Mr. Grinnell's Letter.

Last week we briefly noted the fact that Hon. J.B. Grinnell, of Iowa, Secretary of the Committee of the National Cattle-Growers' Convention, appointed to secure legislation for the protection of live stock from contagious diseases, had issued a circular letter to the public. In this letter he discusses with his usual intelligence and ability the important question in hand. As it will form the basis of Congressional discussion and prove an important factor in shaping legislation, we give the letter space in our columns. Mr. Grinnell says:

To find a legitimate market for our surplus products is a question of grave concern. After meeting home demands the magnitude of foreign consumption determines in a large degree the net profits of production. It thus becomes the especial concern of the American agriculturist and statesman to find the best market for meat products. The profits in grain-raising for exportation, which impoverishes the soil, are exceptional, while our animal industries enrich it, augmenting the rural population in the line of true economy, the promotion of good morals, and the independence and elevation of the citizen. Under the laws of domestic animal life gross farm products and rich, indigenous grasses are condensed into values adapted to transportation across oceans and to various climes with little waste or deterioration; thus the brute a servant, becomes an auxiliary to the cunning hand of his master, blending the factors which determine our facilities for acquisition in rural life, and attractions which stimulate enterprise, adventure, individual independence, and contribute to National wealth.

THE MEAT PRODUCTS.

No nation has so large a relative portion of its wealth in domestic animals, and none can show such strides in material advancement during the present century. But what is our foreign trade? The exports of provisions from the United States during the last fiscal year were in value about $107,000,000. Those in 1882 amounted to $120,000,000, equal to a falling off in a single year of $13,000,000. Our exports of manufactured articles for the last year aggregate $211,000,000, against $103,000,000, a gain of $108,000,000 in a single year. It was a reasonable expectation that our animal exports would have increased in like ratio as the manufactures, which would have enhanced the value of all domestic animals and furnished, instead of a mortifying fact, a proud exhibit.

The causes of a decline are not found in high prices at home nor in inferior product; rather in suspicions of diseases, and the clamor of interested parties which led to arbitrary restrictions, oppressive quarantine regulations, and forbidding beeves which were ripened for the highest markets to pass beyond the shambles; and the egress of young immature cattle on the English pastures. Pork products up to the Chicago meeting were prohibited by France, and they are inhibited now from Germany, our long-time valuable customer. It was their whims, caprices, jealousies, commercial restrictions and bans which decreased our exports and led the Commissioner of Agriculture to call the Chicago meeting of November.

The convention developed facts and was fruitful in results: That there were solitary cases of pleuro-pneumonia, and limited to the eastern border States; that Western herdsmen had just cause of alarm on account of the shipment of young stock West from the narrow pastures and dairy districts of the East. It was shown that across the ocean there was a morbid appetite for suspicions and facts which would justify severe restrictions and an absolute inhibition of our products.

The Cattle Commission formed by the Treasury Department gave decided opinions and imparted valuable information, but they were constrained to admit that they were powerless in an emergency to stop the spread of contagious diseases, and that it was a vain hope that there would be an increased foreign demand for our cattle and meat without radical Congressional enactment.

Skilled veterinarians, fancy breeders, political economists, and savants from the East met the alarmed ranchmen, enterprising breeders, and delegations and officials from many agricultural and State associations, representing millions of cattle and hundreds of millions of dollars, resolved that a meeting should be held at Washington, and a committee was appointed to secure appropriate legislation.

In the discharge of duties assigned to the Secretary I at once repaired to Washington for consultation and to gather pertinent facts. The heads of the State Treasury and Agricultural Departments were awake to the necessity of early and radical legislation. President Arthur evinced great cordiality, and gave good proof of his interest by calling attention in the annual message to the approaching meeting in Washington, which I have called the 10th of January.

FACTS.

I have sent out in a circular to the committee the following "head-land" facts of startling import, which should be well considered:

1. That there is an investment of $1,008,000,000 in cattle as estimated by the Department of Agriculture, representing 41,171,000 animals. That of swine is $291,000,000, representing over 43,000,000 animals.

2. That losses annually on exportation of cattle and beef, consequent upon restrictive regulations and the decreased relative consumption of our beef, aggregates many millions of dollars. We reach an approximate estimate by these facts relative to our foreign trade as follows:

The exports of 1880-81 were 368,463 animals. Those of 1882-83 were 212,554—a loss of 155,009 animals, and in value a loss of $11,506,000 in two years.

The exports of fresh beef for two years were less by 40,071,167 pounds, and by a value of $2,191,190. The value of pork products decreased in the same time to the extent of $35,679,093.

This shows a falling off of about $25,000,000 per annum for two years, as compared with the receipts for the two preceding years.

CONTAGION TO BE AVERTED.

It should be known that the pleuro-pneumonia often mentioned as a scare or a myth by the thoughtless and optimist is a stern reality. Its journeys and track of destruction among cattle have been as marked as that of small pox and cholera—contagious diseases which have so tearfully decimated the human family. Lung diseases of the modern type were known before the Christian era, and were considered by Columella and other Latin writers. Australia resigned her great herds to flocks of sheep, as did South Africa, never yet recovered from the blow to her cattle industries.

England has been tardy in the publication of her losses by lung-fever, yet it is a fact which forbids secrecy that calamity has reached the enterprising breeders, and colossal fortunes have been swept away by the cattle-plague. In our own country it has been no more the policy of secretive owners to publish facts than that of city authorities to proclaim the prevalence of small-pox in the town. Still, startling facts have sprung from original sources of inquiry. A town meeting is called in the State of Connecticut, terror-stricken owners in New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania meet for council. Massachusetts had a Governor twenty years ago bold in telling truth, which led to searching investigations by experts and officers of the State. With autocratic power they made a diagnosis of diseases, which led to the stamping out of the infection by law, and a truthful proclamation that the plague was stayed.

The sacrifice of 1,000 brutes at a cost to the Commonwealth of about $70,000 was a trivial sum compared to the perils that beset a State valuation of $7,000,000, for bovines, and the cattle of the Nation, numbering 40,000,000, and worth nearly $1,100,000,000.

The monarchies of the Old World have set us an example; even Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have pioneered for the world by sagacious acts and the stern enforcement of law in prevention.

AN AMERICAN POLICY

worthy of us is not secrecy, but boldness—sacrifice commensurate with exposure. This will lead to the formulation of a bill by the Washington Convention, which Congress will enact in the interest of individuals, the State, and for the National protection. If State-Rights theorists bring objections, the law may be so equitable to the States that its ratification may be asked on the ground of a just National policy and a right which inheres to the General Government under the Constitution in the regulation of commerce between the States. This implies a power to destroy a contagious disease which if allowed to spread would arrest all commerce in bovines between the States. A State may and ought to waive the question of damage if it is fixed by a neutral Commissioner, and the General Government and not the State meets the losses to which unfortunate cattle owners maybe subject. This will be the touchstone—trust by the State and statesmanlike generosity by the Nation—that means courage for the now fearful ranchman of the unfenced domain, and the furnishing of a "clean bill of health" for our products seeking a foreign market. Having evinced zeal in doing justice, it can ask for justice—that the rights of our meat-producers be respected under our

COMMERCIAL TREATIES.

Commerce means a mutual exchange, and having performed our home duty will be in no mood to tolerate a whim or a caprice. Non-intercourse has been proposed in Congress. That may be a final resort when a conference, practical discussion, and even arbitration have failed. A graver subject measured by dollars may yet engage the statesman diplomat than the Geneva arbitration, and we shall have no fair status in discussion or arbitration until our meat and cattle are made healthy by prevention and the best sanitary laws known to civilized countries.

THE TIME IS AUSPICIOUS.

Cattle-raising as an attractive and profitable vocation is now exciting a deep interest. A lull in politics forbids the wants of our agriculturists, numbering 60 per cent of the population, being waived out of notice and their voiced demands drowned by partisan clamor. The treasury has hundreds of millions in its vaults and a fraction of 1 per cent of our surplus will only be required, under a just disbursement, to isolate and destroy the diseases which fetter our commerce and repress home enterprise.

A full and able convention at Washington is assured by the responsive letters received. The State of Iowa will make her requests to Congress by fine-stock meeting and other associations, as becomes the State with $100,000,000 invested in domestic animals.

Who can be indifferent in the face of our great perils, and recounting the losses by foreign restrictions and inhibition? We are emphatically a Nation of beef-eaters, and by the extent of our domain and healthful climate are justly entitled to the honored designation of the first producer among civilized nations.

It is the question of healthful food for the masses, of profitable tonnage for the railways, and of deep concern in cultivating fraternal relations abroad, not less than a question for the political economist in maintaining a good trade balance-sheet. If we can impress our Congressional delegations with the necessity of early and decisive legislation, we shall have accomplished a noble work and have earned the warm commendation of millions of citizens whose interests have been neglected and whose vocation and property have been imperiled.

For the committee by request of the Chicago Convention.

J.B. Grinnell.

During the first eleven months of 1883, no less than 411,992 animals in Great Britain were attacked by by foot-and-mouth disease. December opened with a greater number of ailing animals than did November.

An Iowa farmer is experimenting with steamed clover hay for feeding hogs.