448 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. VII., No 171 



tioning confidence in any apparent correction of 

 it which may occur to him. He says that econ- 

 omists justly call attention to the waste of labor 

 and capital caused by protection, but that they 

 omit to notice a precisely similar waste, on a much 

 larger scale, which is produced by free trade. 

 To illustrate his point, he says, that, if Portugal 

 has an advantage over France in the production 

 of oranges, then, if a protective duty caused the 

 planting of a few orange-groves in France on 

 land which might have been more productively 

 employed otherwise, economists would cry out 

 against the waste. But the same effect may be 

 brought about by free trade, if the world's de- 

 mand for oranges is so great that the appropriate 

 land of Portugal and similar countries is insuf- 

 ficient to supply it ; the French land is then 

 brought into requisition through the operation of 

 free trade ; and yet the economists make no out- 

 cry against it, says Mr. Patten, though the land 

 is as surely diverted from its best use as it would 

 be by a protective tariff. But precisely here is 

 Mr. Patten's fallacy. There is no natural unit 

 for comparing oranges w r ith any thing else, as 

 grapes, for example. What is meant by saying 

 that on a given piece of land we can raise more 

 grapes than oranges? Simply that the crop of 

 grapes has more commercial value than that of 

 oranges. When the demand for oranges lias in- 

 creased, the same quantity of oranges has a greater 

 value than before, and the land is now better 

 adapted for oranges than for grapes. Mr. Patten 

 forgets that the Frenchman could still raise grapes 

 as before : he prefers to raise oranges because the 

 world at large will give him more for them than 

 for the grapes. Mr. Patten may, indeed, reply, 

 that, in point of fact, the grapes were capable of 

 doing more good to the world than the oranges ; 

 but economists do not assert the contrary of this, or 

 pretend that production is regulated by any abso- 

 lute standard of utility. They know very well 

 that people do not produce what is best for their 

 fellows, but what their fellows most desire. 



The title of Mr. Patten's book does not convey 

 a correct idea of its contents, for it deals quite as 

 much with questions of social improvement as it 

 does with the primary laws of political economy. 

 If we look in it, not for fundamental criticism, 

 but for suggestions of additions to economic theo- 

 ry, and still more of improvements in economic 

 practice, we may find, as already intimated, a 

 number of things that would well repay attention. 

 The importance of attending to the results of dif- 

 ferent economic arrangements in determining the 

 character of the individuals who w T ill survive and 



perpetuate their kind is made justly prominent 

 throughout the book, and is probably its most 



valuable feature. It is not, however, carefully 

 and impartially worked out, but is everywhere 

 intermingled with the misleading criticism of 

 economic doctrines which we have endeavored to 

 characterize. In the discussion of free trade, Mr. 

 Patten rightly calls attention to the importance of 

 inquiring into its effects on distribution, the effect 

 on production alone not being decisive of its de- 

 sirability ; and in various parts of the book there 

 are suggestive remarks on the bad influence of a 

 low rate of interest upon the chance which the 

 poorer classes have of improving their condition. 

 But both in discussing these matters and in pro- 

 posing remedies, the author is almost always con- 

 tent to follow out the consequences of a single 

 idea, instead of giving the subject that sober and 

 comprehensive consideration without which no 

 discussion of this nature can be useful, except by 

 way of suggesting to others who are more careful, 

 and more free from prepossessions. 



The annual report of the North Carolina ex- 

 periment-station for 1885 deals almost wholly 

 with fertilizers and soils ; but an experimental 

 farm is about to be established in connection 

 therewith, so that hencef* rth greater attention 

 will be devoted to other less strictly chemical 

 subjects. The station was established chiefly to 

 give protection to the farmers of the state in the 

 purchase of fertilizers, and its utility seems proved 

 by the marked increase in value of the fertilizers 

 in the market, and the rapid decrease of their 

 actual cost price. Among the fertilizers to which 

 attention was directed, are cottonseed-hull ashes ; 

 and it is of interest to note that the total possible 

 annual output of these ashes in the United States 

 is estimated at over twenty-five thousand tons, 

 valued at over eight hundred thousand dollars, 

 though less than half this amount has hitherto 

 been actually obtained. The vast quantities of 

 phosphatic rock lately discovered in the state 

 have drawn attention to the possibility of utiliz- 

 ing the pyritic deposits for the obtaining of sul- 

 phuric acid, to be used in the manufacture of 

 fertilizers. A report by Mr. A. Winslow ad- 

 vances the opinion that the plan is deserving 

 careful attention. Should it prove practical, Car- 

 olina, as well as other southern states, will he 

 benefited very materially in its agricultural in- 

 dustries. 



— It is said that experiments have been suc- 

 cessfully made on the Indus valley railway in 

 running locomotives fired with petroleum, and 

 thai it seems likely that the frontier ra il\v;i.\ -en- 

 gines will before long derive their fuel from the 

 oil-wells near Sibi. 



