Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-06-25
OUR AGRICULTURAL AND MANU-
FEATURING INTERESTS.

Inc government hscal year begins on
the first day of July, and ends with
June. We have official returns of the
amount of manufactured articles ex-
ported for the past ten months, and
the figures show the respectable sum of
S42,S06,0l4. During the same months
in the preceding year the exports were
S34,512,56S a remarkable gain of %
per cent.
Some say that a high protective
tariff has done this, than which there
could be no greater error in finance and
legislation. For the same period, the
falling off in the export of agricultural
staples has been FIVE times
greater than the gain claimed
for the protective manufacturers.
This is certainly making the farmer
pay dear for the monopOlist's whistle.
But If the latter is able to compete in
foreign markets with foreign manufac-
lures and sell over forty-two million
dolars's worth of goods IN ten months,
with the foreign tariffs against him,
our home protection" is valueless ex-
cept to rob the farmers. For what other
purpose is this special legislative favor
needed, or sought?
The English correspondent of the
high tariff American Manufacturer, says
in his last published letter, that one
dealer in farm implements has recently
ordered one hundred dozen of Amer.
can steel forks for forking up a
garden or field, because they are fifteen
per cent. cheaper and twenty per cent.
better than English made forks.
Here is the point to which we ask at
tention. English farmers purchase
our best made steel forks, Kirby"
mowers, grain reapers, and a score of
other agricultural tools, including sew
ing machines, at from 20 to 40 per cent.
less money than American farmers
have to pay for them. This curious
state of things arises solely from the
facts that it is lawful to plumber Amer
lean farmers on American soil, but IN
lawful to treat British farmers in the
same way on British soil Remove the
legal right to do wrong, and farm tools
aud machines viii be as cheap in the
United States as IN England.
But this live English correspondent
is a good witness; hear bin: ''This i'm
plement the Kirby Messrs. D. M.
Osborn & Co., of Auburn, n. Y, and
OF No. rs st. Ann street, Liverpool,
are now bringing before the trade and
the consumers IN England and through
out the whole continent, with a success
which has, perhaps, never before at
tended in so short a time the introduce
ton of any one implement. The 'Kir-
by is winning praises and golden
opinions on every hand. 1 have, my
self knowledge Of a case in which it has
done what no other machine could &C
complish, and has been thankfully
adopted when other machines have
been dropped with regret" In
the same letter he remarks
'The capabilities of the United
States as to the production Of iron and
steel, and the manufacture Of the fin
ished goods in which those metals are
mostly used, are being discussed in
iron and hardware circles throughout
this country. Much impetus lis given
to the discussion by what occurred at
the last meeting Of the Iron and Steel
Institute; and what is just now happen
ing in our midst is driving home some
what unpleasantly the not very palata-
BILE truths which came out at tue meet
ing of that Institute at Westminster.
Steam has annexed Great Britain
and Europe TO the United States; and
Tennessee coal and iron, grass, grain
and cotton fields arenot far from where
its central fires viii soon be kindled.
Tennessee crude iron is already sent to
England for manufacture. 1t is
taken to Pittsburg and to BOs-
ton for a similar purpose. Our