The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1892-03-12
Tariff Talk.

"eJh'V Jo"i0 "Eo tHe pfOQuct o
grain in tho United States, including unde,
that head wheat, rye, oats. corn, barley
and buckwheat. was on the average thirty
three bushels fer each inhshitant. For til.
present year the grain product is over fifty
five bushels for every man, woman and
child in the country. We hove brough,
under cultivation about one fifth Of on,
arabic land, and upon that small acreage
we produce not only this grain crop, bu.
al! our cotton, rice, tobacco. sugar and
vegetables. The Depo rtment of Agricul-
'ural in their Dscember Report says; '.The
population of this country is between three
and tour times as large A. in 1910; the
wheat crop of 1891 is seven times as large
as at that date" Again it says. "Thers
has been much written that wheat growing
has been abandoned in the old States. The
decline of -four milling in Rochester is
cited as evidence of the inability of western
New York farmers to produce wheat
Western New York produces GO much
wheat as ever. and fruit vegetables and
other products of t.nfold greater aggregate
value, so do Ohio and Michigan" In re-
fsre ace to those who say that owing to our
rapid increase in population, that we will
soon have q home market for all our
wheat. it says; The one point totally un-
known to pessimists in breaistuffs is the
possibility Of an increase in yield per acre."
The difference between the past SEASON, and
the present is an advance in yield Of al
most so per cent" Numerous records arc
made of a yield of 25 to 50 bushels per
acre in the Eastern States. Returns from
$4,000 farmers make an aggregate of
more tlan twenty NO million bushels Of
wheat actually grown by them on nearly
a million and quarter acres averaging an
actual yield Ct Is bushels IN acre. The
acreage cultivated the present ysar If
brought to \ yield Of rs bushel, per acre,
equal to that Of the sands Of Holland. and
less than that of the gravclly clays of
England, would produce a thousand mil
ton bushels of what. This can be don.
in the future and should be-" Nothing
then is clearer than that the present farm
product is but a meagre fraction Of whai
the country can and will produce q.
methods Of cultivation improve and larger
areas arc brought under cultivation. What
ben is the Indispensable condition for tho
growth and prosperity Of the farmer;
Plainly more markets which is bat another
namo for foreign commerce.. Europe wants
our "cereals and meats if it can make
a profit By exchanging manufactures for
them, but without that profit Europe. will
see us condemned before it takes one cents
worth. Men wh3 say foreign countries
must have our cereals and meats" are
talking like fools. In this year of large
crops in our country and crop failures and
starvation in Europe. al we shall expor.
this year will not feed six millions out of
the eighteen hundred million, that is one
out of eath 300 in foreign countries. Our
total Exports of cereal and meat for Ave
years past would not have supplied little
Belgium with enough to eat. If our sur.
plus food in 1890 fed only six million
PEOPLE and comprised only 8 per cent of
our agricultural products, it was because
Protection has robbed the farmer Of his
foreign exchange market. The farmers
market is cut off, and the farmer is to b.
diverted with a few reciprocity treaties
opening enlarged markets for the manufac-
turer in agricultural countries.
James Fleming.