THE GEAJ2^ CEOPS. 



219 



were about 60 millions ; in 1849, 85 millions ; in 1850, 68 millions ; 

 in 1851, 75 J millions; in 1852, 69 millions, with good wheat 

 harvests ; showing the great shock received and the slowness of 

 recovery. 



With a rapidly increasing population in all parts of the civilized 

 world, the production of bread is obviously the first object to be 

 sought after, alike by the statesman and the peasant. I scarcely 

 dare give the calculation of the immense amount which would be 

 realised in any great country, by the single saving of a bushel to 

 an acre, in the quantity of seed ordinarily sown. The same re- 

 sult would follow if an additional bushel could be produced in the 

 annual average yield of the wheat crop. 



According to Mr. H. Colman, the annual amount of seed for 

 wheat sown in Erance is estimated at 32,491,978 bushels. If we 

 could suppose a third of this saved, the saving would amount to 

 10,863,959 bushels per year. Suppose an annual increase of the 

 crops of five bushels per acre, this would give an increase of pro- 

 duction of 54,319,795 bushels. Add this, under improved culti- 

 vation, to the amount of seed saved, and the result would be 

 65,183,754 bushels — I believe under an improved agriculture this 

 is quite practicable. 



An eminent agricultural writer placed the average yield in Eng- 

 land at eighteen bushels per acre ; some years since a man of 

 sanguine temperament rated it at over thirty bushels. In Erance 

 it is stated, in the best districts, to average twenty-two bushels. 

 These evidently are wholly conjectural estimates. In England 

 Mr. Colman states that fifty bushels per acre were reported to 

 him on the best authority, as the yield upon a large farm in a very 

 favorable season. More than eighty bushels have been returned, 

 upon what is deemed ample testnuony, to the E-oyal Agricultural 

 Society of England, as the product of a single acre. In Erance 

 Mr. Colman had, upon credible authority, reports of forty, forty- 

 four and seventy-two bushels. It would be of immense impor- 

 tance to any government to know the exact produce grown in any 

 county, or district, or in the whole country ; and this might be 

 obtained by compelling, on the part of the owner or cultivator, an 

 actual return of his crop ; but it is of little use to found such 

 returns on estimates purely conjectural. 



Erom the best statistical accounts that can be obtained, the 

 wheat annually produced in the United Kingdom, 



England, Scotland, Ireland is . . 111,681,320 bushels. 



In France it is . . . . 198,660,000 ,, 



United States .... 100,503,899 „ 



The amount of seed ordinarily sown to the acre in Erance is 

 from two to three bushels. The return of crop for the seed sown 

 is represented as in the best districts averaging 6*25 for one ; in 

 the least productive 5 '40 for one. My readers may be curious to 

 know the calculations which have been made in some other 

 countries in regard to this matter. 



