 

 soon as there were factories to work up the wool. Let 

 me say to such, that the sheep must come first, and the 

 factories will follow as a natural sequence. Last fall, 

 pork was so low that many determined not to attempt to 

 raise only for family use. Now they mourn because 

 they have no pork to sell; and yet, in fact, they could 

 better afford to sell at last fall prices than this, because 



