248 



STATISTICS OF WHEAT CULTUEE, 



Michigau has also been successful in the cultivation of wheat. Her burr- 

 oak openings are unsurpassed in producing wheat. They are intervening 

 ridges between low grounds, or marshes and bodies of water, and their location 

 not generally considered very healthy. A doubt has also been suggested as to 

 whether this soil, being a clayey loam, resting on a sandy and gravelly subsoil, 

 is likely to wear as well as some other portions of the fertile soil of the State. 

 The Commissioner of Patents puts her crop for 1848 at 10,000,000 of bushels, 

 which is equal to 23f bushels to each inhabitant ! By the census of 1840, the 

 population of Michigan was 212,267 ; number of bushels of wheat, 2,157,108.- 

 Her population in 1848 is estimated at 412.000, While she has barely doubled 

 her population, she has, according to the above estimate, more than quadrupled 

 her production of wheat — increased it at the rate of about one million bushels 

 a year for eight consecutive years, making the quantity she grows to each head 

 of her population more than double that of any State in the Union. 



We can at least say, and appeal to the past history of the country to show it, 

 that for a period of more than one hundred years, the supply of the Atlantic 

 wheat States has generally been constant, and for the most part abundant. 

 They have furnished the " stalf of life" to several generations of men, and 

 eotemporary with it, an annual amount for export, that materially assisted in 

 regulating the exchanges of the country. 



England requires for her own consumption, upon tlie average 

 of years, somewliere about 32,000,000 bushels of wheat more than 

 she produces. The average annual entries of foreign wheat for 

 consumption in the United Kingdom, for the sixteen years ending 

 with 1845, were about nine and a half million bushels. Inasmuch 

 as the average number of acres in wheat crop were in 1846 

 about 4,600,000, the average produce 142,200,000 bushels, or 

 over 30 bushels to the acre — an improvement in the harvest to the 

 extent of two bushels per acre, will destroy the demand, and a 

 deficiency to that extent will double it. Now as there is an avail- 

 able surplus at the neighbouring ports in Europe,' in the Baltic 

 and the Black Sea, of about 18,000,000 of bushels only, whenever 

 there is a demand for home consumption, for, say 20,000,000 

 bushels, as was the case in each of the five years from 1838 to 1843, 

 larger shipments from America will take place ; but whenever there 

 are good harvests, as in the six years from 1831 to 1837, in which 

 the deficiency only ranged from 230,000 to 1,000,000 bushels, the 

 trade is not worth notice. It must be remarked, however, that in 

 a country like Britain, where capital is abundant, consumption 

 great, speculation rife, the harvest so uncertain, and the stake so 

 great that a cloudy day transfers thousands from one broker to 

 another, the importation cannot be closely assimilated to t) 

 actual wants of the country. The ordinary yield of grain in t 

 United Kingdom after deductions for seed, is about 400,000,000 

 bushels, and as nearly 100,000,000 bushels of grain and meal 

 were imported in 1847, there must have been a general deficiency 

 of nearly twenty-five per cent. 



In the "Statistics of the British Empire," the average extent of 

 land under grain culture, &c., in 1840, was estimated as follows : — 



ENGLAND AND WHALES. 



Produce per Acre. Total Produce. 



Wheat . . 3,800,000 3^ quarters. 12,350,000 



Barley and rye . 900,000 4 „ 3,600,000 



Oats and beans = 3,000,000 4^ „ ■ 13,500,000 



