I20 AMERICAN FARMS. 



up agriculture at the expense of other industries. It 

 must either do this, or it must be decided that a country 

 may be as well off without prosperous husbandmen as 

 with them — a position which it will hardly do to 

 assume. 



Furthermore, protection, to be fair, and especially to 

 the farmers, should be extremely local in its operations. 

 Each protective unit should be very small. This was the 

 idea of General Hancock, though it is evidently true he 

 lost popularity by its propagation. A protective line 

 drawn around North America might serve the protective 

 requirements of the carpet, rubber, paper, glass, sugar, 

 and a host of other manufacturing industries. But what 

 would it do to protect the fruit, the cattle, the sheep, the 

 horses, and many other productions of the farm ? The 

 half-dozen concerns that rnay govern a line of manufac- 

 ture may easily form combinations to govern the prices 

 of their commodities, but not so the farmer. 



To serve the protective purpose of the fruit raisers of 

 New York, they must be protected from the fruit indus- 

 tries of Michigan ; the cattle raisers of New England 

 and the Maritime Provinces from Texas, Illinois, and 

 the Northwest ; the grain grower of the East from the 

 grain grower of the West ; the potato producers of New 

 England from their rivals in the Maritime Provinces ; 

 the grain, butter, and cheese productions of the Maritime 

 Provinces from those of Ontario, Manitoba, and the 

 Western States ; and so on. 



Protection for the purpose of building up varied indus- 

 tries, that the farmer might be eventually benefited, has 

 so far been a conspicuous failure in America. The 

 sacrifices which this class has been called upon to make 

 have never been made good, nor can they ever be. 



