i 



1846.] Western Competiaoii. 109 



every kind except in a few great staples. The aggregate littles 

 derived iiom the sale of many articles make a very respectable 

 amount in the purses of the small farmers. If the East, then, 

 cannot compete with the West, it is only in the great articles of 

 commerce, wheat and wool, and perhaps corn and pork; and yet, 

 the last articles must and will form in all cases a large item in 

 the products of the Eastern farmer. The expense of fattening 

 hogs for heavy pork is well known to our farmers. To make a 

 business of it would be attended with loss; but the dairyman has 

 his whey, sour milk, the refuse of the farm in a variety of kinds; 

 which if not fed to some animal would be lost. Then again by 

 cultivating peas and feeding them green to his hogs, the expense 

 of making pork may be reduced below that given by Bousingault 

 and quoted by our friend of the Genesee Farmer. The raising 

 of sheep in small flocks by the wheat grower of our Western 

 counties is a productive plan of husbandry, which can not be ren- 

 dered profitless by Western wheat or Western wool. 



The wheat crop of New York in 1843 amounted to 12,479,499 

 bushels; in Pennsylvania, 12,219,239. New York raised 15,974,- 

 990 bushels of corn ; Pennsylvania, 15,837,431; Ohio raised 

 18,780,705 of wheat, and of corn 38,651,128. Can it be sup- 

 posed that at this time New York or Pennsylvania can give up 

 their wheat crops? If it were necessary we could prove that a 

 large part of New York has a soil as well adapted to wheat and 

 corn as any part of the West; though it is undoubtedly true that 

 a bushel of wheat costs the New York and Pennsylvania farmer 

 more labor than the Western. The wheat of these two great 

 Eastern states, however, cannot be dispensed with, and will and 

 must go into a market to supply in part the wants of the world. 

 But then many farmers who raise wheat might do something else 

 with greater profit. Hay and oats for our own markets, barley, 

 peas and potatoes, with mutton and small pork, young cattle and 

 beef for home consumption, and the endless field for fruits, is all 

 open, and a harvest both productive and profitable, lies before the 

 Eastern farmer, and no Western competition can take his stand- 

 ing from him. 



