INTRODUCTION. 27 



There would then be 18,343,318 acres devoted to these crops. 

 Suppose now by the application of scientific principles the 

 same increase per acre might be effected, viz. 36 bushels in- 

 stead of 30, there would be added to the quantity now ob- 

 tained 110,059,908 bushels ; and if we estimate the whole at 

 50 cents per bushel, it would add 55,029,954 dollars to the 

 annual income of the country, equal to an invested capital of 

 917,165,900 dollars! 



3. Apply the same calculations to the potato crop ; and 

 taking the crop in Massachusetts of 1839 for the average, at 

 200 bushels per acre, the 113,183,619 bushels raised in 

 this country in 1839 would require 565,918 acres of land. 

 Suppose now an increase of 25 bushels per acre, (an estimate 

 far below what might l^e realized,) and there would be added 

 to the present quantity of this crop, 14,647,950 bushels; 

 which, at 20 cents per bushel, would amount to 2,929,590 

 dollars, equivalent to a capital of 48,826,500 dollars ! 



4. If now we estimate the total income to the national 

 wealth, by this addition to the cultivated crops, it will amount 

 to the sum of 85,4.52,526 dollars, equivalent to a capital of 

 1,424,207,100 dollars! But this sum is derived from but a 

 few of the products of the soil. When we take into account 

 the hay and other agricultural productions, and allow the 

 same relative increase, the amount would be more than 

 doubled. Thus a sum of money might easily be realized 

 which would be sufficient to found all the colleges and institu- 

 tions of learning, build all the rail-roads and canals, which the 

 wants of the country might demand during all coming time ! 



Let us now confine our estimates to a narrower sphere. 

 " Suppose that the agricultural survey," says Mr. Colman, 

 in his Fourth Report of the Agriculture of Massachusetts, 

 " may have been, or may have proved instrumental in induc- 

 ing, upon an average, by improved cultivation, an increase of 

 one hundred bushels of corn to every town in the Common- 

 wealth ; this, at seventy-five cents per bushel for corn, and 



