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

We import LOOK at our taOuiar e4-
hipit, and see what an immense differ
ence there is between the quantity and
value imported in 1861 and the quan-
tity and value imported in 1874, the
latter being scarcely n per cent. OF the
| former. Our home crop Of fax seed
for 1873 is estimated by prominent
| linseed- oil manufacturer at total oi
2, SOC, 600 bushels, OF which about $50,
600 bushels are supposed to have been
reserved for the next years seeding,
leaving 2,15O, 600 bushels for oil-mak-
ing. Allowing an average of 10
pounds of oil to the bushel, we obtain
81, ,25O, 600 pounds as the result: Du-
ring the twelve months ended June
30, 1874, we imported for home con-
sumption 2,647 .2O6 bushels (56 pounds
each) Of East India seed. Allowing
an average yield of 10 pounds per
pushel for this more oleaginous yarie-
ty, raised in a tropical climate, We get,
as the result, SO, 296, ,952 pounds of oil
making an aggregate OF 82,546,9 ,952
pounds from all seed, foreign and do
mestic. Next, reducing this quantity
to gallons, at the standard rate OF Z !
pounds to the gallon, We have total
of IL ,OO6 ,26O gallons. or 4,186 $50 gal
Ions more than the home product In
the census year 1870, the quantity at
that time having been 6,819,73O, val
ued at 81 ,239, ,733. showing an average
value per gallon of 81 .O6 1-6. It 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
formerly. What has been accomplish
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 and copious increase in the i'm
portation OF oil. We are, as yet, un-
able to account for this phenomenal
condition of the facts, or to 6nd 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 ty 60 inches of fiat sur
face, or $500 square inches, which
lacks only eeventy-two square inches
of being two square yards each. Now.
during the five years ended June 30,
1874, we imported for home consump
ton IA, ,985 .267 bushels of seed, repre-
senting Z, ,492. GA single gunnies. equal
to 1860 ,01O4 square yards of jute
cloth. Competent judges estimate
that the average selling value per yard
of that, for the Eve years specified:
value of 81 Coz, ,59l .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
ican farms, for manufacture into bag
ging; for the foreign bags, after hav-
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 therefrom that it is of vital con-
cern 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