152 



&f)c JTanncr's ittontljlj) tetter. 



most exclusive attention to manfactures. To 

 tliis end we have commercial treaties, hostile 

 tariffs, protecting duties, and zollvereins; but 

 they seem to forget the all-important fact, that 

 110 more manufactures can be sold than there is food 

 to pay for them. 



Exports and imports do not depend perma- 

 nently upon the quantity of gold and silver in the 

 world, but on the quantity of breadstuff's in it. 

 Find us the flour and vve will find you the fab- 

 rics ; bring in the wheat and we will send out 

 the twist. For instance, Great Britain exports 

 annually some £50,000,000 worth of produce 

 and manufactures. All this, except what goes to 

 pay for raw material, is sent for lea, sugar, food 

 and drink. Yet our people are not over-fed. We 

 are in number 27,000,000. Every one of these 

 millions, on an average, could consume of food 

 alone £5 worth a year more, and not he over-fed. 

 Suppose food cheaper, say each pays £2 more, 

 our exports would necessarily be doubled, or each 

 would be paid more tor what he now produces. 

 The extent of employment depends upon the 

 price of bread, and on the difficulty of pro- 

 curing bread depends, in reference to other 

 nations, the extent at once of our trade and our 

 population. 



What, then, ought to be the object of the state ? 

 To give free access to the import and export of 

 food, and leave manufactures and commerce to 

 take care of themselves. Providence has made 

 existence, intelligence, refinement, luxury, and 

 peace depend solely upon the production of food 

 — food itself depending upon the cultivation of 

 land. We are bound to go forth in the will of 

 God, and literally conquer the earth. The test, 

 therefore, to be applied to all social and national 

 questions should be, do they tend to increase 

 the quantity of human food — every where? 



To the owners of manufacturing establish- 

 ments all around us, to the artisan and mechanic 

 who would prosper in business, we say, you can 

 do nothing better than encourage the farmer to 

 improve his soil and increase the quantity of his 

 products. The growth and increase of all the 

 new countries of this continent with which we 

 have an open trade, the growth and production 

 of the new States of the West, taking off every 

 surplus article of manufacture in New England, 

 become an element of prosperity : with a surplus 

 of agricultural products to sell, new countries 

 can purchase and pay for manufactures of the 

 old: without the surplus to sell, they can buy 

 manufactures, but they can never pay for Ihem 

 But much more to the advantage of New Eng- 

 land capitalists engaged in manufactures will it 

 be to encourage farmers to increase their pro- 

 ducts living in their own neighborhoods. Who 

 ever knew a rich community of farmers thai did 

 not make themselves so by the surplus articles 

 which they bring out of the soil? and who ever 

 knew such a neighborhood of fanners that did 

 not make wealthy mechanics and even rich mer- 

 chants? The mere usurer may grow rich on 

 money at the expense of the hard labor of an 

 enthralled community in llie midst of which he 

 lives; but the curse and blight which he brings 

 first upon his victims usually overtakes sooner 

 or later both his ill-gained property and the in- 

 heritors of his gains. 



No country can be long prosperous that has 

 not a prosperous agriculture. If the proceeds of 

 agriculture cannot pay for labor, so neither can 

 the proceeds of labor in other callings continue 

 to be prosperous. So long as we can freely ex- 

 port the products of the farm, we may safely 

 import every thing we want from abroad; and 

 this, so far from conflicting with or injuring our 

 own manufacturers and artisans, will afford them 

 the sure elements of their prosperity. New 

 England agriculture may double and Ibur-fold 

 its productions. Population will come in and be 

 supported in proportion to the increase of food 



which the northern States shall produce. If 

 they have not the advantage of climate, they will 

 forever have the advantage of the nearer and 

 better market. The utmost facilities of trans- 

 port can never take away this advantage: our 

 farmers can always sell at the highest price be- 

 fore the easier distant producers can come to 

 the market. How can the rich prairies of the 

 West ever rival the highlands of New England 

 and New York in the productions of the dairy, 

 in the rearing of sheep, in the fattening of cattle, 

 in the crops of potatoes and apples which may 

 be shipped all along the coast, to the West Indies 

 and even to Europe? With the surplus of the 

 farm, New England farmers, from the choicest 

 brands of western flour, may always supply 

 themselves with the cheapest bread. If we cul- 

 tivate more acres we must employ more eaters: 

 the increase of eaters will contribute to the con- 

 tinued demand for the earth's surplus. In pro- 

 portion as more food is produced so will become 

 the increase of the better paying class of con- 

 sumers. Certain it is that whatever may be the 

 danger of an overplus of manufactures in 

 New England, she cannot for many years to come 

 glut the market with too much of those productions 

 of the earth which come into use as human food. 



Great Britain and the United States. 



The following table has been published of the 

 exports from the United States to Great Britain 

 during the last five years. The increase in all 

 articles of animal food, such a bacon, pork, but- 

 ter and cheese, appears absolutely astonuding; 

 and, looking at the prices which these articles 

 have nevertheless maintained in England, we are 

 enabled to estimate the dearness that would 

 have prevailed hut for the arrival of such sup- 

 plies. — London paper. 



— c "= -. 



i a.." = = . 



— ~ a - — - cr 



!s.*e» s j.> 



: _ m -= - 



- — 'I - ^" ■ 



5 EL ?■ 5- =" b- 3" ? £* 



m - 

 c/. , — 



CJj K 



co CO 

 "to *" 

 — CO 



c-. cooo 



:- -- — 

 wbttO 

 — Ol Cj oj . 



CO r- -- O 



CO 



Z_ ~ o 



Ci to S 



oo en — a 



CO CO CO C. CO 00 CO © Cn 



fcj — *£. CO M CO CJ 00 O 4J «-I CO 2 -? 



*- ^> co ii co oo — co - ~. to *» 15 -: 



00C-*-CC'=(0 1 fe.C5O^!00*.- g 



en 



00 



—■ tO ox — CO 03 IO CO IO - 



t-i © 00 CO ^* (O *^ Cfl — CO Cn t£k -si kb- CO H 



© -o S io oo m a op i; m a p cncn_M 



1_ "*i r^ Salo "rr, rn"L— to^-"to — "to c-jOd9°0 



to © (o'—"io cj co co en co o o p1». oo pi en co eg S> S 

 en to ^1 © *- od tc m — oo .0 © cn en to en © en co • h 



to cn ■— cn*-caoco*.coei — cc ,0 c ** © © co >. 



h^ »-» *- u ? 



to cn to co " «J ** en 



>fe-co «.}"^ in "en c-jTo'--i co 'co 10 to© 



>t* .t* ■£* — cn to ~ © co cc © M to to c 4- © co — 

 ■— co 00 co «j 05 *- to en 00 vj co **. *- © en to cc 00 g 

 © en C3 o © en "en "to © Vj t— "co '*• '— "j^. V| o "to Vj _i 

 © ^j — 00 00 to Cj co m m © ** 00 en ^> ^t vi cc 00 ' 

 CiC30ot50smcoop—©cnoH-cicaeoie.co© 



The good effects of an open market and a free 

 exchange with foreign countries must he appa- 

 rent from the foregoing table: the export of the 

 agricultural products of the United States to 

 Gieat Britain in 1847 was as much a spur to 

 manufacturing industry in this country as to ag- 

 riculture itself. Open the markets in Europe 

 and other foreign countries to the reception at a 

 fair price for the great surplus products of the 



West, and the people of the West will be fur- 

 nished with the means of purchasing and paying 

 for all the stupids goods that New England man- 

 utacturers can produce. Reciprocity in a full 

 general trade cannot fail to pile up wealth and 

 capital in New England, where the railroads are 

 concentrating and making available every thing 

 that has grown or can grow upon the soil — every 

 thing made and manufactured. Occupying the 

 ground of the various manufactures first of all, 

 the New England people have an advantage over 

 all other parts of the country. The cheap cot- 

 ton cloths of New England, despite of prohibi- 

 tory duties, find their way to every part of the 

 American continent: even in Canada they are 

 preferred to the best cotton products of the mo- 

 ther country. So the wooden wares which in 

 some towns of Massachusetts and New Hamp- 

 shire, are using up pines of the second growth 

 and almost every kind of hard and soft wood 

 tree that grows, find their way to all the Stales 

 of the South and West, and are sold to the peo- 

 ple who have abundance of larger trees and 

 heavier timber than the older settlers of New 

 England can find for use. Vermont, New 

 Hampshire and Maine have millions of acres yet 

 to he cleared : their excellent standing timber is 

 but a mine of wealth that will many times pay 

 for the clearing ; and greater than any other part 

 of the country further south and west may this 

 New England country become in the production 

 of butter and cheese for export and in the finest 

 cattle in the world for home use and consump- 

 tion. 



0^= It will be perceived that the following 

 theory taken from an English agricultural jour- 

 nal of established reputation corresponds, as to 

 the cause of the potato rot, with that of our 

 friend Oliver M. Whipple, Esq. of Lowell, Ms. 

 which will be found in this number of the 

 Visitor: 



THE POTATO DISEASE 



Is again among us ; and now is not the time 

 for discussing the question whence, but rather 

 the what is to be done, in order, if it be possible, 

 to mitigate the effects. Assuming the attack to 

 be, primarily, on the organs of respiration (the 

 leaves,) I will, for my purpose, theorise slightly ; 

 thus — So long as leaves perform their functions, 

 the circulation of sap goes on, and stems, &c, 

 go on enlarging. Under the ordinary circum- 

 stances of our climate, the office of the leaf be- 

 comes gradually suspended, and, pari passu, the 

 tuber in the potato gets on ripening. This is the 

 effect, whatever be the size or age of a tuber. 

 The growth of the tuber is as the vigor of the 

 leaf; the ripening is in the ratio of the decay of 

 the leaf. Such is the case under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances,' when the leaves and haulms have 

 their functions gradually suspended, not sudden- 

 ly, (when the circulation is in full vigor,) but by 

 imperceptible degrees. Now, this disease does 

 destroy the leaf, and rapidly so; therefore the 

 circulation of the sap is suddenly and perma- 

 nently stopped ; the sap moving to the leaf be- 

 comes in the first place stagnant; and then, by 

 gravity, sinks and returns to some extent into 

 the tuber, where of course it is so much foreign 

 matter itself in a state of decomposition, and 

 capable of inducing decomposition in a tuber 

 otherwise sound. Now if this view of the mut- 

 ter be correct, it is manifest that the mitigation 

 vve seek will be found in preventing the descent 

 of this sap (sap unacted on in the leaf by atmos- 

 pheric air) into the tuber; the remedy, pro tanlo, 

 consists in cutting away the haulms; and the 

 closer to the ground the better. Whether this 

 be theoretically true or not in practice, it has 

 answered admirably. Tubers so treated in July, 

 and then well earthed, and left in their places 

 till the following February, when they were ta- 

 ken up, were found perfectly sound and sweet. 

 No time should be lost in taking this course with 



