484 



EEPOKT 1879. 



there ever been so rapid and great a reduction of the cost of transit, both by land 

 and sea. 



The following table taken from official returns shows the growth of production 

 of wheat alone in the United States : — 



The aggregate production of wheat has increased from 100 millions of bushels 

 in 1849 to 365 millions in 1877, and 420 millions in 1878, and the production per 

 head of the population, notwithstanding that the population has nearly doubled in 

 the interval, has increased from 4 - 33 to 7 "87. Not less interesting is the relative 

 increase in different sections of the country. In 1849 the production beyond the 

 Mississippi was insignificant. The production of the Atlantic and the Central 

 States was not far from equal, each about 50 million bushels. The production of 

 the Atlantic States has increased but very little in the 30 succeeding years ; it 

 is now only 64 million bushels. The production of the Central States doubled in 

 the decade ending 1859, and increased again by 50 per cent, in the decade ending 

 1869, while the trans-Mississippi production, which amounted to 25 millions in 

 1859, rose to 90 millions in 1869, and to 215 millions in 1878 ; the whole increase, 

 therefore, in the last seven years has been in the States beyond the Mississippi. 



From 1870 to 1878 the area under cultivation of wheat in the States increased 

 from 19 millions of acres to 30 millions, and of maize from 38 millions to 50 mil- 

 lions ; and the exports of wheat alone increased in ten years from 50 millions of 

 bushels to 90 millions, of which this country has taken more than half. Of the 

 total importations of wheat to this country the production imported from the 

 United States has increased from 26 per cent, for the six years ending 1872, to 44 

 per cent, for the last six years, or, including Canada, about 50 per cent. For the 12 

 years ending 1866, the proportion was 35 per cent. The figures show that the rela- 

 tive capacity of America for supplying this country with wheat had greatly fallen 

 off during the six years preceding i873, but since then has enormously increased. 



The excess production of the American States and Canada beyond the wants 

 of their own population is at the present time sufficient, in average harvests on both 

 sides of the Atlantic, to supply the whole excess wants of this country ; and the 

 actual acreage under wheat cultivation is nearly ten times the extent under similar 

 cultivation in this country. 



In view of these facts, who can be surprised that the price of wheat in this 

 country should have been so profoundly affected ? The result of the movement in 

 the States during the last eight years, of the vast extension of cultivation, combined 

 with the cheapening of the cost of transit, has been almost to annihilate the distance 

 between the two countries, and to subordinate the production in this country to 

 the vastly greater production on the other side of the Atlantic. It has rendered us 

 comparatively indifferent, so far as our interests as consumers are concerned, 

 whether we have good or bad harvests in this country, and a complete command 

 over the markets here has been given to the vastly greater production of the 

 far West. 



Is it then to follow that the cultivation of wheat in this country is, in the 

 future, to become impossible, because unprofitable ? Is the price to be so per- 

 manently reduced as to prevent its cultivation upon any but the very best soils ? 

 We should, I think, be wrong in forming any such conclusion. It must be recollected 

 that the last six years have been years of most exceptionally low production in 

 this country ; the competition of America has been much more felt in the bad 



