506 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Replies were made to these warm and cordial addresses of 

 welcome by Secretary John M. Stahl of Illinois and by 

 President B. F. Clayton of Iowa. 



President Clayton then delivered his annual address, from 

 which we quote as follows : — 



" The natural products of the soil, aided by intelligent and 

 well-directed labor, are the great creative force, the only 

 source from which wealth may be obtained to meet ail obli- 

 gations. The product of the gold and silver mines is only 

 valuable because of the commerce and wealth created from 

 the farms. One year of total failure of the products of the 

 earth, and wreck and ruin, starvation and death would be 

 the inevitable result. 



..." The science of agriculture and our wonderful me- 

 chanical inventions have gone hand in hand in the onward 

 march of this progressive age ; but our basal relations remain 

 unchanged, and agriculture must press her claims with even 

 greater force under the new condition of things, as the true 

 source of wealth, and as the solid foundation upon which 

 rests the beautiful and magnificent temple of our success. 



. . . " During the last fiscal year of the operations of the 

 former law [tarifi' law] the agricultural imports on twenty 

 articles the like of which we produce north and south 

 amounted to $65,804,446 ; during the first calendar year of 

 the operations of the present law the importations of the 

 same articles amounted to $lo4,068,860, or an increase over 

 the former of $68,264,314. In the exportation of farm 

 products we find the discrepancy still greater in twenty- 

 seven articles produced on the farm. During the fiscal year 

 1894 we exported farm products to the amount of $907,946,- 

 945, while during the calendar year 1895 there were exported 

 of the same products an amount of only $751,833,937, a de- 

 crease of $156,113,008. Adding the gain in imports to the 

 loss in exports, and the American farmer loses in one year 

 $224,337,322. 



. . . " If these figures be true, a vigorous remonstrance 

 to these schedules should go up from this body, and we 

 should demand that the agricultural department investigate 

 each item. Should protection be the policy of the govern- 

 ment, then it should be applied to farm products, and the 



