CROPS. 449 



inferiority in the former, and of the superiority in the latter, as 

 far as they can be ascertained. Reluctant as most men are to 

 state them, yet, as much benefit may be derived from a knowl 

 edge of the causes of failure as of success : and in the latter 



w * 



case, every one must see the importance of knowing what can 

 be done, that every stimulus may be given to an emulation 

 which in agriculture is always wholesome, and a great instru 

 ment of success. In England, fifty bushels per acre were 

 reported to me, on the best authority, as the yield upon a large- 

 farm in a very favorable season. More than eighty bushels have 

 been reported, upon what is deemed ample testimony, to the 

 Royal Society of England, as the product of a single acre.* In 

 France I have had, upon the best authority, reports of forty 

 bushels, forty-four bushels, and seventy-two bushels. It is be 

 yond all doubt that the crops in England have, within a few 

 years, considerably increased and, by the official returns in 

 France, where much pains have been taken to render them 

 accurate, it appears that within eighty years, while the popula 

 tion has increased in the proportion of twenty-one to thirty-three 

 millions, the production of wheat has more than doubled ; which 

 shows an improvement in the comforts of the people. It is 

 further stated, upon good authority, that the product of an acre 

 of land is ordinarily double what it was three fourths of a cen 

 tury ago ; which shows a most gratifying improvement in the 

 agriculture of the kingdom. It is an instructive fact, that the 

 product of wheat in France has increased sixty-three per cent, 

 since the close of Napoleon s wars a fact which shows, in a 

 most striking manner, the interruption which war brings into 

 the useful arts of life, and the privations and wretchedness 

 which are sure to follow in its train. 



There have been in France, as every where else, discussions 

 as to the origin of wheat, many persons maintaining that it is an 

 inferior plant in its natural state, and that its present condition is 



: It is almost impossible to get any exact return from an English te nant- 

 farrner of his products, for the reason that he will give no occasion to his land 

 lord to raise his rent. In countries where the amount produced is a subject 

 of such great importance, and where the population is pressing so hard up on the 

 supply, an accurate return of the yearly product should be induced by some 

 pecuniary encouragement, or otherwise made compulsory. 



38* 



