THE REAL IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. 1 9 



The same may be said of the nation's annual debt of 

 nearly a million of dollars to foreign ships for carrying 

 her imports and exports to and from the country ; also 

 of the million dollars yearly accruing to foreign capital 

 invested in the country. 



In Canada, as in the United States, the farmers are 

 really at the back of the railways ; they give the largest 

 part of the employment received by her small shipping ; 

 send to foreign customers over fifty per cent, of her total 

 exports, without which it would be difficult for the inter- 

 est on the public debt to be paid, and the profits on for- 

 eign capital invested in the country to be settled.* 



The importance of agriculture, as viewed by the early 

 writers of sacred history, is of too much moment to be 

 left unnoticed. They claim that it was in the garden of 

 Eden that man commenced his labors. " Out of the 

 ground made the Lord God to grow every thing that is 

 pleasant to the sight and good for food," and also "in 

 the midst of the garden " was the *' tree of life," and the 

 " tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Man in the 

 image of God, perfect in all essentials, was put " into the 



' That the ' ' Trade and Navigation Returns " do not show a very large 

 balance of trade against Canada is owing to the fact that she borrows 

 from abroad much faster than the interest on her foreign debt is paid. 

 For, eventually, all borrowed capital must come into the country in 

 the shape of material. Consequently, it may be very far from the 

 fact to state that the production of any articles "would sweep away 

 the balance of trade against her. '.' That the change has not already 

 taken place in a marked degree is because she is still running in debt. 

 The farms must pay these debts, or the interest on these debts, through 

 exports. The policy of the country has stopped the export of manu- 

 factured goods. In 1878 she exported manufactured goods to the 

 value of $4,715,776. In 1886, only $3,306,587. (This latter amount 

 was increased slightly in 1888.) 



