320 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Steady, and uniform prices, is its most important interest in an indus- 

 trial point of view. 



" But if I am right in my views, the argument leads to a directly con- 

 trary conclusion ; and I think it is demonstrable, that the appropriation 

 of a considerable proportion of all the grain raised in the country to 

 distillation, will tend to make the supply of bread more constant, regu- 

 lar, and uniformly cheap. 



" Ours is essentially an agricultural country. There are not only 

 very large tracts of land still unoccupied ; but the lands settled upon 

 are not cultivated to a half, probably not a quarter, of their capacity to 

 produce grain. This is a case, therefore, where, the source of the 

 supply being unlimited, and the supply being able so soon to follow the 

 demand, however large that demand may be, at remunerating prices, 

 that supply will be met. 



" To illustrate this, taking numbers merely to designate proportions, 

 and not absolute quantities : Supposing the ordinary demand for the 

 purposes of food is 1,000,000 bushels of grain, and a fair remunerating 

 price for labor and the use of land is 60 cents a bushel, then $ 600,000 

 would be paid the farmer for the crop. Then, supposing that by a 

 change of habit, by which light is to be supplied from alcohol, and 

 alcohol from grain, a demand has been established for 500,000 bushels 

 more, and the burning-fluid distiller can afford to pay the same remu- 

 nerating price, as the case supposes, then there will be a regular and 

 steady demand in ordinary years for 1,500,000 bushels, and the farmer 

 is paid $ 900,000 instead of 6 600,000 for his annual crop. The 

 $ 300,000 a year goes steadily and regularly to the payment for labor, 

 home labor, and the use of land. 



" This supply of grain for light, not occasional or precarious, not de- 

 pending upon foreign commerce, the policy of other countries, or the 

 contingencies of war and peace, and not depending on fancy or fash- 

 ion, but being a constant, ever-recurring, and ever-increasing want for 

 an absolute necessary of life, for which all who need it must pay a 

 remunerating price, according to the cost of production, the demand 

 would be as constant and steady for distillation as for consumption 

 in bread. Indeed, the grain-market would know no difference. 



" It is obviously for the interest of a country to produce annually a 

 quantity of grain considerably beyond the average demand for con- 

 sumption as food. It tends to maintain and equalize prices, and to pre- 

 vent the bad effects both of short crops and superabundant harvests. 



