The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-05-01
brl granting State loan 81 millisn dollars to The

ermcnt Central Railrc "A
odsy 10 apponte' for opening the canals Of this
sa'e' and from io' ormaton received at the Canal
spaimen. yes eiday there Is no doub, that all the
ASss WIZ 10 1sady for navigation this morning.
oov' nso' .er, Of Kansas, reached his hone o.
As"n' a., yesterday. BE was welcomed By q
.so Acouise Of his friends and neighb,rs, aud
uu's' ,sed them upon the subject Of the troubles
nov sgitate the Territory. He regards Kansas as
oquered by the armed squatters ON Missouri;
aud 1t ia certain that they did "fax out" their
ABOLITION opponents ct the recent election pretty
scuRdly.
The Southern Railroad Convention commenced
its sittngs at Washington yesterday. Sixteen roads
were represented.
md Ssuth-Necesslty or Liberal Prodacts
and Prudent Consumption.
Our Northern exchanges, from Long leland
to the Missouri river, assure us that there is
good prospect for an unusually large product
of wheat and other crops Of small grain the
coming season. The news to this effect from
the great Northwest is especially cheering.
Spurred up by the high prices of the last years
scanty returns, the farmers out there have pro-
vided for an abundant harvest, and they are
appropriating the opening spring in active
blowing and sowing in order to supply as far
as possible all existing aud prospective de-
ficiencies else where. This is good, aud we are
glad to hear it ; for the impor tant question ola
substantial relief from the present :" hard
times" or of another revulsion like that of
1S36-'37, will depend very much upon the
general u eld Of our approaching wheat har-
vest, and our autumn supplies ofIndian corn
From The South, on the other hand, our &C
counts of the opening OF the new season are less
fiattering. Fires prevail in the woods along
the Atlantic coast, from Virginia to Georgia,
clearly indicating continued deficiencies of
rain, while from Kentucky to Louisiana the
severity Of last years drought has well nigh
exhausted their stores of the last seasons sup
plies. We presume, however, that they have
made ample provisions for the next winter
in planting more and larger fields Of corn
than ever heretofore. Their increased facilities
Of communication with the Atlantic markets
will render any surplusage Of theirs in. this
great staple hereafter a cash article; and this
fact, together with the suggestive deficiencies
Of the last season, has, we dare say, resulted in
corresponding preparations for an extra crop.
We adverted the other day to the fact that
Notwithstanding the South suffered as severely
last year from drought and pestilence as this
section, they have experienced very little Of
the suspensions of business and the incipient
famine which have pressed upon us for the last
six months so heavily in the North. South of
Mason and Dixon's line they have had little or
no necessity for soup houses, and none of those
distressing cases of restitution aud starvation
which, in this feature, have ranked New York
so unnaturally with the overpopulated and
ill-fed cities of the Old World. And why this
remarkable distinction between the North and
the South? The reasons are obvious. The
South Isl great agricultural community, rest
ing upon sy stem of slave labor, and steadily
devoted to the cultivation of the soil. The
slaves Of the Southern corn and cotton fields
are permanently established in the business,
and subject to no enticements calling them off
to other pursuits Ia the North, what with
California and its gold mines, bank and stock spe-
culations, manufacturing and merchandising, the
learned professions, tavern keeping and liquor
selling, huckstering, gambling, loafug, the dirty
trade of politics, and other vagsbondizing
substituted for honest labor, an undue proper
ton of our young men of the f'rural districts"
have been drawn off from our producers and
added to the consumers of our brea5stuffs and
provisions. These, in addition to the annual
influx of three or four hundreds thousand to
our consumers from abroad, have resulted in
our hard experience of this last winter, and in
our still existing famine prices Of the prime ne
cessities of life.
The gold mines of California have been
the primary cause of this unwholesome in
dustrial revolution. Thousands Of our young
men have been drawn away to Califor.
MIA; they have sent US back their monthly
shipments Of millions of gold, and these
supplies have given that impulse to bank
ing, stockjobbing, speculations and swind
ling which, in conjunction with our accessions
of consumers from Europe, short crops, and
other secondary causes, have brought up -four
to twelve dollars a barrel and beef to fit.
teen and eighteen cents pound
We have bad fair warning. The laws of
trade, like the laws of nature, may not be vic.
lated with impunity We must have a reaction
or collapse. We have seen that while under
the steady regulations of This much abused in-
stitution Of slavery the South are comparative
ly secure against famine, bread riots, and bu:i-
ness depressions throwing thousands out OF em
ployment, we of the North, with all our gold
all our banks aud brokers, and all the blessings
OF free soil, free schools and free labsr, have
very narrowly escaped another gene.
raj breakdown from our famine prices for
bread, the pressure of debts upon us, Schuy-
Ter frauds, overtrsding, specializing and stock
jobbipg. For six months we have been strug-
Cling against a collapse, nor is the danger yet