The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-03-10

home demand. but export more than
We import. Look at our tabular ex-
hipit, and see what an immense differ
ence there is between the quantity and
value imported in 1851 and the guam
tity and value imported In 1874, the
latter being scarcely . per cent. OF the
former. Our home crop OF flax seed
for 1873 is estimated by prominent
linseed oil manufacturer at total of
2,500, 900 bushels, of which about 800,
600 bushels are supposed to have been
reserved for the next years seeding,
leaving 2.150,000 bushels for oil-mak
ing Allowing an average of 10
pounds of oil to the bushel, we obtain
81, ,250 900 pounds as the result Du-
ring the twelve months ended June
30. 1874. we imported for home con-
sumption 2 ,647 .20S bushels (56 pounds
each) of East India seed. Allowing
an average yield of 10 pounds per
rushel for this more oleaginous varie-
ty, raised in tropical climate. we get,
as the result, 50, ,296, ,952 pounds of oil.
making an aggregate of. S2,546. $50
pounds from all seed, foreign and do
mestic. Next, reducing this quantity
to gallons, at the standard rate of y
pounds to the gallon, we have a total
of II .O06 ,260 gallons. or 4, 1S6, $50 gal
Ions more than the home product In
the census year 1870, the quantity at
that time having been 6.S19, 80. val
ued at 81 .239, ,733, showing an average
value per gallon of 81 .O6 1-6. 1t is
true. our figures exhibit merely the
result of estimates, yet they embody
an approximation, and evidence the
steady growth of the manufacture.
Now, had it not been for the legisla-
tive protection accorded to the domes
tic industry, we would to-day have
been quite as dependent upon Great
Britain for our linseed oil as we were
ed for that branch of the arts needs to
be done for the culture and manufac-
ture of fax.
1t may be we'll to state here that, in
1866, 1867. and 1868 there was a sud
den an! copious increase III the I'M
portation of oil. We are, as yet, un-
able to account for this phenomenal
condition of the facts, or to find any
one who can assign the cause; but We
shall push our inquiries until we be-
come master Of the explanation.
A further point, evidencing the wide
range of tariff influences, remains to
be stated. Foreign fax seed are con-
tanned in jute bags, two of which, one
upon the other, called double gun
MES" cover each four bushels of seed.
These bags will average, according to
actual measurement of a few sample
lots, about AZ by 60 inches of fiat sur
face, or 2,52O square inches. which
lacks only seventy-two square inches
of being two square yards each: Now.
during the five years ended June 30,
1874, we imported for home consump
tion IA, ,985. .267 bushels of seed, repre-
senting Z, ,492, GA single gunnies. equal
to 1860 ,O104 square yards of jute
cloth. Competent judges estimate
that the average selling value per yard
of that. for. the five years specified,
was about IL cents, showing total
value of 81 .6O2, ,591 .15A If Western
farmers had supplied those seed in
stead of foreigners, the bags would
not have come into the country; and
if, besides, there had been adequate
protection to the fax industry on our
soil, then a demand would have been
created for an equivalent quantity of
fax straw, to be supplied from Amer
lean farms. for manufacture into bag
glup, lOI tHt DdSo. dleOi
ing done the service of containing i'm
ported fax seed, are employed to con-
tain oil-cake for export, to cover cot
ton bales, and for other like purposes.
All thinking men must discover in
these facts the wide ramifications OF
the tariff in its influences upon the
welfare of home industry, and upon
the activities and prosperity of domes
tic capital and labor. Especially, let
our farmers ponder these things and
learn tIerefrom that it is of vital con-
Germ to them how custom house legis-
latiop is adjusted to the multitudin
Gus interests of the country. The
Tribune and the Times, of this city,
insist that free trade would be bless
ing to our agricultural classes above
all others; we maintain that free trade
would be emphatically and particular
ly their ruin.