18G7. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



81 



THE WOOL TARIFF. 

 The Washington eorrespomlcnts of the daily 

 papers have, ot" kite, alhuled to niinors of the 

 probability that the duties agreed upon by the 

 Committee of Wool-growers and Manuflxctur- 

 crs, and which passed the House at the last ses- 

 sion, were about to meet with unexpected op- 

 position. The facts, however, that imported 

 wool is now used by very many of the woolen 

 mills in New England, while farmers are seek- 

 ing in vain for a market for one or more clips 

 from their own flocks, are so well known and 

 so indisputably show the need of the proposed 

 legislation that we have paid little attention to 

 these vague reports, which we are sorry to find 

 confirmed by the correspondent of the Boston 

 Dailij Advertiser. This writer in his letter 

 of December 27th, says : "The new tariff of 

 Mr. Wells, as a substitute for the House bill, 

 arrived here to-day. Only three copies are out. 

 Enough is known of the bill tomake it certain 

 that it opposes the system of protection agreed 

 upon by the House, and embodies the views of 

 the opponents of that legislation. It in effect 

 re-enacts the present rates of duty, though an 

 advance is proposed on many articles and a de- 

 crease on quite a number. The free list is ma- 

 terially increased. The bill is accompanied by 

 a long report, in which he discusses the ills 

 which the industry and business of the country 

 languish imder, and gives his reasons for ad- 

 ministering substantially a free-trade tariff as 

 the remedy for them. His main idea is that 

 the inflation of the currency is the real enemy 

 of our prosperity, and that before we can man- 

 uflicture successfully we must return to specie 

 payments. He takes the ground that what he 

 calls our cumulative system of protective duties 

 is ruinous to our industries ; that, with resimip- 

 tion of specie payments, no protection would be 

 needed upon the leading articles of wool, coal, 

 and pig iron ; that the only interests which 

 need protection are those whose products are 

 fine and require skilled labor and large capital ; 

 that if Iowa, Kansas and Texas can grow wool 

 at a profit, Ohio and New England have no 

 right to complain ; that the revenue taxes on 

 depressed or exposed industries should be light- 

 ened or taken off; that the condition of our 

 currency and the suffering state of our manu- 

 factures are unfavorable to any sudden modifi- 

 cation of the tariff." 



We hope that the document when submitted 

 to Congress will be found not to justify the 



above unfavorable impressions. But from a 

 late statement by the New York Evening Post, 

 a free trade advocate, in relation to the char- 

 acter of Mr. Well's tariff bill, we fear that 

 there is too much truth in these rpmors. 



FARM IMPLEMENTS. 



It would be poor policy for a man in these 

 times to use a wooden shovel, shod with strips 

 of iron, as the farmers did forty years ago. 



It would be a similar policy for a man of bu- 

 siness to go on foot fifty miles, when he might 

 take the cars. 



It would be poor policy for him to use a hoe 

 weighing a pound too muclt, or a worn-out plow 

 that would turn the soil imperfectly only four 

 inches, when it ought to be plowed ten inches 

 deep. 



It is poor policy to use any machine or im- 

 plement that will not accomplish more than half 

 the work that a good one woidd, with the same 

 amount of time and labor. 



It would be poor policy to use hay or dung 

 foi'ks, hand-rakes, spades, shovels, axes, or 

 wheelbarrows, as they were made and used 

 forty years ago. And j^et some of them may 

 occasionally be found on New England farms 

 at this day. Extra time and labor enough have 

 undoubtedly been spent upon them to purchase 

 new ones two or three times over. Mr. Wil- 

 liam D. Brown, in a report to the JNIiddlesex 

 Agricultural Society, says : — 



"As farmers want a good many tools, and 

 don't generally buy them until they see them, 

 would it not be a capital plan to advertise new 

 and improved implements by showing tliem up 

 at cattle shores ? The committee firmly believe 

 that manufacturers and dealers will consult 

 their true interests by arranging a good dis- 

 play of their articles, annually, before such a 

 crowd of interested customers. We recom- 

 mend, too, to farmers to buy more and better 

 tools. It would be a mercy to many a sweat- 

 ing cultivator in our county, to have half hia 

 tools stolen ! Money is thrown away by hand- 

 fuls by using up inferior tools. Teams are 

 kept dragging plows, pointless, with cutters 

 worn half way up to the beam. Too much 

 carting is done in clumsy, hard-nmning carts. 

 A stone and a drafl-chain are still in use, too 

 generally, in place of a good "sword" to tilt 

 the cart. The committee know of one new 

 fanner who has, the past season, carted his 



