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LIVE STOCK DEPARTMENT.

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Stockmen.  Write for Your Paper.

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,