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things? Do not the dictates of common understanding reject 
the idea ? Independent of many disadvantages under which 
many of our great shippers have labored for several years 
past, there is scarcely a farmer who has not been an actual 
loser from the fallen reputation of our flour. A staple 
which gives circulation to about five, and sometimes seven, 
million of dollars through our state in the course of a single 
year, is worthy serious notice. 
Permit me to say, gentlemen, that the wheat of this state, 
may with great propriety be called our farmers 5 golden 
bank, ceded to them by the high chancery of Heaven, and 
held by a tenure as firm and irreversible as any law of na¬ 
ture. From the great quantity of unimproved lands in this 
state, our farmers, for some years yet to come, will be in¬ 
duced to raise grain with increased abundance. It is of 
great consequence then, to the agriculturalist that the repu¬ 
tation of our wheat should not suffer from want of suitable 
attention to preserve it sound and good; and that when 
manufactured, the flour shall not be injured; but its credit ' 
placed on an equal footing, at least, in foreign markets, as 
well as at home, with the flour of any state in the union. 
I do not hesitate to say that the generality of our wheat 
is equal to any raised in our sister states. In several coun¬ 
ties it is much finer in appearance ; is richer in quality, and 
considerably heavier than the wheat of Virginia generally. 
Pennsylvania, though its flour is in much better repute than 
ours, does not produce a larger quantity of good wheat than 
our state, yet she has been our rival, her flour commanding 
a much higher price. Observation and the experience of 
many years in the use and manufacture of all kinds of flour 
into various qualities of bread, has confirmed me in the be¬ 
lief, that no grain of Virginia is equal in all respects to the 
grain in most of the counties in our western district, and 
several extensive tracts on this side of Albany : that which 
approximates nearest to our fine and best wheat, is what is 
termed their “ May wheat” and some produced on the east¬ 
ern shore of Maryland. 
