1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



239 



This change in the agriculture of our state and coun- 

 try, opens to the mind reflections of the most cheering 

 diaracter. If carried out to its legitimate results, it pro- 

 mises a competition among our farmers, not to obtain 

 the highest price for inferior productions, hut to produce 

 th" most, the best, and the cheapest of the necessaries of 

 human life. It promises agricultural prosperity, with 

 cheap and good bread, furnished in abundance to all 

 wlio will eat within the rule prescribed to fallen man in 

 the sacred volume ot the Divine law. 



Steady resolution and persevering energy are requisite 

 to carty for>.vard these improvements to that degree of 

 perfection dictated alike by interest and duty ; and the 

 stimulus of a steady and remunerating market will rouse 

 that resolution and nerve that energy. Without this 

 encouragement in prospect, few will persevere in ma- 

 king improvements which require close and constant 

 mental application, as well as severe physical labor. — 

 Agriculture will never be healthfully or profitably prose- 

 cuted by him whose control ing object is his own con- 

 sumption. The hope of gain is the motive power to hu- 

 man industry, and is as necessary to the farmer as to 

 the merchant or manulacturer. All, who labor, are 

 equally stimulated by the prospect of a market which is 

 to remunerate them for their toil, and without this hope, 

 neither mental activity, nor physical energy, will char- 

 acterize their exertions. True it is that tlie farmers of 

 our country, as a class, calculate less closely by the pro- 

 fits of their labor and capital, than men engaged in most 

 other pursuits, and are content with lower rates of gain. 

 Tiie most of them own their farms, their stocks and 

 farming implements, unincumbered by debt. Their 

 business gives but an annual return. " They live fru- 

 gally, labor patiently and faithfully, aid at the close of 

 die year, its expenses are paid from its proceeds, the 

 balance remaining, being accounted the profits of the 

 year. Although a moderate sum, it produces content- 

 ment withr.ut a computation of the rate per cent, upon 

 the capital invested, or the wages it will pay to the pro- 

 prietor and the members of his lamily. The result is an 

 advance in the great object of human labor, and, if not 

 repaid, it is safe and certain. It is a surplus beyond the 

 expenses of living, to be added to the estate, and may be 

 repeated in each revolving year. 



If, however, this surplus is left upon the hands of the 

 farmer, in his own products, for which there is no mar- 

 ket, his energies are paralyzed, his .spirits sink, and he 

 scarcely feels that the year has added to his gains — he 

 sees little encouragement in toiling on to cultivate be- 

 yond his wants, productions which will not sell ; and 

 the chances are, that his farm is neglected, his husband- 

 ry becomes bad, and his gains, in fact, cease. 



To continue a progressive state of improvement in 

 agriculture, then, and to give energy and prosperity to 

 this great and vital branch of human industry, a health- 

 tul and stable market becomes indispensable, and no 

 object should more carefully occupy the attention of the 

 farmers of the United States. 



Deeply impressed with the conviction of this truth, 

 benevolent minds have cherished the idea that a domes- 

 tic market, to be influenced only by our own national 

 policy, would be so far preferable, "in stability and cer- 

 tainty, to the open market of the commercial world, as 

 to have persuaded themselves that a sufficient market 

 for our agricultural products, is thus attainable. It is 

 not designed to discuss the soundness of the theory, where 

 it can be reduced to practice ; but only to inquire whe- 

 ther the state of this country, the condition oi its society, 

 and the tendency and inclination of its population, as to 

 their industrial pursuits, are such at the present time, or 

 can be expected to be such for generations vet to come, 

 as to render it possible to consume within 'the country 

 the surplus of the productions of our agriculture. 



The theory of an exclusively domestic market for this 

 gi-eat domestic interest, is certainly a very beautiful one, 

 as a theory, and can scarcely fail to strike the mind fa- 

 vorably upon a first impression. Still, examination has 

 produced diiierences of opinion between statesmen of 



equal intelligence and patriotism, as to its influence up- 

 on the happiness and prosperity of a country and its 

 population. Any examination of this question would 

 lead to a discussion properly considered political, if not 

 partizan, and all such discussions it is my settled pur- 

 pose to avoid, as inappropriate to the place and the oc- 

 casion. 



Apply these bright and brightening prospects to the 

 almost boundless agricultural field of our country, with 

 its varied and salubrious climate, its fresh and unbroken 

 soils, its cheap lands and fee simple titles, and who can 

 hope, if he M'ould, to turn the inclinations of our people 

 from this fair field of labor and of pleasure 1 Here, the 

 toil which secures a certain independence, is sweetened 

 by the constantly varying exhibitions of nature in her 

 most lovely forms, and cheered by the most benignant 

 manifestations of the wonderful power and goodness of 

 nature's God. Cultivated by the resolute hands and 

 enlightened minds of freemen, owners of the soil, pro- 

 perly educated as farmers, under a wise and just admin- 

 istration of a .system of liberal public instruction, should, 

 and will be, and aided by the researches of geology and 

 chemistry, who can calculate the extent of the harvests 

 to be gathered from this vast field of wisely directed hu- 

 man industry ? 



The present surplus of bread-stufls of this country, 

 could not have been presented in a more distinct and in- 

 teresting aspect than during the present year. A famine 

 in Europe, as wide-spread as it has been devastating ana 

 terrible, has made its demands upon American supplies, 

 not simply to the extent of the ability of the sutfering to 

 purchase food, but in superadded appeals to American 

 sympathy in favor of the destitute and starving. Every 

 call upon our markets has been fully met, and the heart 

 of Europe has been filled with warm and grateful respon- 

 ses to the benevolence of our country and our country- 

 men, and yet the avenues of commerce are filled with 

 the productions of American agriculture. Surely, the 

 consumption of this country is now equal to its agricul- 

 tural productions. 



If such is our surplus in the present limited extent and 

 imperfect condition of our agriculture, can we hope that 

 an exclusive domestic market is possible, to furnish a 

 demand for its mature abundance ? In this view of this 

 great and growing interest, can we see a limit to the pe- 

 riod, when the United States will present, in the com- 

 mercial markets of the world, large surpluses of all the 

 varieties of bread-stuffs, of beef, pork, butter, cheese, 

 cotton, tobacco, and rice, beyond the con.sumption of our 

 own country '? And wlio, with the experience of the 

 last few years before him, can doubt that the time is now 

 at hand, "when the two great staples of wool and hemp 

 will be added to the list of exportations? 



These considerations, and others of a kindred charac- 

 ter, which time will not permit me to detail, seem to me, 

 with unfeigned deference, to prove that the agriculture of 

 the United States, for an indefinite period yet to come, 

 must continue to yield annual supplies of our principal 

 staples, far beyond any possible demand of the domestic 

 market, and must therefore remain, as it now is and has 

 ever been, an exporting interest. As such, it must have 

 a direct concern in the foreign trade and commerce of 

 the country, and in all the regulations of our own and 

 of foreign governments which affect either, equal to its 

 interest in a stable and adequate market. 



If this conclusion be sound, then our farmeis must sur- 

 render the idea of a domestic market to furnish the de- 

 mand, and measure the value of their productions, and 

 must prepare themselves to meet the competition of the 

 commercial world in the markets of the commercial 

 world, in the sale of the fruits of their labor. The marts 

 of commerce must be their market, and the demand and 

 supply which meet in those marts must govern their 

 prices. The demand for home consumption, as an ele- 

 ment in that market, must directly and deeply interest 

 them, and should be carefully cultivated and encouraged, 

 while all the other elementsacting with it, and constitu- 

 ting together the demand of the market, should be studied 



