

Vol. XXIII, Second Series. ROCHESTER, N. Y., DECEMBER, 1862. 



No. 12. 



CAN WE COMPETE WITH THE WEST! 



English farmers thought they could not live 

 without " Protection." " Free Trade " in grain, 

 they said, "would bring them into direct competi- 

 tion with American farmers, who, beside having 

 rich, new land, had no rent, tythes or taxes to pay." 

 They said and thought that such competition would 

 prove their ruin, and the ruin of the country. Long 

 was the struggle and bitter the strife which wrung 

 from the agricultural interest an unwilling assent 

 to the removal of duties on imported grain. The 

 manufacturing interest triumphed, and the farmers 

 for a while suffered nearly as much as they had 

 anticipated ; but they soon adapted themselves to 

 their altered circumstances, and to-day English ag- 

 riculture is, on the whole, as profitable as it was 

 ■under protection. 



This has been effected by a change in the system 

 of agriculture. They were brought into direct 

 •competition with other grain-gron ing countries, but 

 they had still one of the best markets in the world 

 for the sale of butchers' meat. They turned their 

 attention more to the raising and fattening of cattle 

 and sheep, and an unexpected result followed. 

 They not only had more meat to sell, but the fat- 

 tening stock so increased the size and richness of 

 their manure heaps that they obtained as much or 

 more grain from the smaller area than from the 

 larger breadth of land formerly sown! 



The same result has attended the growth of the 

 beet for sugar in some districts of France. Much 

 land was devoted to this crop, but the remaining 

 land was so enriched by the refuse beets fed to cat- 

 tle, that it produced more than if the whole land 

 had been devoted to grain. 



Can we compete with the grain-growers of the 

 West? The English farmers, contrary to their 

 fears, have not been ruined by being brought into 

 competition with other countries, partly because 

 of the expense attending the conveyance of grain, 

 and. partly because they turned their attention to 



producing beef and mutton, in which they had still 

 very little competition from foreign countries. We 

 have to compete with the West. Can we do so 

 successfully ? 



Some farmers say we can not ; but we think they 

 are mistaken. 



The high freights on grain give us all the pro- 

 tection we need. It costs thirty-four cents a 

 bushel to send corn from Chicago to New York, 

 and the farmer living in the interior of Illinois 

 can not get his corn or wheat to Chicago for less 

 than it costs us to send it to New York; so that 

 we receive full thirty-four cents a bushel more for 

 grain than the farmers living on the prairies of 

 Illinois. How they manage to raise corn and wheat 

 and sell it at such prices is more than we can un- 

 derstand. We get little enough here, but still; we- 

 get thirty-four cents a bushel more than ihey do ; 

 and it must be remembered that every >sent per 

 bushel we get over aud above the cost e£" produc- 

 tion is clear profit. 



In the production of grain, therefore^, we need 

 not fear competition with our brethren at the- 

 West. But how is it in the production of^eef,. 

 pork, mutton, butter, cheese and wool ?• The freight 

 on a hundred -dollars' worth of these articles is 

 very much less than on a hundred! dollars' worth 

 of grain. Other things being equal',, therefore, they 

 are far better able to compete with us in the pro- 

 duction of these products than intone production of 

 grain; and the tendency of sueh a condition of' 

 things is to force the Western tanners to raising' 

 beef, pork, mutton and wool. So far as the c *st 

 of sending these to market is concerned, .they lrave v 

 as compared with grain, a decided' advantage 

 over us. 



This leaves us in rather an embarrassim* posi- 

 tion. If the competition was in producin g grain 

 instead of meat, wool, &c, we could read ily meet 

 it. The increased production of meat find wool 

 would enable us to make our Ian*? richeir; but as 



