262 



A WESTEHX F.VLLACY. 



The "West has also much to gain from the teachings of statistics. Iowa, vigorous and 

 ambitious, too young for despondency, is in a spasm of indignation against monopoly 

 and an excess of middlemen, and yet in trade and transportation she has but 8 per cent., 

 or little more than half the proportion of the Middle States. She may have too many 

 and too greedy go-betweens, and she needs justice in the transportation of lier products; 

 but these evils remedied, the burden of her trouble would still remain. The great diffi- 

 culty is, her corps of indusiry has 61 jjer cent, of farmers instead of 25. Double-track rail- 

 road?, canals vexed with steam -propellers, grange-association, free-trade, and every 

 other fancied boon obtained, she will still remain in comparative jjoverty and positive 

 discontent while she continues to have less than 14 per cent, of her people engaged in 

 manufacturing and mechanical industry. History does not point to a permanently 

 prosperous j)eople having such proponderance of population in agricultural pursuits. 



FOLLY OF FOKEIGX DEPEXDEN'CE. 



Minnesota is only happy when the people of Great Britain are supposed to be in dan- 

 ger of starvation. That danger is greatly overestimated. Statistics will show that 

 in some years but 3 per cent, of our wheat-export, and but a trifling proportion in any 

 season, can be sold to any except subjects of Great Britain. On one-sixteenth the area 

 of that island is grown in a good year one hundred million bushels of wheat ; in an 

 average season ninety millions ; and in iifteen years, from 1358 to 1872 inclusive, the 

 deficiency made good by importation was a fraction less than sixty-six millions per 

 annum. Could home-culture be extended to meet this demand, the total breadth 

 required would be equal to one- ninth the surface of Minnesota. An increase in 

 the average yield of wheat in France from fifteen bushels to eighteen, by a small 

 advance in culture, would fully equal the British deficiency, as was recently 

 stated by the well-known statistician, Mr. James Caird. Russia, with her broad 

 and cheap acres, also stands near to compete for this deficiency. Minnesota, mean- 

 while, as her crop is maturing, can never ascertain whether the want will be forty 

 millions or ninety, or whether the home price will be 50 cents or $1, or the ulti- 

 mate result debt or competence. And yet 70 per cent, of the cultivated area of 

 Minnesota is put in wheat, and .57 per cent, of her people are engaged in its cultiva- 

 tion ; 8 per cent, in sending it to market ; a large proportion of its 14 per cent, of 

 mechanics and manufacturers are building mills and grinding wheat ; and its 21 per 

 cent, of professional men expect much of their income from wheat. There are reasons 

 why wheat should be temporarily grown there, but dependence upon foreign markets, 

 evidently felt by many, for a permanent and increasing demand, is shown by statistics 

 to be foolish and futile. The home-market is the only reliable and permanently valu- 

 able one for this cereal, and the nearer to the place of growth the surer and larger the 

 benefit derived. 



THE ERROR OF THE SOUTH. 



The cotton States have been especially persistent in disregarding the teachings of 

 statistics and defying the laws of political economy. Every intelligent publicist knows 

 that a certain amount of money, say a present average of ^300,000,000, may be derived 

 from cotton. If the average quantity is increased the price diminishes, and vice versa. 



If flnctuations are frequent the speculator or manufacturer, and not the producer, 

 derives an advantage. If you choose to produce five million bales, you obtain 10 cents 

 per pound and lose money; if you grow but three, you get 20 cents and obtain a profit. 

 Now it is better for the' world, and in a series of years better for the grower, to pro- 

 duce regularly enough to supply the current wants of the trade at a medium and remu- 

 nerative price, or as near a regular supply as possible, for the vicissitudes of the season 

 will inevitably cause injurious fluctuations despite the highest eftbrt of human wisdom 

 and foresight. As the uses of cotton increase, and markets are extended throughout 

 the world, its manufacture will be enlarged, and its culture should obtain correspond- 

 ino- enlargement. To overstep the boundary of current demand and glut the market, 

 may be pleasing to the speculator and to the manufiicturer, so far as he combines spec- 

 ulation with weaving, but it is death to the grower. 



There is much false reasoning on this matter. A planter may truly affirm that he 

 obtains $30 per acre for his cotton and but $25 for his corn, and he thereupon and 

 therefore declares th.at he will plant no more corn. Let all act upon this sugges- 

 tion, and instead of $55 for the acre of cotton and that of corn, the total return of the 

 two acres of cotton will be but $30, A surplus of corn may be put into meat, and 

 ■wool, and whisky, or used to eke out a scarcity of some kind of forage for animals; 

 but a surplus of cotton must wait for the slow grinding of the mills of the fabricating 

 gods, usually until disgust at low prices reduces production correspondingly. 



Thus, while cotton is and long will be the leading product and the most profitable field- 

 crop at fair prices, its prominence in the list has kept, and is now keeping these States 



