AMer 



ICAN HERD-BOOTi' 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Perfect Agriculture is the true foundation of all trade and industry. — Liebio. 



Vol. VIII.— No. 11.) 



6th mo. (June) 15th, 1844. 



[Whole No. 113. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY JOSIAH TATUM, 



EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 

 PHILADELPHIA. 



Price onedollarper year.— For conditions seelast page. 



Agriculture and the Corn-LaAV. 



(Concluded from last No. p. 301.) 



V. From what has been already said, it 

 appears pretty clear that restrictive corn- 

 laws are decidedly injurious to the farmer. 

 It remains to be seen, that, of all possible 

 modifications of such laws, that which is 

 known as the sliding-scale, is the most 

 fraught with mischief and delusion. It is, 

 indeed, the very quintescence of evil. It 

 is ruinous alike to the merchant, to the 

 manufacturer, to the consumer ; to the for- 

 eign producer, to the English fariner. If 

 our legislators had sat down in all diligence 

 and good faith, to contrive a law which 

 should be productive of a minimum of bene- 

 fit to any class, and a maximum of injury to 

 all, they could not possibly have devised one 

 more exquisitely adapted to its end. Such 

 are the singular errors into which even able 

 men will ever be liable to fall, when they 

 endeavour to counteract the operation of 

 natural causes; when they commit them- 



Cab.— Vol. VIIL— No. 11. 



selves to an impotent struggle with the 

 laws which govern the moral and material 

 world. 



Had the sliding-scale been the exact con- 

 verse of what it is; — had it been made to 

 slide in the opposite direction, the duty fall- 

 ing with the fall in price, and advancing 

 with its advance ; — had the duty been nomi- 

 nal at 40s. and prohibitory at 73s.; then, 

 though in many respects more burdensome 

 to the community, it would have afforded to 

 the farmer a less delusive protection than 

 the present law; as he would in that case 

 have reaped the full benefit of high priced 

 years. In one case he would have been se- 

 cured against foreign competition by low 

 prices ; in the other case, by the high duty. 

 His protection would have been proportioned 

 to his dani>er. " What," says Dr. Johnson, 

 " is a patron ] Is he not one who will see a 

 man struggling in the waves, without stretch- 

 ing out a hand to his assistance, but who, as 

 soon as he has reached the shore in safety, 

 encumbers him with help?" Just such a 

 patron has the sliding-scale proved to the 

 deceived and miserable farmer. When 

 wheat is at 40s. a quarte);, and no foreign 

 corn can in consequence possibly come in, 

 it mocks him with a needless protection of 

 50 per cent. But when prices are rising, 

 and prospects brightening around him, and 

 he — unhappy dupe ! is solacing his tantali- 

 zed and thirsty soul with a golden vision of 

 73s. a quarter for his coming crop, the pro- 

 tection is suddenly withdrawn, and the del- 



(329) 



