38 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



Revieiv of the Market. — There are two or three facts 

 in this of so much importance that I cannot close my re- 

 view without calling the serious attention of American 

 cultivators to their importance. Wheat in this market, the 

 last of August, is worth 1 1/2 to 1 2/3 cents per pound ; 

 manufactured into flour, only about 2 cents per pound. 

 Rye is one cent per pound, and corn a little less. Sugar 

 averages about 6 cents per pound, while mustard is from 

 16 to 31 cents per pound. Now is it possible that any 

 farmer can grow and pay freight upon, to send to mar- 

 ket, 16 or 20 lbs. of wheat at the same price as one of 

 mustard, or that he can manufacture and send to mar- 

 ket 12 lbs. of wheat flour, for which he gets no more 

 money than for one of mustard? Or can the planter 

 send 4 lbs. of sugar to pay for 1 lb of mustard? A crop 

 of mustard can be grown and sent to market as cheap 

 as a crop of timothy seed, and yet that is quoted at an 

 average of about 3 cents per pound. Again, 6 lbs. of 

 hops will bring as much as 60 lbs. of wheat; and 1 lb. 

 of hops can be exchanged for 2 1/2 or 3 lbs. of sugar. As 

 hops will grow wherever corn will, is it worth while for 

 Northern farmers to undertake to compete with corn 

 sugar against the southern cane? If you cannot afford 

 to exchange flour, you can mustard and hops. It is singu- 

 lar, too, if beans and peas, particularly the latter, cannot 

 be grown as cheap as wheat; yet they are quoted 50 per 

 cent, higher. Again, sumac is quoted at about four-fifths 

 the price of tobacco, and yet it does not require so rich 

 a soil, nor one-tenth the labor of tobacco. It is also 

 worth more by the pound than wheat. There are cer- 

 tainly great inconsistencies in these prices, which must 

 wholly arise from the neglect of those who are the most 

 interested, as to what is the most profitable crop for them 

 to cultivate. Reviewer. 



