Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1853-11-17
Agricultural sla;istlcn.

Trade have procured. aud already published, inc
Agricultural statistics. Of three Scotch counties
--Roxbnrgh. Haddingtou, and sutherland-for
the 2llth Of last May and hive tnken steps I"
procure the same returns in two English counties
Norfolk and lIants-for the 10th OF last july.
Nothing can he more easy than such returns, ana
the only wonder is that considering their inPor-
lance they have not long formed "A regular part
Of the statistical information annually poured on
the country Every year the probable results OF
the harvest are a matter of frequent inquiry ana
some conectural estimate Of them Il necessary
10 all kinds of speculation. These estimates are
made commonly on the strength Of private reports
and correspondence in agricultural journals; they
are often received with suspicion, and sometimes
disercdited by the event. The truth IL, that the
circumstances affecting the aggregate produce "f
the country nre too various Ia admit OF n near
calculation. Unfayornbe weather Is never UNI
ycrsnl-often very partial; and of course the
same quantity of ruin will affect light soils and
heavy soils very differently. A bad sowing time,
a bad summer, and bad harvest time Will pro-
duce very different results. This year, Tor eX-
ample, there has been an almost uniform decrease
in the breadth of land under wheat, and the sum
Incr has been almost uniformly mpropltous,
while the harvest time has been much more favora-
BILE in some parts of England than in others. Then
the poverty of the farmers, and the discourage
ment they had suffered by the low prices OF pre-
yious years, have their several effects. We defy
any nun to form n correct estimate of the quaint
ty of wheat and other produce to be expected III
this country from the provincial reports, well-ln-
formed and honest rs many of them are As we
have said however, there is no kind of specala
ton-whether it be railways, shipbulldlng, cot
ton spinning, or buying and selling in the funds
which will not be materially affected by rise or
fall of Dos. quarter in the price OF wheat. Yet,
while information of all kinds is accumulated ON
our tables and shelves far beyond the power OF
human industry to pursue ever so curSorlly, no
means are used to tell us and our merchants what
sort of harvest may expect and even so late
a. December those who more Immediately
interested in asking the question have no othei
resource than to ride through the country-look
at the decentralization 10 the thrashing machine
or the fail, visit the country markets, and read
the provincial papers.
The inquiry is made by the Board OF
Trade, in Hampshire through Mr. Ilawley, and
in Norfolk through Sir John Walsam, both of
them Poor Law Inspectors, and having, 1t is to
be presumed, rather less to do in that office than
a few years ago. These gentlemen communl-
cate in the first instance, with the chairman of
the board of guardians, whom they request to
form small statistical committees, consisting OF
leading agricuturists, whether Poor Law guar
dams or not This of the poor law machin-
cry, it is unnecessary to say, is made with the
sanction of the Central board. The committees
| employ the relieving officers Tor enumerators,)
and send them with letters of recommendation to
the officers and occupers of land in each parish
BY this chain of organization there are dlstnbu-
ted to MI occupiers holding rs much as two acres
of land forms containing the required heads OF in
formation, and capable of being filed up in five
minutes by any person of ordinary intelligence.
| The forms SO filled up are to be collected and
| classified, as to give the aggregate results III
an ineligible shape. There are, in fact, two re-
turns To be lilledup; one of the land under cul-
tivation, seyerally for wheat barley oats rye peas
and beans, tares or vetches, potatoes, turnlps or
rape, carrots, mangoldwurzel or beetroot, caoba-
| ges, clover luceme, or other artificial grasses
meadow or pasture, fax chicory, hops; other
crops and fallow the other of live stock, divided
! into horses, mich COWS, other cattle, sheep and
! lambs and swine When considers how cas-
! lily any farmer whether he holds two acres or
two thousand, can state the number of acres UNI
der these several crops, or the number of his
| live stock, and how easily also the information
can be collected and arranged by existing officers
now very much at leisure, we only wonder the
! inquiry has not been made before and we should
hope it will become universal. The French, and
even the Americans, with their immense and
thinly -peopled territory, have made similar nqui-
rcs, and the result is thought to have the effect
| of aiding merchants in their commercial transac-
tions and preventing much wild speculation
| AT this moment there is the widest discrepancy
OF estimate rs to the quantity of wheat and corn
| in the land We have been told, by very SIM
pie, impartial and unsupported authority, that
! the land under wheat has been less this year by II
fourth owing to the bad seedtime, and that of
these three. fourths the yield will not be much
more than half the average If this near the
truth, we see at once that there would be reason
to dread the approach of famine were it not that
England is now the granary of the world and the
reports other corn exchange will give fresh ac-
tiyity to myriads of agriculturalists and sailors
employed in getting together and bringing to
! these shores the produce of all chimes.
Undoubtedly the publication of such statistics,
ON the best possible authority, viz: that Of the
farmers themselves, under the eye of local Off
GERS will remove somewhat of that uncertainty
and ignorence which now iniure the agricultul-
ist, and transfer much of his legitimate profits TO
other classes. The simple fact of only three
fourths of the usual quantity of land having been
sown with wheat this year would of itself have
opened the eyes of the public somewhat earlier
to The dcarth now coming upon us, had it only
been placed beyond doubt Wheat has been rs-
ing rapidly for the last four five weeks; but, a.
late as the week ending September 3,the average
was only sos. 4d., perhaps Dos. below what it
would have been had the agriculturists and corn
dealers possessed such means of information rs
those which the Board of Trade is now making
with view to the proper supply of our wants,
| that our merchants should know the probable
deficiency at the earliest possible date When
dearth begins TO show itself late in the year, for
eigu States Immediately do all they can to re-
tain within their shores all the corn that happens
to be there, whether native or imported At this
moment a great part of Europe is closed against
US. Now, had the present state of things been
forcseen in the summer, we should have un-