CHAPTER II. 



THE farmer's interest IN FREE TRADE IN NAT- 

 URAL PRODUCTS ONLY.' 



I am not about to select that great interest connected with the 

 agriculture of this country, and call upon the landowners to relinquish 

 protection, unprepared at the same time to call upon other protected 

 classes to relinquish protection also. In the confidence that the prin- 

 ciple for which I contend is a just and wise one, I ask all protected 

 interests to make the sacrifice, if it be a sacrifice, which the appli- 

 cation of that principle will render necessary. — Sir Robert Peel, 

 1846. 



From the columns of a valuable little farm paper — The 

 Farm and Home — we read the other day : *' Most agri- 

 cultural products seem to be viewed as raw material. 

 This view appears to have largely permeated both politi- 

 cal parties. It is a view that appears destined to do 

 incalculable harm to our agriculture, if permitted to pre- 

 vail. . . . Most of his (the farmer's) products are as 

 really manufactured articles as are the clothes he wears. 

 Let us demand and compel a halt until this principle is 

 honestly recognized." This protest seems to us correct 

 and timely in the interest of the farmer. Is there not 

 quite as much reason for protecting the producer of so- 

 called ''natural products," or products of the farm, as 

 the so-called manufactured articles ? 



' The substance of this chapter appeared in correspondence of the 

 writer, printed in the Halifax Morning Chronicle, November, 1888. 



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