No. 7. 



The Indian Corn Question. 



211 



rijjlit proportion of the right kiiul of alkalies 

 or alkaline sLibi^tanccs, they can dispense en- 

 tirely with animal manure?, leaving them 

 to be used for the grain crops. 



Before leaving this subject it will be well 

 perhaps, to sav, that guano is often very in- 

 judiciously used, and the money spent tor it 

 (thrown away; bringing thereby odium upon 

 what is dcridingly called "book fiirming." 

 The principal constituents of guano, differ- 

 ent from most manures, are those which pe- 

 culiarly fit it for grain; and wiioever uses 

 it for any other purpose, could save his 

 money by dispensing with it and using 

 cheaper and more accessible manures. I 

 have no doubt that many complaints will be 

 made by those who use guano upon vegeta- 

 bles, while those who use it on grain, will 

 be well satisfied with its effects. V/e shall 

 see. Yours, &c., 



ClIEMICO. 



VVilkesbarre, Dec. 9tli, 1845. 



The Iiidian Corn Question. 



Much attention has of late years been di- 

 rected in England to the subject of Indian 

 corn, and to the policy of admitting it into 

 that country free of duty. Several of the 

 leading members of Parliament have ex- 

 pressed themselves in favour of such a 

 movement, and a late number of the Lon- 

 don Times contains a long article, in which 

 the measure is earnestly advocated. The 

 writer says that Indian corn cannot be culti- 

 vated with success in any country in which 

 the ordinary temperature does not rise for 

 at least one month in the summer above 70°, 

 and to arrive at complete maturity it re- 

 quires a temperature of 75° or 80° for a 

 similar period. The western and southern 

 States of the American Union possess all 

 the requisite conditions of climate and of 

 soil for the growth of this grain, and the re- 

 sult in the States which produce it in the 

 largest quantities is given as follows, in the 

 returns of the Marshals for 1840 : 



Bushels of Indian Corn. 



Tennessee, 45,000,000 



Kentucky, 40.000,000 



Virginia, 34,000,000 



Ohio, 33,000,000 



Indiana, 28,000,000 



Illinois, 22,000,000 



Alabama, 20,000,000 



Georgia, 20,000,000 



Missouri, 17,000,000 



Pennsylvania, 14,000,000 



We pass over the other States, which pro- 

 duce a smaller quantity ; but the total amount 

 of Indian corn grow^n in the United States 

 in 1840, is officially reported to have been 



377,531,875 bushels. Nor is this all. We 

 find from the reports of Mr. Ellsworth on 

 improvements in agriculture and the arts, 

 tor 1843, that the Indian corn crop of that 

 year was estimated at 494,618,306 bushels, 

 and for the following year, 1844, at 421,958, 

 000 bushels. 



Alluding to Indian corn for food, Mr. Ells- 

 worth states that one bushel is perhaps equal 

 to one bushel and thrcc-fonrths of barley, or 

 three bushels of oats; while its usual cost 

 in the interior is one-third that of wheat. 

 Upon this, the Times comments as follows: 



" There, then, it would seem, is a supply 

 of grain sufficient to feed four times the 

 population of the United States, and to sup- 

 ply a large portion of Europe. What be- 

 comes of if? How is it consumed 1 How 

 does it pay the farmer 7 How is the land 

 kept in cultivation, when it produces what 

 is apparently so extraordinary an excess of 

 food ] P''ifty or sixty millions of quarters of 

 grain, said to be almost as nutritious as 

 wheat, in addition to a fair supply of wheat 

 also, are a very extraordinary proportion of 

 food for a population not exceeding twenty 

 millions. But our astonishment is much in- 

 creased by the statements of the American 

 official tables of trade, from which it appears 

 that little more than one-hundredth part of 

 this prodigious crop has ever been exported 

 to any foreign countries. We must here 

 place the figures themselves before our 

 readers : 



yp!ir. 



1836 

 1837 

 1838 

 1839 

 1840 

 1841 

 1842 

 1843 

 1844 



Bushels of Indian 

 Corn e.xported. 



124,791 

 151,276 

 172,321 



162,300 

 574,279 

 535,-527 

 600,308 

 672,608 

 825,106 



Barrels of Indian 

 Meal e.xpnrted. 



140.917 

 159,435 

 171,843 



165,672 

 206,063 

 232,284 

 209,199 

 174,354 

 404,008 



The destination of these exports is the 

 West India Islands, and, in part, our own 

 North American colonies; but it is obvious, 

 that in comparison to the 400 millions ot 

 bushels grown upon the soil of the Union, 

 this exportation is imperceptibly small. That 

 vast quantity of nutritious grain is, there- 

 fore, by some means or other consumed in 

 the States; and it will be found that a very 

 large portion is devoted to feeding and fat- 

 tening swine." 



The article concludes thus: 



"Is it more for the advantage of an Ame- 

 rican farmer in the western States to trans- 

 mute his Indian corn into pork, and to make 

 his profits out of fat hogs, or to consign his 



