THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



431 



sales' expenses which were incurred. In fact, therefore, so far 

 as the stock-holdera are concerned, no advantage is derived, 

 but a positive loss follows from the much spoken-of, much 

 thought-of, grants of laud, and John Bull and others get 

 taken in when they least expect it. 



Conaideriug; the iuflueuce already exercised in Europe by 

 the North American produce trade, before even a beginning 

 may be said to have been made in the reclamation of American 

 soil, considerable displacement of European industry in that 

 business, or at least a lower range of prices, may be looked 

 for, so soon as western population becomes more dense, or 

 almost so soon as the present super-abundant and distressed 

 population of the larger cities have taken to country life. This 

 latter agency has been in active operation during the by-gone 

 year, and there is little prospect of relaxation for two or three 

 years to come. Thousiinds who picked up a precarious liviug 

 in cities in various ways, when trade was good, have had to 

 choose lately between hiring out to farmers or to starve ; and 

 should next harvest (1859) prove propitious, the extra breadth 

 to be put under crop will yield a corresponding increased 

 result, and largely au^^ment the supply of food. The 

 other agency — that of immigration, into the country — is how- 

 ever, for the moment, less active than it has been for several 

 years; but, with the improvement of trade in the English 

 manufacturing districts, there is no doubting that the trans- 

 atlantic exodus will recover its accustomed force. There are 

 high hopes expressed besides, particularly in Canadian circles, 

 that the Saskatchewan is about to have its prairies peopled, 

 and to raise unheard-of quantities of wheat and corn ; but we 

 shall see hereafter that these expectations are premature. 

 People will not be found in any lumbers to leave behind them 

 the plains of Illinois and Iowa, and bear a useless transporta- 

 tion charge on everything they v/ant and grow, no matter that 

 the new territory is on British soil. But the aid of that new 

 and fertile region is not needed to give importance to the fu- 

 ture greatness of the North American produce trade. That is 

 established on the surest basis, and if the past is a fair criterion 

 of the future, the present annual yield will be fully doubled 

 before European population has made further perceptible in- 

 crease. 



The next natural feature of importance is the climate. The 

 Canadian wintei- sets in early, and is most severe. Early in 

 November snow begins to fall, and with the exception of a 

 brief partial thaw in January the snow remains upon the 

 ground until the early part of April, if not till May. During 

 the whole of that period there is little wiud and little drifting, 

 and fall crops are therefore well protected from the frost. 

 Taking thus into account the early winter and late spring in 

 Canada, that province may be expected to continue to produce 

 winter wheat more extensively than other cereals, and to make 

 comparatively little progres? in the cultivation of Indian corn 

 or oats or barley. 



The prairie winter, on the other hand, is not so early nor of 

 •so long continuance, and there being no sheltering hills nor 

 forests, the cold arctic blasts of winter sweep across the 

 country, leaving its surface now and then exposed to the keen- 

 est frost. As a consequence, fall crops can only be trusted 

 after open winters ; and when the weather has been severe, 

 the judicious farmer either sows out his fields again, or sows 

 out those portions where the sprouts have been killed. Thus, 

 whatever the increase from the prairie district, spring crops in 

 all time must form the staple product, and fall crops be in 

 precarious and limited supply. 



These observations are abundantly borne out by Board of 

 Trade reports, and by the relative prices paid for wheat grown 

 in different districts. These prices may be best gathered from 

 the annual list published by the " New York Journal of Com- 

 merce," a trustworthy commercial medium. 



Prices of Prairie Wheat in New York. 

 1856. 1857. 1858. 



do), cnts. del. cats. dol. cuts. 



Western 1 90 1 53 1 10 



Prices of Woodland Wheat in New York. 

 1856. 1857. 1858. 



dols. cnts. dol. cnts. dol. cnts. 



Canadian 2 12^ 1 75 1 20 



Michigan 2 12^ 1 75 1 20 



Ohio ■ 2 12| 1 75 1 15 



Southern 2 16 1 75 1 25 



The proportion which winter wheat bears to spring wheat at 

 Chicago, the great western grain market, may be best gathered 

 from the official weekly statement of the grain in store in that 

 city. Three weeks at random are as conclusive and far more 

 intelligible than as many hundreds. 



Grain in store at Chicago. 



Spring Wheat. Winter Wheat, 

 bushels. bushels. 



1857 .. June 6 ,. 168,000 29,000 



1857 .. Oct. 17 .. 367,000 32,000 



1858 .. Jan. 9 .. 428,000 7,000 



The relatively high price of Southern wheat, just quoted, i* 

 is scarcely necessary to say, is to be attributed to the better 

 climate, although in some cases the better farming and better 

 cleansing process of the South make the only difFerence. The 

 winter climate of the wheat-growiug districts of the Southern 

 states is not inferior to the best in Europe ; and the spring 

 and summer have a vegetative force and dryness not probably 

 to be found elsewhere. The Southern farmer, unlike his North 

 or North-western neighbour, is little troubled by the seasons, 

 but commits his seed at leisure to the ground, and at leisure 

 reaps at harvest. Not so the Canadian or the Northern or 

 the prairie farmer. An early frost in autumn may kill or spoil 

 his crop of Indian corn, or bring autumn sowing prematurely 

 to a close ; and a wet spring too often leaves insufficient time 

 to dress and sow with proper care. But, these difliculties not- 

 withstanding, it is easy to pick up the chjicest small lots of 

 winter wheat in almost any section of the lakes, and especially 

 in the river counties of Illinois. Indeed, if a report published 

 by the Illinois Central Railroad Company were to be believed, 

 there is no wheat grown in Illinois weighing less than 62 lbs. 

 a bushel; but that report is made with the view of inducing 

 immigrants to settle upon railroad lands, and of course is not 

 of much account. The fact rather is, that while there is no 

 better wheat than some grown in Illinois and the West gene- 

 rally, there is at the same time some, or rather, a great deal 

 grown in that district which the trade in Liverpool and Mark- 

 lane know as chicken feed or oaty red. Chicago standard 

 wheat at the present time weighs 601bs. per imperial bushel ; 

 but what is known as rejected weighs 401bs. per imperial 

 bushel only : quite a large deduction from the radroad state- 

 ment so long foisted on the pubUc. It is right, however, to 

 remark that Western wheat is badly cleansed, and could easily 

 be made to weigh more than it does ; but for some time to 

 come no better cleansing system is likely to be introduced. 



Besides the dangers, incident to seed-time and harvest, in 

 the colder latitudes of North America, there is only through- 

 out the year six months of open water to the ocean. During 

 the other six months the canals are frozen, and the lakes and 

 rivers wear the same snowy winter aspect as the land. 

 Practically, business makes a pause from the middle of 

 November until the first of May ; and no matter how ur- 

 gently required, the whole surplus cereal crop is kept from 

 going forward to consuming points. This is not generally 

 known to be the case ; and the importance of the circumstunce, 

 to the British public, will be spoken of hereafter. People have 

 been led to understand that Western and Canadian railroads 

 were available for grain transportation to Atlantic ports ; but 

 such is not the fact, and it is a quesiion whether, under the 

 most economical working system, they can ever be so em- 

 ployed. In the first place, by common consent, the value of 

 grain, at the place of growth, is in the main governed by the 

 cost of transportation by the cheapest means to consuming 

 points ; and obviously the cheapest means of transportation is 

 by water. If water communication is interrupted during the 

 winter months, the interruption is a matter of time only, and 

 time is as susceptible of being valued for one period as another. 

 If then, during winter, other means of transportation than 

 that of water were sought to be employed, the extra trans- 

 portation would consist only in the interest of the locked up 

 capital thereby saved, and nothing more; as obviously it would 

 be cheaper, otherwise, to hold back grain until the opening ot 

 the water channels of communication in the spring. Now, 

 that addition to the usual charge by water would yield no 

 ad. qnate return to vested capital in railroads, and these there- 

 fore cannot be employed. , . , , j 



In the second place, grain, as compared with other produce, 



is ordinarily of little intrinsic value, and excessive transportatioii 



charges in special cases could exercise no influence on general 



values. If Mark-Lane is supplied with wheat from Leith, by 



F F 2 



