100 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



remains. The time has come when farmers may justly say 

 to the other classes, " Come now, let us reason together ! We 

 are carrying too large a share of the burdens of taxation. Why 

 should we be taxed to benefit infant industries ? " I fancy I 

 hear some wealthy manufacturer, whose goods are largely used 

 by the farmer, and who enjoys from 35 to 50 per cent " pro- 

 tection " from foreign manufacturers, say : '' What are you 

 farmers grumbling about anyway ? You have a better time 

 than I do. You are free from business cares and worries. 

 You are your own boss," etc. These remarks remind me of 

 an incident which is said to have occurred during slavery 

 days, " befo' de war." Some of the colored slaves on a certain 

 plantation were grumbling about their lot, wanted to be free, 

 etc. Their owner turned to them and said : " What are you 

 grumbling about ? You niggers have a better time than I do." 

 " Yes, sah, that's so," said an old darkey, '' so does your 

 hogs." This, some one has said, illustrates a saying of John 

 Stuart Mill : " Better a dissatisfied man than a satisfied pig." 



To show the importance of the American farmer and his 

 products, and how small a proportion of the revenues of the 

 great United States is spent on agriculture, a speaker recently 

 made the statement that in ten years (1896-1906) nearly 60 

 per cent of the value of the United States exports came from 

 American farms, and less than 1 per cent of the federal reve- 

 nues were expended for the benefit of agriculture. 



Some one has said : " The well-being of a people is like a 

 tree, — agriculture is its root, manufacture and commerce 

 are its branches and leaves ; if the root is injured the leaves 

 fall, the branches break away and the tree dies." This illus- 

 trates the value of agTiculture to any nation. 'Tis doubtless 

 true that " the farmer feeds them all," but it is also necessary 

 that the farmer himself shall be well fed, mentally as well as 

 bodily. There has been a tendency towards starving the mind 

 on many farms. Farmers are working against gTeat eco- 

 nomic disadvantages. In both Canada and the United States 

 the economic conditions are fixed against the farming classes. 

 Farmers work hard, but until these economic handicaps are 

 removed they will be unable to make much progress. We 



