The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-03-20
BINDING TWINE.

w ullc UIlc lev UdIlu JILL Woc ohuOi
discussion in Congress, farmers in the
Western States protested against any
duty on binding Irvine. 1t seemed at
one time as though the performer"
would have his way, and that our own
producers must be sacrificed to for
eigners by the placing of this Irvine on
the free list. The matter was settled,
however. by the retention of duty on
it of 40 of cent pound. And now
comes the evidence of how foolish and
blind to his best interests the farmer
was in listening to the Cobdenite dem
agogue. Substantial benefits have
already come to him from the very
provision of the new bill which the
performer" had led him to believe was
going to "extort" and 'rob" and
'plunder" him. A dispatch from
Champaign, ILL.,, to the ST. Louis
Globe Democrat, says: '"The cordage
manufacturers of this city claim to
have substantially solved the binder
Irvine question for the farmers of the
West" One of the proprietors of the
cordage company, in an interview,
says:
Weare prepared now to manufacture all the
Irvine for the next harvest for which can oh
tain material We use nothing but American
hemp. 1 think we have now proved that there
is not the slightest excuse for imp rting either
the Irvine or the mater ial to make it. We shall
raise 5000 acres of hemp this year ourselves,
and the farmers in this country will raise about
3 900 acres more SO that we shall need to bring
from distance the product of only 1000 acres.
That is, we can manufacture the raw hemp
from about 10000 acres. The next harvest
will require about 100000, 900 pounds OF Irvine,
and it would require about 100000 acres OF
ground to produce the amount of hemp neces-
sary to make it. We have demonstrated that
the farmers can grow this hemp more proftably
than they can raise corn, and its cultivation
would Withdraw just that much land from corn
culture, aiding in the reduction of the corn sur
plus and so helping the farmers on both hands.
Farmers all over this State, Iowa, Nebraska,
Minne-ot and Wisconsin gave us the most I'M
qualified assurance that hemp Irvine is superior
to Sisal or STANDARD" twineS and fully equal
to the b-st Manila. Six thousand pounds of
hemp Irvine were used last harv st on the great
Snake River farm in Minnesota, in a good aver
age wheat crop, and the average amount re-
quired was " pounds to the acre. These twines
can be made and sold more cheaply than the
Irvine Trust have ever sod twnes OF different
fiber, and our deliberate conclusion is that
American farmers should now grow the hemp
eDoourap a he pc a of Irvine
factories direc ly in the wheat growing States,
and save millions of money sent abroad for
Sisal, Manila and other foreign fbers.
Commenting upon this question the
American Economist truly says that a
large part of the money thus kept at
home will ultimately find it's way to
the farmers pocket. First of all, and
above all, prices of farm products de-
pend upon the relation of supply and
demand. The surplus of grain has
not been large, but it is fundamen-
tai law that the least supply beyond
the demand abnormally deerne~~~'
prices. So, also, If the supply fall the
least bit short of the demand, there
is more than proportionate rise in
prices. The farmer has often expert
enced practical illustration of this,
when he obtained more money for a
short crop than he received the year
before for more abundant yield.
Our agricultural interests will not
be obliged to wait long for relief from
depression. Even now, prices of farm
products are higher than they have
been for several years, and the hun
dreds of thousands of acres which will
in all probability be withdrawn from
cereal production to grow sorghum
cane, sugar beets and fibers, and the
army of consumers brought into exist
ence by the new industries created by
the Mckinley bill to work up these
raw materials, will make impossible a
return of agricultural stagnation.
Thus does the new tariff bill work out
it's own vindication. Before the next
election farmers will see that they,
most of all, have been benefited by it.
"
A PARsIMONIOUs, not to say mig