The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1880-06-19
Number II.

should immortalize the parties who
made it.
Last year we imported over one
billion seven hundred million pounds
of sugar, worth abroad $4,000, 900,
but costing the consumers over
$IIo,ooo,ooo, by reason of the ex-
cessive import duty levied for the
protection of less than a score of
sugar refneries in two or three of
our large cities.
Ponder well these facts, We farm
ers of the Northwest, whose lands,
though they be as fertile as the delta
of the Nile, have within the past
fifteen years decreased in product
iveness 20 per cent. Reflect upon
your own extravaganza, when it is
a well-ascertained fact that by pro-
perly utilizing the stubble of the
corn fields of one. of your States,
the tax x-payers of the country might
be relieved annually of burden of
forty millions of dollars.
MrSpeaker, the countries whence
we import this vast amount of sugar
are nearly all ve-holding. The
recent abolition of slavery in some
of them, and the gradual emancipa-
! ton of the slaves in the others, will,
in all probability, in the near future,
materially reduce our sources of
supply, and for this reason, if for no
other, this discovery of the Agricul-
tural Department is most op-
| perfume.
An appropriation is also asked
for to aid the Agricultural Depart
ment in encouraging the growth of
the tea plant, and manufacturing
the commercial article, SO that we
may become the producers, and no
longer remain, as we are, the pur-
chasers of twenty millions of dol
lars worth of tea annually. Thirty
years experience has satisfied in
dividuals in more States than one
| in the South that tea can be grown
successfully; but it has been left to
the Agricultural Department to
prove that any State south of the
| latitude of Washington by devoting
| the same attention to the culture OF
tea that is now given to its staple
crops, might obviate the necessity
of our importing single cado.V OF
foreign tea.
But, Mr.. Chairman, those who
discourage the idea of increasing
the appropriations for the Agricul-
tural Department are the first to
! theorize about the independence of
the farmer. Aye, sir, they can read
pastoral or rural poetry in the skip
ping lambs, the lowing herds, the
| golden grain, the feecy staple,
the shining plowshare, the we'll
laid furrow, and, perhaps, IN
the pretty milkmaid; but they
can not see any connection
between. the duty of the Govern
ment and the wants of the farmer
in this respect. Sir, the farmers of
this country want nothing from the
Government that it is not the duty
of the Government to bestow. They
ask its fostering care only to the ex-
tent that it is given to the other
pursuits of life. Manufactures are
|
internal commerce has become inn
measurably great by reason of Gov
ernment subsidies, and our foreign
commerce, relieved by our odious
: navigation laws, would to-day
whiten every sea with its unfurled
sails. But agriculture, the very life
blood of commerce and the parent
of manufactures, has never, from
the inception of our Government,
, received proportionate share even
of the crumbs that fall from the
t Government table. ~
When the various departments OF
the government were organized
specific duties were assigned to
each, and frequently the supervision
, of single bureau has been trans
) ferred from one department to an
| other. The Patent Office and Land
: Office, for instance, have each been
subject to the supervision of two
, different departments, and every
: one of the departments to-day has
! more widely extended jurisdiction
than could have been anticipated
. when they were established. Who
could have conceived in 1850 that
| the Treasury Department would to-
! day control the Life saving Service,
5 the Coast Survey Service, the Ma
S rine Hospital Service, the Bureau
of Printing and Engraving, and the
many minor bureaus so numerous
and so multifarious that it is far ca
:, sier to say what is not than what is
under the supervision of that de-
j [concluded on fourth page.l