CLAIMS OF AGRICULTURE. 41 



However, it would 'be beside our purpose to enter into any 

 speculations on this point ; one of the principles of our national 

 policy always has been, and is now, protection ; — equitable, indeed, 

 even handed, yet decided protection to all those great interests 

 in which our citizens are engaged — to the merchant, the mechanic, 

 the farmer ; — all have tasted in a greater or less degree of the 

 pleasant fruit of governmental aid. The question w^hich we pro- 

 pose to discuss in this article is the practical one, what can the 

 government (federal and state) do for the farmer 1 keeping of 

 course within those limits respecting which there is no dispute — 

 in what way can the most effectual aid be given to that particular 

 pursuit, in which the vast mass of our population are employed 1 

 and w^hich is, in truth, the basis and support of every other — 

 agriculture. 



Now, in the discussion of this question it may be observed, that 

 there are various w^ays in which the legislature may lend its aid to 

 the farmer, apparently to his great benefit, while in the ultimate 

 result, if he is not absolutely injured by it, he at least derives no 

 substantial good. For example, bounties may be given to encou- 

 rage the production of certain articles, which are quite unsuited to 

 the particular localities in w^hich they are attempted to be raised. 

 Some years since, the state of Maine expended (annually) a large 

 sum in this w^ay, with a view to induce her own farmers to cultivate 

 wheat. And so the state of New-York might make an annual ap- 

 propriation for the purpose of introducing the culture of tobacco ; 

 now it is not difficult to show that in such cases the farmer is rather 

 injured than benefited, because his energies are misdirected ; he 

 is put upon the cultivation of something for which his soil or his 

 climate may be altogether unsuited, and w^hich the farmer of some 

 other state will raise for him at a far less cost. We do not mean 

 by these remarks to intimate that bounties should never be offered, 

 but there is danger of carrying out the thing to an unwarrantable 

 length, — of overlooking the great physical fact of the diversity 

 of soil, climate, &c., and that no single locality, however highly 

 favored, can produce every thing. To attempt every thing is to 

 gain nothing. In our judgment, the only o])ject of a bounty should 

 be, not io force the cultivation of some thing new, but effectually 

 to test the capabilities of the state ; and to do this it certainly is 

 not necessary to keep up a system of bounties. 



VOL. I. NO. 1. F 



