119 



It is not the custom in the present times, as it used to 

 be in some of the Ancient Empires, for the Government to 

 keep a stock of food in public granaries, It is, no doubt, 

 ■wisely left to private enterprise, but this, unless it is 

 governed by adequate information, becomes, in times of 

 probable scarcity, feverish speculation. Surely, the very 

 least that a Government can do, where it does not provide 

 the food, is to supply the information. 



In conclusion I would remark that the value of statistical 

 information is to be measured only by the number of its results. 

 The greater the number of results, the better the average 

 data upon which calculations can be founded. We must 

 not, therefore, expect too much from their first use in 

 agriculture and commerce, or presume too greatly upon 

 computations which may arise out of them, but it is no doubt 

 evident to all, that, after a series of years, most minute 

 and intricate details may be gleaned with safety from them, 

 and much of the fluctuations to which we are now subjected 

 may be averted. The tendency of free trade in Corn is to 

 assist in this way, and by extending the basis of our supplies, 

 it will cause prices to be more even in all those portions of 

 the globe which are sufficiently near to supply the deficien- 

 cies of each other, as they arise from time to time. I hope 

 to live to see the time when the merchant and the farmer 

 will look to the statistics of food with somewhat of the same 

 confidence with which they now refer to the weather-glass 

 or the almanac ; and that by the exercise of a prudent 

 foresight, under the direction of an all-wise Providence, this 

 country may never again be subjeted to the effects of a 

 deficiency of the necessaries of life. 



