EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE CORN CROP. 31 



we discover how great a proportion of the crop is used 

 for conversion into other kinds of food, and how 

 largely it is fed out for this purpose on the land where 

 it grows ; thereby tending to increase the prosperity 

 of the farmer by improving the quality of his soil. 

 And herein consists one great advantage of this cereal 

 over wheat. Though both are largely consumed at 

 home, in one form or another, and both to some ex- 

 tent exported, yet the result in the two cases is very 

 different. 



The corn which the farmer converts into other 

 products may be sent abroad or sold in any market 

 without reluctance, and with advantage, for it leaves 

 an enriched soil behind it, and brings back wealth to 

 the country. But when the wheat crop is sold, wheth- 

 er at home or abroad, an integral part of the farm 

 is sold with it. However largely it may be exported 

 to Europe, still the land where it grew is despoiled 

 without compensation, and the fertility of the earth is 

 bartered for foreign gold. Already the deterioration 

 / of the soil resulting from this husbandry is, in some 

 localities, severely felt, and farmers are anxiously look- 

 ing around for new sources of fertility for some ade- 

 quate means of restoring to their land its departed 

 virtue. But the system of special crops of partial 

 and exclusive husbandry, is wrong in principle, 

 and should be reformed. If the practice of some 

 farmers is continued, the loss to the country will in a 

 few years be serious. If, for the sake of present gain, 

 they continue to trade away the essential quality of 



