The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1857-07-30
WHEAT,

In d well written article Of Hurpcr for August,
upon the subject Of wheat, It's introduction into,
different countries, cultivation nnd fluctuations
In price, together with many other intercs,iu,,
facts. we fni tho following:
Tho highest price TINT flour hns reached in.
ring period of sixty ycars wns in l7yG whom
1t sold nt sixteen dollars II barrel I'm ISI7 I,
was quoted mt fourteen dollars. In lsI7. IN, no
rod of the Irish famine. -four, never excccedcd
ten dollars The prices of breutlstuifs wore
higher in 1855 than fox sixty years, if we cxccn.
the Seasons Of 1896. und 1877. From the min,
utes kept ut the office of the Van Rensselaer,
Mansion ut Albnuy for siSty-one years, where
large amounts of rents are payable in whent or
u casl, equivalent OIL tho Isl Of January of each
year, we learn that wheat has only five times
been two dollars or upward n bushel, while il
was seventeen times at one dollar, and twice at
seventy five cents. The average price for the
whole period was one dullar and and tl,irty-cipht
cents, and for the last thirty years one dollar
and twenty-five cents.
Fluctuations in the price Of flour nrc ascril,eJ
to specuatoms by capitalists That moncycd
men may effect locality for few DAYS is posi-
BILE, hut combination of all the bankers in cx-
stence can command the price of brcudstufs-
The world consumes eight thousand millions of
bushels of grain of some kind every year. and
the cost is about four thousand millions of dol
lars. What we shall give for this important he
ccssity for the preservation of our race is hidden
among the mysteries Of nature, depends upon
the machinery of the Seasons, upon the will of
God. In the deep cavcrns of tho north he prc
pares che hoar frosts which kill the roots; from
the evancscent clouds come the rains and the
dews which rust the stalks the rays of his sun
wilt up the terminating fower and from him
come also those secret influences which lipcn
the crops aud spread them upon the ground in
every quality of real wealth more valuable than
gold
The progress of the cultivation of wheat in
our own country presents not only n subject of
intense interest, but also one Of great national
congratulations Prior to the year 1900 apricul-
ture was confined to the Atlantic States Pre-.
ce'iing that time, the revolutionary condition of
France, and the war which involved the whole
of Europe, taken i'll connection with the limited
space devoted to wheat culture, enabled our far
ners to realize such high prices, that. us class,
they revcied in unboundcd prosperity. In 1896.
the higher price obtained for flour, as IL natural
consequence, diverted capital from other chan.
ncls to be employed in ting the soil, and, will,
this impulse, in the brief space of half a century
we find the vast and fertile valley of the Misss.
sippI reclaimed from nature, and waving will,
golden crops. The settlement of California
opened still larger granary, one that is sur.
passing the whcat-bearng capacity of New
York, Pennsylvania and Ohio combined From
the census we learn that Maine, Vermont, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, NIassa
chuSetIS, NeW OIk. New Jersey, North CARO-
lima, South Caro!inn, Georgia, Alubama, Nlissis.
sippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Flor
ida, do not raise wheat enough for their own
consumption. That eight Stutcs only raise n
substantial surplus, the remaining four, viz
Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio, raising
only nominal surplus. Eight principal manu-.
iacturlng States, and ten planning States dc
not rnisc their own bread. California now raise,
a trfing surplus. and New York nearly balances
her production by consumption. very few
years only must elapse ere all these statistics will
be changed: In twenty years the rich fields o
the great West have been oped up to the agricuI
turst, and in that time Buffalo and C6icoro
have become the greatest grain marts of ,I,(
world. Who can calculate the wonderful chanre.
OF OF another score of years? Texas, at present
The producer of cotton and sugar, will soon sic,
into the arena, as the great wheat-growinr Stat'
OF the Union. 1t Is calculated that at the very
moment she obtuins the means of internal trans
portation, by the completion of railways already
begin, her wheat crop will be worth millions
ana absolutely surpass i'll value her exports in
the more talked of product cotton.