No. 144.] 235 



perience and (he tendency of our agricultural influences, it is a 

 proper one to be considered during this anniversary month of our 

 nation's independence. Its national character needs no explana- 

 tion. The first effort of the early white settlers of America was 

 the production of food for their necessities, and with the increase 

 of civilization and prosperity, the cultivation of the soil has ever 

 been the direct object of a majority of our citizens, until now (as 

 we observe by the papers of the Secretary) agriculture is the 

 monument of America, manufactures and commerce bearing to it 

 the same relation as the forge for sharpening drills bears to the 

 quarry where stone is being procured. The direct efiect of in- 

 creasing our amount of crops must necessarily be to increase our 

 present wealth and reduce our taxation. From the seventh cen- 

 sus of the United States we learn the corn crop of 1849 was about 

 600,000,000 of bushels, worth, at the export prices of that year, 

 $300,000,000. Large as this amount is it was about one-seventeenth 

 of the money value of crops raised that year. That we may see 

 the value of slight improvement, let us suppose that by a better 

 system of cultivation the amount of crop might have been in- 

 creased 5 per cent, that 105 bushels of corn might have been 

 raised in the place of each 100, and that the same proportion 

 might have been attained throughout the whole crop. This in- 

 crease w^ould be worth $255,000,000, a sum equal to one seventh 

 of the cash value of all the farms in the country, one-half the 

 value of the live stock, or double the value of all the farm imple- 

 ments and machinery used to conduct the agricultural operations 

 of the United States. Should you deem the small advance of 5 

 per cent too great to be reasonably expected, reduce it to one-tenth 

 of that amount. Suppose that one-half of 1 per cent could have 

 been added to the crop of '49, the increase of value would have 

 been $25,000,000, enough to defray nearly one-half of our govern- 

 ment expenses; a sum which, applied to the advancement of agri- 

 culture, would yield a yearly return of 5, yes, 10 per cent in- 

 crease in our national productions. What other branch of indus- 

 try, Mr. Chairman, have we among us which would so amply re- 

 pay us for protection ? Surely not manufactures. Our factories 

 are worth less than our horses; our steam-engines and water 

 power less than our horned cattle; the labor of our mechanics 



