116 Prices and Profits of Agricultural Products. [March, 



showing an aggregate increase in these branches, of 675,000 persona 

 In 1840, the proportion thus employed, was 54 persons to each thousand 

 of our whole population; while in 1850, the proportion thus employed 

 amounted to 166 persons to each thousand — an increase of almost 300 

 per cent, in those ten years ! And just about the same ratio of increase 

 is observable, during the same time, in the number of persons engaged 

 in what are called " the learned professions." 



From all this it is manifest that agriculture, the great interest of the 

 Commonwealth, has suifered in no small degree from this unwise neglect, 

 and this unjust preference, in the public consideration, for other pur- 

 suits, and which have operated as a lure to draw numerous thousands of 

 our promising young men upon the fatal rock. And this leads us to 

 ask, where have the tens of thousands of immigrants, that flock to our 

 shores, fixed themselves? The answer is obvious — the village, the 

 town, the city, have received nearly all these, in addition to their acces- 

 sions from our " young men and maidens." Hence, while the cities grow, 

 the country dwarfs ; and in view of such results, we can scarce refrain 

 from adopting the sentiment of Mr. Jefferson, that, as to the body politic, 

 " great cities are great sores." 



Perhaps there is not a man in the community — certainly none who 

 procures his domestic supplies from the public markets — who has not 

 repeatedly asked himself and his neighbor, ivhat is it tliat keeps the 

 prices of agricultural products so unusually high f For years they have 

 been growing higher, still higher, and " the end is not yet." It is 

 attributed to the frosts of one year, to the extreme drought of another, 

 to the extreme wetness of the third, and to the unusual supplies 

 demanded by foreign wars — to everything, indeed, but the true cause, 

 viz : that our domestic population of consumers luis so vastly increased 

 heyond the ratio of producers. The demand thus swelling beyond the 

 ordinary ratio of supply, must needs swell the prices to a rate above all 

 precedent. And this is the answer that Political Economy returns to the 

 universal question, as to the cause of high prices. But, it may be said, 

 that the last year was crowned with an unwonted abundance : and so it 

 was; for which we may well be thankful — for so exhausted had the 

 country become of all reserved supplies, that, had the hopes of agricul- 

 ture been disappointed in 1855, national want, and universal destitution, 

 would have marked the advent of 1856 ! Hence, nothing is found in 

 that most blessed circumstance, to reduce the scale of prices to their 

 former moderate standard ; and prices still are high. And this fore- 

 warning should forearm us against the possible occurrence of a succeed- 

 ing season of scarcity. For, the inference is direct and irresistible, that, 



