34 WHEAT CULTURE. 



both sides of the ocean, have made it out of the power 

 of our agriculturists to compete with the growers of 

 wheat in America, and that our farmers must turn their 

 attention to better and cheaper modes of raising beef 

 and mutton ; distance, with the difficulty and expense of 

 transporting live and dead meats, gives us an advantage 

 over them that we will be wise to improve, rather than 

 waste time and capital in trying the impossible task of 

 competing with them in growing wheat, or we shall be 

 driven out of the meat market also by the Americans." 



From the "English Agricultural Gazette" we copy 

 the following sensible remarks : " It is more than prob- 

 able that the acreage of wheat sown here, for 1880, will 

 be considerably less than for many years; farmers are 

 disheartened as to wheat culture here ; they have lost 

 confidence in their climate, soil, and market ; the ad- 

 visability of growing less wheat has been advocated here 

 for some years by many of our agricultural leaders, nota- 

 bly by Mr. Lawes, and it is not difficult to restrict the 

 acreage of wheat in the Kingdom." 



EXPORTS OF WHEAT IN 1850, AND SINCE. 



In 1850, the United States exported wheat and flour (re- 

 ducing the flour to its equivalent in bushels) eight million 

 bushels ; 1860, about eighteen million bushels ; 1877, 

 over fifty-seven million one hundred and fifty-two 

 thousand bushels ; 1878, over one hundred and thirty-four 

 million three hundred thousand bushels ; and in 1879, 

 known and estimated above one hundred and sixty-one 

 million four hundred thousand bushels ; and the greater 

 portion of this vast export, every year, went to Great 

 Britain. In 1878, that country imported into her own 

 borders some fifty-seven million five hundred thousand 

 cwts. of grain, flour, and meal, of which forty-eight per 

 cent, nearly half, were received from the United States. 



