48 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVEER. 



Jan. 



Buenos Ayres were 12,368,988 pounds, and' 

 from the Cape of Good Hope 2,868,753 

 pounds. The -whole imports of wool into the 

 United States from the two great competing 

 countries in fine wool production in 1866 were 

 22,693 bales from Buenos Ayres and 14,067 

 bales from the Cape cf Good Hope, as against 

 the imports in 1868, after the wool tariff went 

 into operation, of 4604 bales from Buenos 

 Ayres, and 1986 bales from the Cape of Good 

 Hope.* 



Such facts are conclusive that the wool tar- 

 iff has effected precisely what it was intended 

 to do. It has saved the fine wool husbandry 

 of the United States not from depression, the 

 result of over production in the Southern 

 hemisphere, but from annihilation. To quote 

 the capital illustration of Dr. Randall, "There 

 is but a plank on the ocean between the 

 United States and the South American wool 

 grower, and that plank will bear but one, the 

 other must perish. Without the tariff, the 

 South American grower would have all the 

 plank, because he could entirely undersell us 

 in our own markets, and he raises more than 

 enough fine wool to glut our market. The 

 tariff gives us the plank. * * * * It is 

 our market we are contending for, — our plank 

 which they (the foreign wool growers) are 

 trying to throw us off from." 



Respectfully your obedient servant, 



John L. Hayes, Secretary. 



Boston, Mass., Nov. 22, 1869. 



YOUNG MEN" AT FAKMEHS' MEETINGS. 

 A new feature in the attendance on the late 

 meetings of the Board of Agriculture at 

 Orono and Bangor is noticed with much satis- 

 faction by the editor of the Maine Farmer. 

 Alluding to the presence of the young men 

 from the college, and the part they took in the 

 exercises, he says : — 



Such a sight has never before been witnessed at 

 any session of the Board we have attended during 

 the past ten or a dozen yciirs. Surely, the world 

 does move; light is breaking; the young men of 

 our State begin to realize that knowledge is u 

 power, and a power, which, applied to agricultural 

 operations by a skilful liand will bring results as 

 satisfactory as if applied in any other direction 

 vviiatever. 



If any one who has attended the meetings of the 

 Board of Agriculture for the past ten years, will 

 call to mind the sessidns that have Ijcen held dur- 

 ing that time, and the general "make-up"— so to 



*Mr. James Lynch'a Statistics, Bulletin of the Na- 

 tional Association of "Wool Manufacturers, Vol. I, page 

 81. 



speak — of those who have attended them, the fact 

 will force itself upon him that there were no young 

 men present. Thi^, at any rate, is the light in 

 which the matter strikes us at present. Those 

 composing the assemblage on these occasions have 

 been men somewhat advanced in years : to young 

 men it would seem the meetings possessed no at- 

 tractions. But the recent session of the Board of 

 Agriculture at Bangor, stands out in striking con- 

 trast to all that have heretofore been held, in this 

 particular, at least ; and if in no other respect the 

 Bangor meeting deserves to be reckoned one of the 

 most successful the Board has ever held. 



We doubt whether the Agricultural Boards 

 of the other New England States have hither- 

 to been more successful than that of Maine in 

 securing the attendance and co-operation of 

 young men and boys at their respective ses- 

 sions ; nor have we any doubt that all of them 

 would be equally well pleased by a similar 

 attendance. How then can it bS secured? 

 How was it secured at the late meeting of the 

 State Board of Maine ? 



The young men who were thus interested in 

 the sessions of that Board were present not as 

 mere spectators, but as actors. A part was 

 assigned them in the programme of the pro- 

 ceedings. They had something to do, some- 

 thing to say, and a set time to do it and to 

 say it. They were expected by others to per- 

 form a part — to participate in the proceedings 

 — they expected to do so themselves, and when 

 their turn came, they did it. Can any one 

 who understands human nature be surprised 

 that these young men "manifested," — as the 

 Main? Farmer says they did, — "a close, ear- 

 nest and intelligent interest in the proceed- 

 ings?" 



We do not say that this is the only cause of 

 the change on which our Maine friends are 

 congratulating themselves. But it is undoubt- 

 edly one reason, and it is the first that occurs 

 to our mind. Our school- masters tell us that 

 the very word education, implies a leading out, 

 not a mere cramming, of the mind ; and in view 

 of the success of the Maine Board in leading 

 out the minds of their young friends we are 

 disposed to adopt the exclamation of brother 

 Boardman, with a slight variation, and say, — 

 Surely, the world does move ; light is break- 

 ing ; our Agricultural Boards begin to realize 

 that if they would interest young men and 

 boys in their work they must devise some 

 means by which these young men and boys 

 shall take some part in that work. 



The practical farmer, mechanic or artist 

 who should seat Us apprentice in an arm-chair 

 and expect proficiency from ever so much 



