"be immeasurably worse but for our farm products. In tins emerg- 

 ency, it is not the manufacturer, tlie miner or the fisherman, but 

 the farmer who supplies the exportable commodities to liquidate 

 the foreign claim. For eight months ending the first of l\Tarch, 

 1872, we imported commodities of foreign production to the value 

 of $891,670,674, and if the trade continues at that rate for the re- 

 mainder of the year it will amount to $587,506,011. For eight 

 months ending at the same time, we exported domestic products to 

 the value of $352,123,115. If the exportation continued in the 

 same proportion to the end of the fiscal year, it would aggregate 

 $529,184,672. An enormous sum, but we should still have a foreign 

 indebtedness of $59,321,339. But let us analyze this domestic ex- 

 portation, which paid S528,l 84,672 of our debt, and see who con- 

 tributed it, — ^by whose labor it was produced. The custom house 

 returns for the period named, show that our mining and fishing 

 interests, our manufactures of cottons, woolens, boots and shoes, of 

 iron and steel of every description, clothing, of silver and gold, 

 gold and silver coin, — manufacturers of every kind and grade in 

 the country, all combined, — furnished for exportation with which 

 to pay the foreign debt, products to the value of $134,625,087. And 

 the farmers furnished corn, wheat, flour, cotton, beef, pork, lard, 

 live stock, fruits, butter, cheese, and other products of the soil, to 

 the aggregate value of $393,559,585. Thus it appears that so far 

 as our trade, exchanges and indebtedness to foreign nations are 

 concerned, so far as our ability to pay, our solvency and credit are 

 concerned, the farmers contribute more to discharge the one and 

 uphold the other, than all other classes and industries. I come now 

 to my last argument proving that farming pays the nation. And 

 that is, its influence in fixing the national tyi:>e of character, the 

 Americanized sentiment of our population. 



As might be expected from the sum of the products, nearly one- 

 half of our population are engaged, either directly or indirectly, in 

 some branch of agriculture, and much more than half of our produc- 

 ing laborers, are at work upon the soil. By the returns, it appears 

 that on the first of June, 1870, there were in the United States, 

 9,486,307 persons actively engaged in gainful pursuits. Of these, 

 2,407,421 were engaged in manufacturing, mechanical and mining 

 pursuits ; 5,928,868 were engaged in agriculture, and the remain- 

 ing 850,018 were engaged in transportation, the different professions 

 and minor industries. Thus it ajjpears that so far as our population 



