26 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



their time and skill are employed in providing food 

 for home consumption — for tliemselves and the na- 

 tion. In this country, on the contrary, nearly one 

 third of the individuals employed in tilling the soil 

 do nothing, comparatively, in providing a supply of 

 food. It is their business to furnish an article to 

 sell, not to eat ; and, instead of providing for others, 

 they do not even produce bread for themselves. We 

 shall be understood, of course, as alluding to the ne- 

 groes of the South, where cotton is the great object 

 of the planter, who relies for his bread on purchases 

 from the free agriculture of the North and West. 

 A recollection of this fact will show that the food- 

 producing power of the two nations is not so widely 

 different as the first view would indicate ; still the 

 disparity in the amount of produce, compared with 

 the respective number of labourers, is such as to 

 demonstrate that causes worthy of investigation are 

 actively at work. 



From the statements of some recent writers on 

 British statistics, it appears that the advance of that 

 country in agriculture has been equal to her progress 

 in manufactures. In 1755, the population of Great 

 Britain was estimated at seven millions and a half; 

 it is now 17 millions and a half. In 1760, the amount 

 of all kinds of grain grown in the island was about 

 170 millions of bushels. In 1835, the quantity was 

 estimated at 340 millions of bushels. That the great 

 mass of the people in that country are much better 

 fed and clothed than they were 80 years since, does 

 not admit of a question ; and the present value of the 

 bread and meat consumed in England has been esti- 

 mated by British writers of authority at 700 millions 

 of dollars. Yet Georgia, Virginia, "Missouri, or Illi- 

 nois contain as many square miles as England, and 

 New- York does not fall much below ; still present 

 appearances would indicate that it will be a long 

 time before five millions of agriculturists in any or 

 all of these states will supply 17 millions with bread. 



