416 



THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER. 



Jost now we are in a general muss with our 

 subscribers in the Northern Neck, many of whom 

 have paid our agent there, who has never paid us 

 one cent. 



We except all amateur agents, if we may so cal] 

 our personal friends, who have kindly consented to 

 act gratuitously for us. Tbey have all, so far as 

 we recollect, remitted punctually, and we are the 

 more indebted to them in that they are acting with- 

 out any compensation and are taking a good deal 

 of trouble on their hands. 



As we nave one or two rather lengthy articles 

 in this number, we shall defer the completion of 

 what we had to say about Overseers until our 

 next. 



BLACKWOOD AND THE REVIEWS. 

 We have'' received from the publishers, Messrs. 

 Leonard, Scott & Co., 79 Fulton street, New York 

 —Woodhouse, Richmond— the February number 

 of Blackwood's Edinbnrg Magazine,, containing a 

 variety of article?, which we have not had lime as 

 yet to look into.. 



• We have also received the January number of 

 the London Quarterly, containing Table Talk, Re- 

 formatory Schools, Reviews of the Life of Fielding, 

 Landscape Gardening, the Zoological Gardens' &c. 

 The Table Talk is a good article, and the Land 

 scape Gardening, an. I Zoological Gardens, are both 

 very instructive and entertaining. 



The Edinbnrg and Westminster for January 

 hive also come to hand. In the former the articles 

 headed respectively, Rural Economy of Frahse 

 and Britain, and the Minister Von Stein, and the 

 L:ft and Writing.: of Henri Bayle, will well repa\ 

 perusal. 



we nave only been able to 



la the West m,ii 

 read the article on German Wit, which is not parti- 

 cuJarly witty ; but quite interesting, as it gives a 

 sketeh of the great Henrich Heine, recently dead,' 

 and esteemed, next to Goethe, the greatest "literary 

 writer of German-. 



VEGETABLE FOOD 

 AND TEE IN- 



rnanufactured goods have generally declined.. 

 This rotation of prices is perfectly consisted 

 with, and, indeed, is a direct consequence of, 

 the former facts, which we have stated and 

 illustrated in preceding articles. 



We shall now proceed to inquire whether 

 vegetable food, which is the basis of all animal 

 life, has or has not increased in the United 

 States in proportion to the increase of popula- 

 tion. If it has, we, at least, whatever may 

 be the case with others, have not lost ground 

 in relation to the due support of animal life. 

 If it has not, then all the boasts we so fre- 

 quently see in the newspapers, about an un- 

 limited power to supply Europe with food, is 

 a mistake and a delusion. While we ane 

 obliged to use the returns of the census of 

 1850 as a basis, we are well aware that the 

 crop of 1849, on which it was based, was com- 

 paratively a bad one, and the present crop (55) 

 is a vastly better one. Nevertheless, it is 

 probably true that the crops of 1854 and 

 1855, taken together, would not make more 

 than an average production. Comparing, 

 then, the crops returned inthe^two censuses 

 of 1840 and 1850, and the increase with the 

 increase of population, we shall get a very 

 near approximation to the relative growth of 

 food and population in the United States. 

 In doing this, it is not necessary to give the 

 smaller crops in detail, but only the large 

 crops, which support men and animals, and 



number of men, and the sum- 

 which are used as food. The 

 1, for vegetable food of 



essentia 



.t 



111 



na 



RELATIVE PROGRESS 0: 

 IN THE UNITED ST A 

 CREASE OF ANIMALS 



In two or three articles recently prepared for I 

 the Record, we have shown, first, that the in- 1 

 crease of the classes engaged in the various! 

 branches of the arts and commerce was much] 

 more rapid than that of those engaged in agri- 

 culture; and second, that the town or civic po- 

 pulation, was increasing much more rapidly 

 than that of the country, or rural population. 

 In connection with these facts, we may -remark 

 e?i passant, and as intimately connected with 

 them; that the prices of agricultural products 

 have been for several years gradually growing 

 higher, while, on the other hand, the prices of 



with them tl 

 her of an 

 latter is l 



some kind is the basis of all a 

 therefore to determine the crops is to deter- 

 mine all. But the number of animals used 

 for toed will illustrate the conclusions, and 

 therefore we give W, 



In the table below, the first column gives 

 the number for 1840 ; the second for 1850; 

 the third the ratio of increase; and the fourth 

 the variation from what ought to have existed 

 in 1850, in order to be equal to the ratio of 

 increased population : 



1840. 



1850. 



Ratio I 



oer ct.i 

 J 



Population. 

 Bushels ofr- 

 Wheat, 

 Corn, 



Oak 



Hay, 



Cattle, 



Sheep, 



Swine, 



17,069,453 23,191,875 35 15,000,000 



84,823.272 

 377,831,875 

 13.645,567 

 123,071,341 

 10,248,108 

 14,971,586 

 3 9,311,374 

 26,301,293 



100,485,944 

 592,071,104 

 3 4,188,813 

 146,584,179 

 13.838,642 

 l8/< 78,907 

 21/23,220 

 30,254,213 



20 

 57 



20 

 36 

 24 

 13 

 15 



76,000,080 

 76,000,080 

 11,000,000 

 20,600,000 



1,800,008 

 4,500,000 

 4,600,000 



