SILK GROWER'S MANUAL. 65 



liquidate our present debt, and the possession of which 

 will diminish our importations in time to come, or serve 

 as a valuable export in exchange for foreign products. 

 But what can we produce that will promise these 

 desired results ? 



'Shall it be breadstuff's, the staff* of life ? That we 

 have an immense territory adapted to the production of 

 grain, to an almost unlimited extent, is undoubtedly 

 true ; but where shall we find a market for anything 

 like the quantity of grain that would be necessary to 

 meet the annual balance against us, and at a price that 

 would be an adequate return to the grower ? The 

 corn laws of England, framed with great wisdom for 

 the development of her own agricultural resources, 

 amount to an actual prohibition of our breadstuff's. Her 

 ports are never open to the introduction of foreign 

 grain, until by reason of actual scarcity, or monopoly, 

 the price reaches a certain maximum measure ; then 

 free ingress is allowed to the whole world, when the 

 price falls below the maximum, and her ports close. 

 Other nations of Europe, in most cases, either produce 

 their own breadstuff's, or can procure them nearer home 

 and to better advantage than from us. 



Shall we rely, then, for relief on the production of 

 grain ? This we cannot do at least until our national 

 legislature, by wise countervailing regulations, open for 

 us a more certain and steady market than is now fur- 

 nished in any part of the world. Millions of bushels of 

 wheat are at this moment on hand in the single States 

 of Indiana and Michigan, which would quickly go to 



