Weekly North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1858, 1857-06-03

Scarcity of Provisions---Prices of Corn, &cJ |
The newspapers of the North and Northwest cop-
tain numerous and distressing accounts of suffering
account of the scarcity of provisions, and espe-
cially of corn and hay. In Michigan. Iowa, Wes-
tern New York, Canada, Tennessee, and elsewhere
corn and hay are very scarce, and man and beast
stinted and suffering for the want of those ab
solute necessaries of life. We make the following
extracts as specimens of the prevailing want:
"In Iowa the traveller finds no hay straw for
horses at any of the hotels At Des Moines corn is
considered cheap two dollars per bushe and can
scarcely be had at that 1t is reported that five dol
lars is the regular price many places between there
and Councils Bluffs. Dead horses and cattle along
the road are said to be ordinary sights Wheat seems
to be nearly corn and hay. Flour is sell
ling at five dollars and five dollars and fifty cents
per hundred rising.-Higb this price ic, farmers
who could afford it were feeding their carriage horses
on wheat.
The suffering in Michigan has been SO extreme d
that public meetings have been held and measures
taken by the public authorities for relieving the
destitute. The Relief Committee of Lansing report
that in Gratot county people selling their land
for means to get away with-that none have pro.
visions to last more than two or threee weeks What
they have consists of -four and meal merely; they
have no meat the smoke last fall from the extensive
fires having driven off the deer
of Arcadia reports that in his neighborhood most of
the families have only few potatoes left for seed
they have divided with each other until they
divide no more, and have seed to plant Each Las
from one to three bushels. He had last season one
a I'd half OF fine that cut off by an
early frost when it in the mi k and he could
only use it for provender for his cattle. The cattle
have had to subsist mostly through the winter
III owse. He has heard of neghborhoods north of
him, from ten to thirty and sixty miles, that
how l,nfpo hrilf, Il,
woman and two or three children west of him, in
Montcalm county, had died for want of food.
In Tennessee things are in still worse condition.
The Knoxville Register of the 7th inst. says that
everywhere in East Tennessee, the greatest scarcity
| of provender and grain of every description pre-
walls The cattle are actually dying by the thou
send and in sections the dependence is to cut
| down trees. that the cattle may eat buds. Nor is
this alarming state of affairs confined to cattle. In
many sections of the country families that have been
well provided with not only the neccssares, but
many of the uxures of life, are straitened to be
compelled to go forty fifty miles to buy corn
wheat"
Corn is steadily advancing in al; parts of the
country and as for hay and fodder, they
| ly he obtained.at any price. Corn selling in
! New York at the latest dates at four dollars and
ninety cents per barrel-in Baltimore at four dol
lars and forty cents-n Norfolk at four dollars and
ninety cents-n Petersburg, at five dollars and in
Wilmington at from four dollars seventy five to five
dollars. We have heard of sales in the interior of
this State at from five to dollars peG,barrel,
though the price generally asked and obtained is
from five to six dollars. Hay is selling in New
York at dollar per hundred. cash, and advan-
cing-in Norfolk, at one dollar and quarter, and
scarce-and m Wilmington, at one dollar and a
quarter to one dollar aud half. We have no price
~ Wol, ,lo,
however, small lot was sent down on the N. c.
Road, for which two dollars and quarter is asked
We satisfied there is more corn in the coun
try than is generally supposed but it is mainly ir
the hands of spectators and of persons who are
waiting for enormous prices. We think five dollars
ought to satisfy the cravings for money of any
who makes the article to sell. Better take that, OF
less ye hoarders Of the precious grain than you
poor neghbors suffer; better be satisfied with higt
prices than wait for enormous Ones and in the ent
be disappointed. We speak for the honest toins
poor, and proud of the privilege of doing so
The rats take your cribs ye hoarders of the precious
grain the seasons mildew 1.-THE elements figh
against you, ye heard-heartcd devotees of Mammon
if ye aciH not bearken to the cry for bread. Bu
though the prospect be gloomy, let not even tn
poorest and most distressed despair. The whea
crop is abundant, and the yield must be large. Th
harvest is at hand. hat will furnish bread
and the furnished cattle already begin to live in tn
woods and 1" old fields" Gods own blessed sun
!, shine streams warmly down, and the showers ar
descending on the budding corn. When the Fa
comes. there will be enough and to spare. And W
that the lesson taught by this of scarc
ty and destituton will be remembered, and will lea
to less attention to tobacco, and cotton, and turpen