National Consumption of Crops. 
fj^T is said that great men, when they fall into error, 
make the greatest blunders; in the same way, we 
suppose, that a big cannon, pointed wrong, will 
carry its shot further out of the way than a mere 
pop-gun. 
We have been reminded of this admitted truth, in 
observing the. anxiety of the British .political econo¬ 
mists in devising some means to remove the necessity 
of such large importations of grain. Notwithstanding 
that the wheat crop of England is some two hundred 
millions of bushels, a deficiency, requiring a corres¬ 
ponding supply from other countries, has annually oc¬ 
curred of late years, amounting to some 40 million 
bushels. For the coming year, it is estimated at over 
eighty millions at the very least. To lessen this defi¬ 
ciency or to prevent its increase, a great deal of wis¬ 
dom has been brought to bear, and with great success 
in every direction but one , by the most eminent British 
statesmen and agriculturists. Enterprising farmers 
have introduced the 'best known systems of cultiva¬ 
tion; and in addition to the careful manufacture of 
manure, bones have been largely imported from the 
.continent, and millions in value of guano from South 
America, The Mark-Lane Express has lately taken, 
up another branch of the subject for the purpose of 
effecting a saving in the consumption of grain. The 
amount invested in horses in Great Britain and Ire¬ 
land is estimated at 300 millions of dollars; and it is 
supposed that these are actually employed but one- 
third of the time—leaving about 200 millions'unpro¬ 
ductive. The horses employed in agriculture alone are 
supposed to consume eighty million bushels of oats an¬ 
nually, (making no account of the amount of grass 
and hay required besides, for their support,) which if 
produced in the shape of human food, would more than 
supply the National deficiency; and suggestions are 
made on the reduction of horses by a more economical 
system of agriculture, and especially by the employ¬ 
ment of steam power for all the practical purposes in 
farming of which it may be susceptible. 
It seems absolutely astonishing to any one not ac¬ 
quainted with the tenacity with which the English 
hold fast to the habit of -beer-drinking, that the 
enormous consumption of grain in this worse t an use¬ 
less beverage, should not engage more attention. We 
have not now at hand the statistics showing the amount 
of this consumption; but when we reflect on the mil¬ 
lions of laborers that daily use large quantities of beer 
with their meals and otherwise, year in and year out, 
it becomes self-evident that the amount consumed in 
the manufacture of this drink, must far exceed the 
present deficiency in the wheat crops of the British 
kingdom—a manufacture which, as chemical analysis 
has shown, nearly destroys all the nutriment of the 
grain, and, converting it to a mere stimulant, increases 
the strength of a laborer about as much as a whip in¬ 
creases the strength of a feeble horse. 
Independently of the mere consumption of grain, so 
great is the injurious results produced by this practice, 
that many have attributed the degradation of a por¬ 
tion of the English laborers, to the British aristocratic 
system. We are sorry to see that one of our own 
countrymen,—the editor of the Michigan Farmer,— 
has fallen into this mistake, and written a book called 
The Mud Cabin, unwisely attacking the most liberal 
government in Europe, as the cause of this degrada¬ 
tion, and almost the only one where knowledge is gen¬ 
erally diffused among all classes so far as they choose 
to acquire it, and where a man may say his soul is his 
own, without endangering his liberty or his head. The 
editor of the Ohio Cultivator, who has spent many years 
at different periods in England, assures us he is satis¬ 
fied that this debasement and ignorance is to be main¬ 
ly attributed to the beer soaking system. 
It should be the aim of wise men to learn from tho. 
defects and omissions of others; and if British states¬ 
men overlook the bad effects of converting a hundred 
million bushels of grain into diluted alcohol, it is worth 
while to inquire whether'we are not suffering from a 
similar cause. Farmers have been led to regard dis¬ 
tilleries as very profitable markets for some of their 
grains, but in doing so they appear to overlook some 
important considerations. It may be laid down as a 
principle, in the first place, lying at the foundation of 
national and individual prosperity, that a loss sustain¬ 
ed by any considerable portion of commercial society, 
is felt more or-less through all the rest. If the farm¬ 
ers’ profits are lessened, traders will immediately find 
a curtailment in the amount of their business; if mer¬ 
chants aro compelled to incur heavy expenses., tho 
