The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-22 00:00:00

P.RO3IIB2IVG HARVEST.

It was always foretold that Ralways would do
a good deal for us, but they are just now found
to perform a function which nobody ever thought
of assigning to them. They indicate the general
prosperity of the country with greater accuracy
than even the Funds themselves. The dividends
which they declare are influenced by every incident
affecting the condition of the people, and the an-
nouncements of the last few days may have sufficed
to inform us that all the consequences of a bad har-
vest or a severe F$ inter are hardly appreciated till the
directors of the various companies have made their
statements some six months afterwards. Every-
body is aware that the crops of 1860 were sadly
deficient, and that a very large proportion of the
corn which should have been forthcoming from
our own fields had to be purchased in foreign mar-
kets for . the. consumption of the year. Perhaps
thirty millions of money went out of the country in
this way, and it was fortunate that we'had oppor-
tunities of making such a bargain. These enormous
purchases of wheat had the one great effect of pro-
viding us with food. Thanks to free trade, we
staved off famine. Bread was dear, but it never
reached starvation prices, and, as work was pretty
brisk and other things were comfortable, we got
through a perilous time with comparatively little
suffering. Still, the loss of a harvest was a heavy
loss. It must needs have been felt in some quarter
or other, and the railway reports enable us to trace
its incidence with wonderful distinctness.
We are a very rich people, and we can afford to
do many expensive things, but even we Cannot send
£30,000,000 away without feeling the drain. All
that money, which, if the harvest had been a good
one, would simply have changed hands at home, was
carried off to enrich the farmers of America or of
Russia. It went out of the country, and the coun-
try could not but be the poorer. It is true we got
bread in return, and that the investment was a good
one ; but there still remained the fact that, owing
to the failure of our own crops, all this gold had to
be sent abroad. The result was a corresponding de-
ficiency at home. So much money having been spent
in replacing a lest store of corn, there was less to be
spent on other purposes. All classes felt the pinch.
Consumers retrenched their demands and producers
their supplies. There was not. indeed, any stagna-
tion, but there was depression. Nobody had quite so
much to .pare as usual, and railway companies soon
found this out. They lost, in the first place, the
carriage of corn. The grain traffic which should
have taken place across the country was carried on
across the Atlantic, and the Great Northern line
especially-, which looks to be laden with the rich
produce of Lincolnshire, found a large portion of its
goods traffic swept away at once. Then followed
what, in the language of the reports, is termed the
" depressed state of trade"--a phrase which com-
prehends all the reductions entailed by a reduction
of working capital. '1 here was less doing in the
markets of the country, less travelling, less trans-
port, and consequently smaller receipts for railways.
Even the pleasure traffic was materially deranged,
though more, perhaps, by cheerless weather than by
shortness of funds ; for, though trade was dull,
there was nothing like distress.
It may seem at first sight as if railway companies
were the chief sufferers on such occasions, but that
is not exactly the case. They experienced, indeed,
special losses from the severity of the winter, which
damaged their rolling storks and seriously injured
their roadways, but in other respects they only
suffered because people suffered generally. The
effects of the bad harvest only reached them through
the various classes of the population, and the results
become visible in their case only because they alone
publish their accounts. The farmer who wanted
no tracks for his corn, the tradesman who had no
goods to send off, and the passengers who travelled
less frequently than usual, had all felt the screw
before it touched the railways ; but it is by railway
returns that the facts become registered. Others
lost as well as the railways, but they are obliged to,
make their losses known. The dividend comes out a
fraction under the mark, and the directors must ex-
plain the fall. So they turn to their books, and tell
us in half-a-dozen words that their general custom

foil off because the public, owing to extraordinary ex-
penditure abroad. had less money to spend at home.
We do not suppose that the general passenger
traffic on the various lines was so much affected
by the depression of trade as by the unusual cha-
reefer of the weather. The summer and autumn
of last year were, to say the least, so unattractive
that people had fewer temptations than usual to
move from while, as the winter advanced,
home, .
what with the intensity of the cold, the probability
of long delays on lines blocked up with snow, and,
the danger alleged to attend the unnatural brittle-
ness. of ironwork under the action of frost, it may be
safely assumed that for some weeks together few
people took railway tickets except from necessity,
and it was a hard time, therefore, for the Com-
panies, as their receipts fell off and their expenses
increased. The wonder is that the effects were not
more serious than they have proved to be, but Rail-
ways have a good many chances, and one may turn
out favourably when another fails. It is instruc-
tive to remark how tie source of profit varies on,
different lines and at different periods. Some-
times it is the goods traffic that pays—perhaps
coals, perhaps cattle. Sometimes passengers bring
the best remuneration, and, perhaps, rather third-
class passengers than first•class. Tne Chairman of
the Great Northern, when called upon to explain
why the passenger tr iffic of the Midland appeared
to enjoy a certain advantage, replied that the. Mid-
land took a large proportion of third-class fares.
It will be seen from all these conclusions bow very
widely the country is affected by the goodness or
badness of the harvest. Of course, the same effects
were produced always, but they were not always
traceable so clearly as now. Railway reports com-
prise the essence of agricultural statistics. When
chairman after chairman tells his audience that re-
Leipts have dwindled because trade has been bad,
and that trade was bad because the corn crop was
deficient, we see at once that there has been a really
bad season, and how a bad season reacts on every
description of enterprise. The survey, too, may well
increase our thankfulness at the prospect before us.
The harvest is far, indeed, from being finished,
and the weather in stone parts of the country is
rather unsett led, but we have had, upon the whole,
a splendid fortnight, and already a vast breadth of
land has been cleared of a yield incomparably
superior to that of 1860. In some counties pro-
bably at least half the crop has lken housed, and
in admirable condition. Instead of sending thirty
millions to America, we shall keep a good deal of
the money at home, to fertilise every field of enter-
prise and stimulate every branch of commerce.
Then the railway barometer will tell another story,
and the half-yearly reports, at the same time that
they
may gratify proprietors with a better divi-
dend, will record the improvement in the general
condition of the people.— Times.

[AnvEhrisEmENT.]-11ollowa)'s Ointment and
The scrofulous and consumptive will find in these noble
remedies the means of casting out the bad humours which
originate and prolong their sufferings. The Ointment
should be well rubbed twice a day upon the skin as near as
possible to the part affected. It will penetrate and set
most wholesomely and energetically on the diseased struc-
►ure. It maniftsts a wonderful power in removing all
taint from the blood, and consequently in curing, a multi-
tude of chronic ailments, which seemed to be almost irre-
mediable. In all constitutional complaints Holloway's
purifying Pills should be taken while his Ointment is be•.
ing used. Both remedies will readily bring about a, cum
of ocrofula, ocorbutic oruiattom sud ulwatime