OUR EXPORTS OF POTATOES. 



CHAPTER VI. 



OUR EXPORTS OF POTATOES. ; 



r T^HE fact that farmers obtain better prices for their produce 

 JL under the system of Protection to home industry than they do 

 under the system of partial Free Trade finds additional confirma 

 tion at every succeeding step of inquiry into the subject. Whether 

 we take the cereals, which are cultivated so extensively, and pro 

 duced in such vast quantities, or resort to the minor crops, for ex 

 amples, this important and instructive fact is equally established 

 by the investigation. Let us illustrate the case with potatoes. 

 Here are the exports for the last twenty-six years, with the average 

 price per bushel in each year. 



* The exports in these years are stated in barrels in the official reports as follows : 81,823 

 barrels in 1855, at an average price of $2.48.605 per barrel ; 82,512 barrels in 1856, at an average 

 price of $1.85.502 per barrel ; and 86,808 barrels in 1857.31 an average price of $2.36.863 per 

 barrel. For the sake of uniformity, we have reduced barrels to bushels, at the assumed rate of 

 eleven pecks to the barrel. 



Here we have, for the Protective period, an increase of 

 per cent, in aggregate quantity, of 136 per cent, in aggregate value, 

 and of 24 per cent, in average price per bushel of total, showing a 



