312 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



which he had ordered the proceeds of the 100 bales to be 

 invested, thus making the 100 bales worth of jroods cost him 

 140 bales of cotton. And this was no fallacy. It was true 

 then, and it is true to-day. If I send 100 barrels of cran- 

 berries from my Cape Cod place, or you 100 barrels of apples 

 from your inland farm to England, and bring back dutiable 

 goods in exchange, we must have the proceeds of 43 barrels 

 more in our pockets to pay the government for the duties on 

 the goods. Even if we ordered the amount in trees, or 

 plants, or seeds of any kind, paying a duty of twenty per 

 cent., it Avould be 20 barrels on a hundred, and does this pro- 

 tect us? The total amount of value of seeds imported last 

 year was $1,465,170.18, paying duties $281,038.84. There 

 is not only no protection to us in this, but actually a barrier 

 in the way of introducing improved seeds and plants into 

 the country, only to increase the surplus in the public treas- 

 ury at our expense, to be squandered at Washington. If it 

 be said that you and I will bring home gold for our apples 

 or cranberries, we cannot buy at home what we need with- 

 out its cost being increased by the duties the importer has 

 to pay on it, be it silk or merino dresses for our wives and 

 daughters, coats and hats for ourselves, or steel ploughs or 

 trace and log chains for our farms. You cannot escape the 

 fact that you buy a great deal less for your money at home 

 than abroad, and while the price of what you raise and sell is 

 fixed by what it is worth in the foreign market, the price of 

 all you want to buy here of foreign make, is fixed here, and 

 the cost is increased by the duty, averaging nearly forty-three 

 per cent. That a tax increases the price of goods is illustrated 

 by the fact that common whiskey, worth 25 cents a gallon, is 

 increased by the duty of 90 cents to the market value of 

 $1.15, and the same is the efiect on the price of tobacco. 

 This increase of price by the tax, which is here clear and 

 palpable, will apply, though less apparently, to all the arti- 

 cles imported from abroad, be they sugar (three cents a 

 pound), or salt, clothing, hats or blankets, iron or steel, or 

 manufactures thereof. There is no doubt that the prices of 

 the same class of goods made at home are enhanced in 

 equal ratio to the foreign goods which compete with them. 

 If any man tells you that our protected manufacturer makes 



