New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-02-08
THE WHEAT CROP DIMINISHING.

The business world has been astonished by the mag
uitude of wheat crop which came erowding in guam
ttes before unknown into all the great grain centers
of the West taxing railroads beyond their capacity,
giving employment 10 every tun OF shipping on the
lakes, and pouring into New-York in such deuge as
IN clint the market for exchange Prices for both have
sunk under the pressure Of this glut the latter lower
than at any former period. Though the fall has been
aggravated by political dsocations, yet the fact OF an
apparently overwhelming wheat crop remalns We
kay apparently because its magnitude may after all
be only reative-a sort Of accident having occasional
anecedents yet void Of any certain equality In the fn
ture An abundant general crop in this cosntry is the
direct boon of Providence not the return for hui
man effort The latter is constantly and regularly ex
erted yet the result continues TO be 80 uncertain that
clut approxinating what we now behold becomes the
general wonder. Skill and care in agriculture may 90
far 10 neutraze those dangerous vicissudes Of climate
season and the nroads ofnsecs which often blast the
farmers hopes; but facts will turn up, in looking
coeely into this important question: showing that there
must be some radical defect in the wheatTowing Of
this country II such not the case, every wheat
crop would be generous one, with no cycles OF failure
unte famine or others of exuberance unto choking the
machinery Of commerce. The great West has just
emerged from one Of the former, TO laureh out we
hope into one Of the latter The South, having had
its seven years of plenty, is just entering on what we
sso hope may prove to be it's years Of famine
The tables Of the new census being yet incomplete,
reference can only be had 10 the seven previous
suses. In $780, the United States exported 0l8 339
bushels Of wheat. In 1890 the export had sunk 10
% 1871 bushes In $780, it rose TO 408 9l0; in 1870 TO
S6S, 5S5; and in 1850, 10 l,026,725 bushels only
1886 more than sixty years previously These extra
ordinary yibrauoCs in the export are measuraby gov
ernedby The shOrness abundance Of the crop. When
short we have ess to spare when full we have
But the fact has long been noticed that wheatpro-
ducing power is rapidly declining. In fifty years this
great staple Of Ohio has Diminished from an average
yield Of 80 bushels per to less than l5 In eleven
counties OF that State, which in 1850 yielded ISL
bushels, there were but 4,4l32N produced in 1857,
though in the interval many thousands of acres Of new
land must have been broken up and sowed with wheat
Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, have ceased Iro-
ducng largely while in New. England tie diminuton
Is almost incredible. In 1870 Rhode Island produced
SOo bushels but ten years later only only 49, Within
the same porod Connecticut fell from 81 600 bushels to
$1,000 Maine from $4,000 296, 900; Massachusetts,
from $4,000 to 81 ,0O0 New-Hampsbre, from 432, GOO
70 ls6OOO; Vermont alone maintaining her ground
by yielding 535 $50 bushes in 1850, against 491oO in
1870. In the period Tennessee fell from 1o69t2
TO 1919, 3s6 bushels; Kentucky, from 1893 l52 TO
2li2,S22 Georgia, from 1901 $50 to l,OSs53i, and
Alabama, from go, so TO 294Oii. The whole wheat
crop Of the Union in 1910, was SS,jl3,HO bushels,
while in 1850 1t had risen only TO l0O5S5 8 BUSHELS
al increase Of only IL or, IA in years. Of which
increase, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, supplied
every bushel-showing coDcusively that all the old
wheat regions were rapidly deterioratng. Within the
same period only nine of the fifteen Slave States IN
creased their crops, while the falling off in the Whole
fifteen was 9, 2OO, 3l6 bushels.
Particular localities afford remarkable evidence Of
this general deterioration. New-York was formerly
great producer Of wheat, but her increase In 1850 was
os ten Per cen. oyer 1870 Many portions Of the State