THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



85 



poorer the land the greater the need ; but the greater 

 the need the heavier the tax. 



So the tobacco region, with less pggregate wealth 

 than any other settled section of Virginia, is sad- 

 dled with a special tax on its main staple.* 



So of nour. The 11,912,616 bushels of wheat 

 made in Virginia, according to the census, is thus 

 distributed: 



Trans-AUeghany. Valley. Piedmont. Tidewater. 



Wheat, 1,280,245 3>771,33S 4,315,753 1,835,163 



Population, 358,504 207,294 459,903 399,126 



Am't por hef d, 3 bush. 18 bush. 9 bush. 4| bush. 



But, as we have said, the State does rot inspect 

 Valley flour, if it goes, as most of it does, to Balti- 

 more | though that section can best bear the tax as 

 being the largest grower of wheat; and as the larg- 

 est exporter, it demands most the prestige of that 

 auger which, it is said, "gives Virginia flour the 

 command of the markets of the world." Why this 

 inequality of the law 1 Why this exemption from 

 lax, or this neglect of protection 1 ? Why, in either 

 case, the inconsistency in legislation, and this vi- 

 olation of principle! 



But see further the inequality of operation. 200 

 lbs of guano, the usual supply for an acre, makes 

 seven bushels of wheat. This ip 70 bushels per ton 

 or 14 bbls of flour. At 6 per cent, tax this is $0 91 

 Add tax on guano, 20 



And we have $i ] l 



Or, according to the ratio of State tax, 550 per 

 cent discrimination against improvement of land 

 and an increase of product. 



The fees for inspection, and nearly all the 

 charges, are uniform. The prices of the inspected 

 articles fluctuate, and as they fall the rate of tax 

 increases. There could not have been a more un- 

 favorable time for estimating the ratio of burden 

 l Han the present period of high prices. 



3. It is hardly necessary to say that this is exces- 

 sive taxation. 



4. The State gets none of it, except a small amount 

 of the tobacco tax, which she restores in the $12,000 

 to 815,000 she pays to the inspectors in salaries. If 

 it went into the public treasury there would be some 

 consolation in the thought. It all goes to waste, 

 or, what is worse, to office holders. It swells the 

 amount of patronage; it increases the stakes for 

 which politicians play the game of party. Of pres- 

 ent parties nothing will be here said. This paper 

 is neutral. But few of any pat ty will deny, as an 



* We are aware that a portion of this tax is paid on the 

 product of North Carolina, but it will be shown elsewhere 

 that transit duties, in the nature of which is this tax act 

 unfavorably oh the commerce of a State, and so what the 

 farmer gains in this point of view the merchant loses, and 

 it will not therefore affect the calculation of loss to the 

 >State, or the charge of impolicy against the law. 



abstract proposition, that patronage is in itself an 

 evil only to be tolerated of necessity. 



IV. But it is said that this patronage is necessary; 

 that inspection laws are part of a sound commer- 

 cial policy, and must therefore be established. If 

 they are, then we give up the question, and say let 

 the Governor, of what ever party he may happen to 

 be, make the appointments. He is perhaps the 

 least unfit depository of the power, and certainly 

 better than the courts which may have to revise 

 the action of their own appointee. But let us exam- 

 ine the ground of the presumed necessity, by the 

 rules of political economy, which are the principles 

 of sound commercial policy. 



An inspection, as we have stated, is intended to 

 guarantee the uniformity of quality within the lim- 

 its ef each brand. We have shown that it does not 

 and cannot do so in the cases of Guano and Piaster^ 

 Tobacco, and Flour, so far as adulterations of this 

 latter are concerned; and we promised to show that 

 it could not do so, without injury to trade, in refer- 

 ence to what is commonly called the quality of 

 fliHr. What is the "quality" of flour 1 Its capa- 

 city to make certain sorts of bread. But is this 

 utiiform'? Evety housekeeper will answer "no," 

 from h : g own experience. A barrel comes from 

 the miller, who honestly recommends it. It fails, 

 and the miller is blamed. He would escape 

 censure many a time if he could explain the 

 fact, he cannot; and yet it is of easy solution. 

 The capacity of flour to make bread depends on 

 the kind of wheat and the character of the sea- 

 sons. To get such flour as is wanted, then, there 

 must be a right to prescribe the kind of wheat to be 

 sowed, and a power to control the seasons; and not 

 granting these two impossibilities, there must be the 

 command of an impossible accomplishment in an 

 Inspector. Wheat is of two kinds, distinguished 

 by the relative excess of starch and gluten. Red, 

 orflinty, wheat, abounds in gluten; white, or opaque 

 wheat, in starch; the quality of the bread depends 

 oa this distinctive quality of the wheat. But no 

 man can tell by inspection whether flour is made of 

 white, red or mixed wheat; and therefore cannot 

 tell, to the pretended degree of nicety, what is the 

 quality of the flour he examines. So well known 

 is this fact to the Scotch, the finest domestic econ- 

 omists in the world, that the bakers, who there and 

 elsewhere in Europe, make nearly all the bread,, 

 (hardly any being made in private families,) finding 

 it impossible to tell by looking at it what will suit 

 heir purpose %, buy their own wheat and have their 

 flour ground; so that scarcely a mill in Scotland 

 grinds except on toll. So it is in other places. "So 

 difficult," says Babbage, whom we quote at second 

 hand, "so difficult has it been found to detect the 

 adulteration of flour, and to measure its good qual- 

 ities, that, contrary to the maxim that government 

 can generally purchase any article at a cheaper 

 tale than that at which they can manufacture it, it 



