330 AGRICULTUKAL STATISTICS. 



of the things to which attention has been first directed ; 

 and there can be little doubt, that the result will not 

 only prove valuable to the States, and creditable to the 

 Federal Government, but will exercise a wholesome 

 influence on the proceedings of other countries also. 



It is very desirable, with a view to the interests of 

 British agriculture, that the statistics not only of our 

 own produce, but of that of the United States, should be 

 with some degree of accuracy ascertained. And yet there 

 is probably no branch of national economy in respect of 

 which accurate information is more difficult to be collected. 

 In our country, where rents have to be paid, the farmer 

 suspects every close inquiry to be made with an eye to 

 the increase of his rent, and there is, consequently, a 

 disposition to diminish ; whereas in the United States, 

 from other causes, there is a disposition to exaggerate the 

 amount of produce yielded by the land. It is not pos 

 sible, therefore, to obtain as yet very trustworthy data 

 by which to judge of the direct and permanent influence 

 which the wheat-lands of the whole North American 

 Union are destined to exercise upon those of Great Britain. 

 Numerical quantities, indeed, have been from time to 

 time confidently put forward, as representing the amount 

 of grain which the States will be able to send to Eng 

 land from year to year, which are very different from 

 those to which the same data would lead us at home, were 

 England the country in question. It will throw light 

 upon the wheat-market-affecting capabilities of the 

 States, if we consider some of these numbers for a 

 moment. 



The total amount of wheat produced in 1848, within 

 the Union, was estimated in the Patent Office reports at 

 127,000,000 of bushels. Taking the population at 

 21,000,000, and it is now nearly 24,000,000 this 

 gives exactly 6 bushels a-head. In England we should 

 say this quantity was too little to feed the people, 



