Nebraska advertiser., 1862-01-02
From the Country Gentleman and CuItivator.
Grain.PrOducing Capacity Of the
United States.

CAANGA Oee@NNGa
MEssRs. TUCKER & SoN-In your
paper Of Nov. 21st, you quote the re-
marks of a New York correspondent
of the London Mark Lane Express to
this effect: That ''this is likely to be
the last year that England may expect
any shipments of breadstufs to large
amount" from the United States. The
reader is left to infer that it will be in
consequence of our being unable to
produce any considerable amount be.
yOnd our own wants. This writer,
lwhoever he may be,) it is quite evil
dent, as We say here in the west, ''has
not travelled" For either he is sadly
duped himself, or else he is trying to
dupe his readers, when he tells them
that the United States has reached lis
full capanity as a grain producing
country No man Of common intelii-
gence who is at all acquainted, or who
has travelled but a title even in the
northwestern States, Will tell you that
the resources of any of these States
has begun to be developed I will
venture the assertion, without the fear
of contradiction, that west and south
of the lakes, with the single exception
of Ohio, no single State has more than
one~tenth Of her arabic land now under
cultivation. Look for instance, at Il
linois, which is comparatively an old
State. have not the late United
States census returns now before me,
but | have no doubt it would bear me
out in saying that less than a tenth of
her fertile soil has yet been broken by
the plowshare. And if with her lin
tied acres under cultivation she has
such millions of surplus grains to
spare, estimate, if you can, what she
may not do in the way of stopping the
mouths of England's pauper poor when
all her sections and quarter sections
are brought under the plow, and when
the resources and capacity of Illinois
and Iowa, and the whole northwest,
are fully developed, who can then es-
innate or tell us where to find "A mar
ket for the grain, the beef and the
pork which we cannot use ?
The best cultivated parts Of New
England do not produce more than
one fourth what the soil is capable of
doing under proper and improved
state of cultivation.
Now, when the whole northwest,
and acre of which is naturally as good
as two in New England, comes to the
same cultivation that New England
now has, we can feed "all the world
and the rest of mankind Talk about
estimating the capacity of a country
whose navigahle rivers are four thou
sand miles long, with soil as fertile
as ever the sun shone upon, and a
population whose chief end is to keep
what they get and get all they can as
well might you count the drops in the
ocean as to measure the capacity of
such a country.
Could I get the ear or the eye Of
the readers of the London Mark Lane
Express, | would tell them, as | would
tell all who love liberty and desire a
peaceful and nappy home of their own,
to come to this beautiful and fertile
country of ours, where there is room
enough and to spare-come and make
farms on these magnificent and une-
qualled prairies, where the productions
of an acre are only to be measured by
the amount of labor judiciously be-
slowed upon it.
Then you shall see and know
whether this New York writer, who
doubtless gets well paid for trying to
belittle and belle our country, has told
you the truth, or falsehood IS glaring
noon day. J. ca.