Monongalia mirror. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1855, 1854-09-16
rr,E GREAT CALAMITY.

flash TO purify ana renoVate the heaYy
a,mosnbere. We have days Of murky
haze, almost Of clouliness; We have
aueu - oost winds occasionally for hours;
bu, t1 never o one little drop of rain. MOI
s;nce G lime, to the best of our remcm-
b,% brance. have we had anything worthy
to m he called rain, though two or three
netty NJ showers afforded some fleeting
Tefresbment 1ssss to plants early in July
Snrings that never failed before are now
at tbeir last gasp; many havo been ut.
,erlvdry us I for weeks. Since the great
rail- rain which closed the month of April,
wa have had nothing calculated to af.
fec. the sources of springs. These. we
think, have not been SO low hereabout
in thirty years as they now are
We shall probably have rain soon, but
to little purpose. twill be too late for
corn too late for potatoes; too late for
rardon vegetables; too late for buck
Wheat. It will help turnips, where
,hero are any,be useful to cabbage, and
nav nav give us late and scanty supply Of
fall feod; but it cannot ensure us tol.
erable product Of butter and cheese; it
cannot give us more than halfa crop Of
corn, nor Il even so large yiold of pota-
toes. nspite Of the bou1teous harvest ~
lin Wisconsin and part of Iowa, in Tex
as and most Of the cotton growing re-
zion, and of,he moderate yield in South
ern Ohio, Northern Indiana, aud North
ern Illinois, we shall have tho shortest
crop of Indian corn grown in the coun-
try this century with two exceptions
The first was that of 1916, caused by
the extraordinary cold ofthe entire sea-
son-for there was snow in June nearly
all over New England, and frost in eve
|ry month of the year. The second was
tina, Of 1886, produced by the wet, cold
and backward spring. But in both Of
|those years, though corn was more def.
cient than now, grass was good, and po'
tatoes better than this year. We doubt
whether the aggregate Of loss in either
year was greater than that which now
confronts US.
We estimate the total corn crop Of
the United States for the year at less
than two-thirls, of an.average, or not a.
bove fifteen bushels per acre. There
are thousands on thousands Of acres
that will not yield FIVE bushols-many
lin fact that will never be harvested u,
all. One heavy, general, soaking rain
on the first Of August would have added
at least one hundred millions ofdollarH
to the aggregate value Of our crop fol
the current year. Tho total deficiency
of,he corn crop cannot fall below two
hundred millionsof bushels. worth ono
hundred millions Of dollars-for mucl
ofour corn is usually worth seventy.fSf
cents to a dollar per bushel on the farm
whero it is grown; and the loss on roots
grass and vegetables cannot fall below
another, equal amount In other words
the harvest of this year will DO worth tt
the country two hundred millions ofdol
lars less than we had reason TO suppose
lit would be one little month ago. Thi;
loss will not oil fall on the farmers; the!
will be partially compensated for def
cheney Of yield by enhancement ofprice
but that merely shifts part of tho bur
den from their sho oullcrs to others
The aggregate lossi quite as severe a
if fire, flood, Or some other terrible ca
lamity had swept property worth two
hundred millions Of dollars completed.
out of existence. 4
The magnitude Of the loss can only
be appreciated uponreflec,ion and com
parison. Tho total cost ofthe Mexica,
war was computed by Mr.. Corwin
when Secretary of the Treasury, at ,w
hundred and fourtconmillions; but ,lla
was spread over several years of gene
raj prosperity, while sixty millions off,
by means of u national debt, was cas-
upon the future. The great fro in ou
city in Dec. 1885 was generally held t
have sensibly contributed to the seaso
Of disaster aud bankruptcy which com
monced the next year. The excessiv
/. importa,ions Of lsl6-17 and 1886 wer
t undoubtedly mostintluen,ial in bringin
on tho tremendous commercial reyul
> sion which SO speedily followed; yet
: may be well questioned whether til
, short crops Of 1916 and '36 we're no, ,h
; deeper and ,ruer causes of,hose season
, Of calamity. Not that the heavy impol
S ta,ions wero other than most un,imel
. aud injurious; but their i'll effects wer
, greatly intensified by the coincident dc
e liciency of our harvests. Such impor
/ u,ions must have caused trouble ary ho,
i but no such sweeping dovas,ations a
wero actually experienced, because {
/, the large demands to NEE, tho cost {
/ goods occurring Simultaneously wi,
our extreme inability pay. We meet
g cd all tho food wo produced, and ha
{ but few millions worth Of cotton m
3 other non-edible products wherowi,h
\ pay for over one hundred aud iiity mi
lions worth of European metals. ware
and fabrics imported that year. And