AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES.

Evening Star, Issue 7043, 26 October 1886, Page 1

AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES.

There are few volumes of greater interest than the bulky black-and-gold books which are issued each year by the American Department of Agriculture at Washington. The report for the year 1885 contains some 700 closely-printed pages, together with ever fifty full-page plates, many of the latter being beautifully colored. The whole is a splendid exemplification of what a Government Department K of Agriculture ought to be, and, be taken as the standard to-wbdchin this Oolony, where the agricultural industry is l likely to be paramount, we should endeavor tp work up. Beyond the report of the Commissioner ojT Agriculture, the political head,' which is not much beyond a vigorous enun-, ciation of the usefulness of the Depart- '- ment and a protest that the powers' with which it is , entrusted are still insufficient, the" whole of the volume is a record of ,the w f ork of the permanent bureaus. - One > point of •• especial moment in England and the colonies is the decisive tone taken on the subject of cattle diseases. Many of the Eastern States are infested with contagious cattle disease, and these the Department asks specific power to stamp out. The powers asked for are those which had to be so hardly fought for in the Old Country, and were at last obtained—powers with which the New Zealand Government are also armed.. The American Department of Agriculture. ( for a long time ridiculed the idea, of suppressing disease by compulsory slaughter, or of keeping the country free by disallowing the importation of infected stock. These two principles are, however, now urged with great vigor, and it is insisted that, so far as the latter is concerned, no quarantine is sufficient.

i The great value of the report, however, lies in the appendix containingthe special reports of the various bureaus of the Department. These are the botanical bureau, *the microscopical bureau, the .chemical, bureau, the forestry bureau, the entomological bureau, the statistical bureau, and the bureau of animal industry. AH these hive separate, staffs, and ate each pre'sided ovete by a competent permanenft official. The United States" GoveVbment sent out last year oyer 60.0jt)(J6 copies Of various publications, of which 400,000' were copies; of this yojuma The Agricultural Department during the same, period distributed no less than 4,667,826 packages of seeds—chiefly of new sorts for trial'in various' districts. ; The more 1 Iwlid work of the bureaus, and especially or 1 J the chemical and entomological, ! is especially worthy,, qf admiration, having evidently been so thoroughly and, comprehensively done, whilst the results are set forth in so lucid and intelligible a manner. .The report of the statistician is also a most interesting one, perhaps the most of all for foreign countries. ' It contains a complete series of agricultural statistics, which tend to show the great advances which America is making on C all hands. In regard to wheat, during; r the ten years ending with 1879, the annual average production was. 312,152,728 bushels, pf whicli 227,560,351 were retained for homey"-, consumption and 84,592,317 i During the years 1880-84, inclusive, , there was an average annual production of 463,973,098 bushels. Of this 323,947,144 bushels' were consumed in; . ( the United States and 140,025,954 ex- ' ported. It is a curious commentary on the growth of the population that . ... during the latter five years the I home consumption of wheat '' each year greater than the aver-rr age annual production of the /pre- , vious ten years. The progress., of,„ the manufacture of agricultural imple-' ments is the subject of another very ■ suggestive series »f tables. In 1850 "?. there were 1,333 establishments de- .;' voted to this purpose in the States, and in 1880 these" had increased to jt 1,943; whilst a glance at the figures, shows that in the former year they ' * were very small, and in ...the latter. ■'■.. very large. Thus the capital invested in 1860 was £712,840, while in 1880 it was £12,421,935, and the number of hands employed had increased from 7,220 to 40,180. In 1850, going back another ten years, the wages paid amounted to £433,873, the cost of material to £489,153, and the value of the entire manufactories to £1,368,522. In 1880 these figures were £3,070,122, J £6,306,234, and £13,724,097 respec- / tively. It is shown that the ex- - portation of agricultural implements is altogether trivial compared with * the home consumption, neither does it * increase in anything like the same ratio. For the last twenty-one years the average, value of such exports has; been about £400,0.00 a-year. During.,, 1884 the total value was £683,553, or only about 70 per cent more than,tha average of the twenty-one years previously. Turning to the statistics p£ live stock, the present, year are given as follows -.—Horses, ■ 12,077,567; mules, 2,062,595 ; milchy ', cows, 14,235,368 ; oxen and other cattle, 31,275,242; sheep, 48,522,351;, '." swine, 46,082,043. These figures show an increase in all kinds of farm stock (with the exception of sheep) on the preceding year, but there has at the* same time been a decrease in tho values per head, so that the live stock of the United States in 1886 is valued r at £18,253,224 less than in 1885. '■«'.'. , In view of these statistics it is not- " by any means surprising that the agricultural interest in the United States should be waking up to dbo fact that the Protection tariff is weigh- x '* ing like an incubus on their particulac industry in all its branches, whilst not in the remotest degree aiding'its velopment The American farmer has- i everything to lose and nothing to g«in' -; by the high duties Manufacture of everything hVjt^mre* r i -.:,.• beyond which »he grow* himi(6l£ iißijifi ', has just: had, as «K {£ struggle against bad times,. low? price* «•;■»

of stock and grain; but the remorseless tariff in no respect releases its grip—his agricultural implements and machinery, everything he wears, all foreign productions he consumes or uses, are at Protection prices. Monopoly rules the roost, and with the never-varying consequences. Were not the population of the country rapidly increasing, and with this the number of mouths to be fed, there would most undoubtedly be as sore distress among the agriculturists generally as notoriously exists among most of the other industrial classes, including those for whose particular benefit the policy of Protection was ostensibly adopted. Unfortunately in the States, although the amount of indirect taxation levied on the country through the tariff is largely in excess of all other taxation, the people as a whole, especially the business and influential classes, are so much occupied with their private pursuits, and, through the great natural resources of the country, are so successful, that the necessity for the study and investigation of economic subjects has not yet seemed to them important. Under such a condition of affairs certain arguments and statements continue to be powerful for influence which a little study and thought would show to be utterly fallacious. We very much fear that a similar apathy in New Zealand is allowing the advocates of Protection to make some headway by sheer force of assertion and loud talk. JSTo doubt it is an acknowledged fact that " empty barrels make the most noise," but, if politicians somewhat analogous to these get into Parliament, it must be recollected that on a division heads are counted irrespective of their con-