AND OF THE WHOLE UNION. 333 



by the free States with a population of 12,000,000. If 

 we suppose these also to consume five bushels each, or 

 60,000,000 in all, there will be a surplus of 22,000,000 

 bushels, or nearly 3,000,000 quarters for exportation. 



I doubt very much if the United States can, in ordinary 

 years, spare even so large an export of wheat as this to 

 meet the united demands of New Brunswick, Nova 

 Scotia, Newfoundland, the West Indies, and their many 

 other markets besides that of England ; and, as I have 

 elsewhere stated, I believe the exportable wheat of the 

 North American continent as a whole is already a 

 diminishing quantity. 



With this opinion I do not expect that my Trans 

 atlantic friends will agree ; but I state my own present 

 belief with my present knowledge, and I have given 

 some of the reasons which have led me to adopt it. I 

 think the truth of far more consequence to both countries 

 than hasty exaggerations in either direction. I hope, 

 therefore, that some may be found on the western side of 

 the Atlantic who will be ready to discuss the question 

 with a desire of attaining the truth only, and without a 

 view to the accumulation of political or other capital, 

 among those who may read their lucubrations. 



The statists in this city of Washington, by whom the 

 documents are prepared which have been published in 

 the &quot; Patent Office Reports,&quot; assume 3 bushels of wheat 

 as the maximum average consumption of this grain by 

 each individual of the whole population of the United 

 States. This, for 22,000,000, makes a gross consump 

 tion of 66,000,000 of bushels ; and as the whole pro 

 duce for 1848 is stated at 127,000,000, there remain 

 61,000,000 of bushels for exportation! This is very 

 much larger than my estimate of 22,000,000, and I am 

 satisfied is very much overstated indeed.* 



* See, also, Patent Office Report for 1847, where the produce for that 

 year is estimated at 1 14,000,000, and the consumption at 62,000,000, by a 



