IMPORTS PROM THE UNITED STATES. 355 



large an amount of agricultural produce in this little island, 

 which is a mere speck when compared with the United States, 

 as the people of that country raise from the whole of their vast 

 territory. A little consideration as to what, are the practical 

 difficulties in raising, reaping, thrashing out, and getting to 

 market any considerably increased quantity of grain, will show 

 that this must be the case. In the great corn-growing dis- 

 tricts of England and Scotland, that is, in Lincolnshire, Cam- 

 bridgeshire, and the Lothians, the resident population, though 

 four or five times as thick on the ground as the agricultural 

 population of any of the grain-growing states of America, 

 would be unable to secure the harvest, if it were not for the 

 immense influx of Irish reapers at harvest time. It was only a 

 few years ago that a slight delay in the arrival of the usual bands 

 of Irishmen produced great alarm in Lincolnshire and the Isle 

 of Ely ; and if they had not arrived at all, much grain would 

 have been lost. This is the grand difficulty with regard to the 

 cultivation of grain in thinly-peopled countries. There is no 

 difficulty in preparing large quantities of land, as that is an 

 operation that may be spread over several months; and there 

 is even less difficulty in sowing the land, as one man can sow 

 a great breadth in a single day ; the difficulty is in obtaining 

 the necessary supply of labour to cut down and carry in a 

 fortnight or three weeks the harvest of the whole year." If 

 the want of labourers during the harvest is often felt even 

 in this country, "how much greater must it be in the wilder- 

 ness of the west, with a climate like that of America, under 

 which each grain crop ripens simultaneously. The difficulty 

 is so great that no effort is even made to reap much of that 

 Indian corn which makes such an astounding figure in Ame- 

 rican statistics. The usual course over thousands of acres, 

 is to turn the pigs into this grain, to eat as much as they 

 like; and this is even done with regard to wheat. A gentle- 

 man of our acquaintance saw an immense herd of pigs turned 

 into a magnificent field of wheat of sixty acres, which was 

 thus completely laid waste, according to our European 

 notions." 



The above remarks lead us to notice more particularly the 

 maize or Indian corn, which was of so much service in 

 Ireland during the season of distress, and which will in 

 all probability continue to be a most important article of 

 commerce. From the partial attempts to cultivate maize 

 in this country, many persons are acquainted with its appear- 

 ance and luxuriant growth ; its strong, reedy, jointed stems , 



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