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INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
One disturbing factor has done much to cause it to move quickly 
from one of these regions to another. A parasitic fungus readily 
attacks the plant. On fresh soils some years may pass before 
the wilt gets the upper hand; when it does, either there must be 
remedial measures or transfer to another region of virgin and 
uninfected soil. This peculiar difficulty explains the rapidity 
with which the crop flashes up in great quantities in one region, 
then disappears from this to appear in equal volume in another 
of the same type that is distant. As regards its general economic 
characteristics, flax seed belongs to those products of extensive 
agriculture in which the American farmer puts his energies to 
best advantage. And that advantage rests not merely on the 
physical basis of abundant good land and suitable climate ; it rests 
also on the utilization of the natural resources thru agricultural 
machinery, cheap transportation, the minimum use of muscle and 
hand tools, the maximum use of intelligence and of elaborated 
machines.! 
I turn now to another set of illustrations, derived from the 
tariff problems and tariff experiences of the United States with 
manufactured articles. The economic field is different, but the 
same principles hold. 
The iron manufacture grew enormously during the period of high 
protection. How far the growth was caused by protection, how 
far was due to other causes, is a moot question, which I have 
considered in the volume already referred to.2 What is significant 
for the present inquiry is that protection proved curiously uneven 
in its operations: In some branches of the industry was quite 
1 An admirable account of the contrast between the two phases of flax culture, 
and of the phases of economic history which it illustrates is given in an article by 
Mr. W. S. Barker, in the Quarterly Journal of Economics for May, 1917 (Vol. 31, 
p- 500). 
Russia is (or was) a producer both of fibre and of seed, the fibre as a rule not 
of fine quality.. I have been unable to secure information about the relations 
between this flax culture and the general agricultural conditions of Russia. Agri- 
culture in Russia is extensive, and in some respects shows frontier conditions; but 
it is not machine-using agriculture. I suspect that the conjunction of flax fibre (not 
fine) with flax seed is connected with the co-existence of plentiful land and primi- 
tive agricultural methods. 
2 Some Aspects of the Tariff Question, Part III, especially Ch. 10. 
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