Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 459 



of American people than the iron interests, or almost any other. 

 Shall Australia clothe America, and enrich her soils with the golden 

 hoof of the sheep, which our impoverished farms of the east need to 

 increase their fertility and our plains to make them profitable? Shall 

 we willfully place beyond the reach of our people the cheapest, sweet- 

 est, healthiest and best animal foods, and in time of war, with our 

 ports blockaded, depend upon a foreign power for our fabrics ? Of 

 wool 40,062,929 pounds were imported into the port of New York 

 during the year 1871. Without protection, this import would be 

 increased to such an extent from the immense regions of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, South America and Australia, where millions of acres- 

 are still unoccupied, where the value of land is merely nominal, and 

 Avhere no winter-feeding is necessary, that every sheep would be 

 driven from the east toward the setting sun, and, like the Indian, 

 would only find rest on the plains and in the deserts of the west ; 

 and here, Avith a depreciating value, and a doubtful future, they would 

 grow less and less until our markets would be depleted of what ought 

 to be the coming meat — mutton and lamb ; the shepherd's vocation 

 would be gone ; a long line of wealth for the citizen and the railroads 

 striking across the prairies and plains, penetrating the mountain 

 gorges, and reaching out to the deserts and through the canons, 

 gathering up the wool and the flocks, would be wiped out. What 

 shall farmers and those interested do to prevent the repeal of the 

 duty on wool, and save the sheep-husbandry from ruin ? We answer, 

 petition Congress, and ask them to stand by the unorganized but 

 earnest yeomanry of the land. Let the foundation of this country's 

 prosperity — agriculture — be based upon no changing, shifting, sandy 

 ground-work; but upon the substantial principle that we legislate for 

 Americans and American interests. I cannot close this brief paper 

 without embodying in it a form of petition to Congress, which any 

 citizen can copy and sign and get his neighbors to sign and forward 

 to his representative in Congress, or one of the senators in Washing- 

 ton, D. C, without any payment of postage, and in this way, within 

 thirty days, we can open the eyes of Congress to the wishes and 

 wants of the people. 



To the Honorable House of Representatives and Senate in Congress 

 assembled : 



The undersigned citizens of the United States would respectfully 

 petition your honorable body not to reduce the tariff duties on foreign 

 wool, believing that such reduction would injure, if not ruin, the wool 

 interests of this country. 



