190 AMERICAN FARMS. 



fruits of their orchards. The beef, pork, and hams of 

 the United States were to be kept out of the country, 

 and consequently the farmers would have a chance to 

 market their meats at profitable prices. The duty levied 

 against the import of corn and corn-meal, it was argued, 

 would give the farmers of the Maritime Provinces an 

 opportunity for reviving a once profitable industry — the 

 raising of coarse grains for the use of the fisherman and 

 lumberman. And the duty of fifty or seventy-five cents per 

 barrel on the import of wheat-flour was, it was claimed, 

 to cause the maritime consumers to depend upon the 

 lands of the Lower Provinces for their bread. No doubt 

 these flattering prospects prompted many a farmer to 

 cast in his lot with the party for protective legislation. 

 An enthusiastic advocate of this new policy, residing in 

 the western part of Nova Scotia, was so deeply impressed 

 with the probable happy results of protection to the 

 farmers' grain interests, that he immediately erected an 

 expensive mill for the grinding of domestic grains, im- 

 ported large quantities of seeds, and gave his farmer 

 friends every assistance possible in taking advantage of 

 this new wealth-producing policy. The mill ran little 

 more than a year, and then closed up. 



The experience of the years which have passed since 

 the inauguration of the Canadian policy of protection 

 should do much to teach how delusive and unreliable are 

 the promises of meddlesome legislation for the control 

 of industry. Probably never before were the farmers of 

 Canada driven more to depend merely upon the pro- 

 duction of those articles which can be exported in com- 

 petition with all rivals, than at the present day. When 

 the manufacturers of cottons, of rubber goods, of agri- 

 cultural implements, and of the products of sugar refin- 



