The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-07-21
prorention Ear Maina,s Hav Cron.

The following letter, which has been Tor
warded to our Senators at Washington, ex'
plains itself, and deals with subject of espec'
ial and important interest to the farmers in
Maine:
THE WING AND COURIER,
Editorial Rooms,
Bangor, July 10, 1882
| Hon. EUGENE HALE and Hon. WILLIAM z.
FRYE, o. S. Senate, Washington, D. Q.
| My dear Senators:
have recently learned with considerable
surprise that the duty upon hay imported into
the United States has been reduced one-half
by circular issued by the Secretary of the
Treasury s. to Collectors of Customs and 9th
ers' under date Of March %, 1882.
In the circular referred to Secretary Folger
saws that by the decision of the Treasury De-
partment OF April 8, 1868, it was "held that
the hay imported into the United States was to
be classified asia non-enumerated manufactured
article, dutiable at the rate Of twenty per cent.
ad valoTem," but that the United States
Circuit Court for the Northern District OF
New York, in the case of FraZee ct al. vs..
Moffltt, has decided that hay is dutiable only
at ten per cent ad valorem, as a non-enumer-
ated unmanufactured article, under Section
2,516 of the Revised Statutes, and the Attor-
ney General has advised an acquiescence in
such ruling. yield to this opinion, and Off
GERS of the customs will govern their action
accordingly"
The Secretary then proceeds to authorize ap-
plications for return of duties exacted in ex-
cess of ten per cent whore the requisite steps
have been taken.
serious importance of this sweeping change in
the tariff upon great staple product, effected
in manner that failed to attract the notice of
the country, and which apparently escaped the
attention OF Congress, as perceive that Hon.
j. T. Updegraff of Ohio, in his speech on the
tariff in the House of Representatives. April
18th, 1882, cited the duty on hay as twenty per
cent, when it had in reality been reduced one
half by the treasury circular sent out some
weeks before.
The matter is an important one for the Whole
country, but 1t especially affects a great agr1-
cultural interest of our own State, and write
you in the hope that upon consultation with
our Representatives in the House, measures
may be taken to secure restoration OF the
former rate of duty before the adjournment OF
Congress, which has already been liked for an
early day.
By the figures OF the latest census, 1 learn
that for the decade ending with 1880, the ag-
gregate hay product of the United States was
292 668, 029 TONS, or an average of 1926, S03
tons per annum. In the year 1880 the hay
product of the country was 1895, 233 tons,
which, at the average market price OF today,
say $14, would be worth $446, 800, 1852, or more
than the value of the entire cotton crop of
1880, which is reported at 3, 1893, S226S2 pounds,
worth, at the present. average prize, say 10
cents, giving total value of $415, 976, 948.
The same statistics show that the annual hay
crop of the United States, during the decade,
has been equal to one-third of the value Of the
total cereal productions of the country; that it
has been more than four times as valuable as
the potato crop, and nearly eight times as val
liable as the tobacco crop.
[ regret that at the moment of writing | am
unable to place my hand upon the statistics OF
the hay crop of Maine by the last census, but
in 1870 the product in this State was reported
at 1853, 415, and it is entirely SAFE to assume
increase of twenty-five per cent, which would
put the present crop at 100000 or 1,400,O00
tons with value of $18000,000 to $20,000,000.
The location of our State with its extended
frontier bordering upon the British Provinces,
renders the protection afforded by the tariff of
prime importance to the owners and tillers of
farm lands lying adjacent TO those of foreign
people, against whose competition in our own
markets the hay farmers of Maine have hither-
to been protected by the ad valorem of twenty
per cent.
The Republican party justly boasts that it IA
vors the protection of American labor and the
encouragement of home industries, and in ask
ing for the restoration of the duty on hay as it
stood for fourteen years prior to last March, we
only request that the farms OF Maine shall
have the protection that we chesrfully concede
to the manufactures of Massachusetts, and the
iron furnaces of Pennsylvania.
Hoping that it may not be too late to secure
the re-establishment of the former rate of duty
at this session, / am,
Yours, very sincerely,
n A ROrTETTE