Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1863-06-04

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: does not accumulate from year to year. &C
, that. in point of fact, all the quantity pro
dnced in any one year Is disposed Of by
actual consumption or by expectation during
the year. If the crop is an unusually large
one, the ertrt qusntity is used up by a more
liberal consumption at home by the poorer
class Of citizens in consequences Of lower
prices; and this latter fact also causes o
larger export, as the low rates enable US to
: compete in foreign markets to a greater ex.
tent with European growers. If, On the
contrary, we have short crop, a more
economical consumption at home and o
lessened foreign export (both induced BY
higher home pricesI together with the usual
surplus remaining from the preceding crop,
gives US proper supply even nnder short
harvest.
The proportion Of the crop exported in
the famine year, ls47, was probably great.
er than in any other year of the present
century, and though we then exported six.
teen per cent. OF our wheat crop, or about
one sixth, yet taking the aggregate Of our
whole grain crop Of that year, wheat, corn,
rye, barley, oats, aud buckwheat, and the
aggregate exports of the same, whether as
grain or in the shape of -four or meal, the
whole export was only abou. eight per cent
OF the entire CROP without any reference to
the large production of peas, beans, and
potatoes, Of which not one per cent. was ex-
ported. Thus, even with the unusual and
heavy demand upon US in that year Of gen
eral scarcity in Europe, where we sent eight
bushels of grain abroad we had to retain in
the proportion OF Ninety fieo bushels for our
own wants and even the loss of those
eight bushels out Of every hundred had the
effect of greatly enhancing the price at
home of every description of grain.
When, then, we thus see how enormous
is the consumption Of food which is required
for the supply Of community or nation
and how small a portion of an entire crop
which even such producing nation as the
United States can spare from its own wants,
we can better appreciate the present posi-
ton Of the South, which has always been
dependent upon the loyal States for much
larger portion of its food than European
nations even require in their years of great.
est scarcity, and from which sources of its
usual supply the South is now entirely cut
off. The Cotton States have always depend
ed for large portion Of breadssoDs on other
States, and for still larger portion of their
animal food, with the exception of Texas
which is great cattle raising State, and of
which article she has of late years had
surplus TO spare towards the supply IF her
neghboring States, and but for which source
of supply the distress for animal food in the
Southwestern States would have been even
much more severe than it has been.
Now, if in years of short crops in such a
country as Great Britain, with all her wealth
means, and appliances for procuring aud
transporting supplies, with the ports of all
the extensive grain growing counties on the
Baltic, and the still more extensive and pro-
life wheat districts in the Black Sea, and all
the overlooking granaries of the United
States at her command, she can only pro,
cure or only required from forty to fifty days
supply to cover her deficiency, what mus,
be the condition of the Southern, and
especially the Cotton States, who have never
been in the habit of raising more than two
thirds of their required supplies, and some
e L. h,,k, h.,
ferred devoting themselves to upraising and
supporting the vaunted but mock and un-
substantial throne of King Cotton? If forty
or fifty days deficiency of food for nation
requires such immense supplies as has al
ready been stated what must it be when
three or four months supply nay be need
ed? For it would require an enormous IN
creased cultivation to supply such deici
: ency, and, though the attempt to obtain
such an increase was generally and strongly
recommended at the South, yet the actual
result has been very far from attaining the
desired end, not only because the required
additional land was not put under cultiva
tion for breadstuffs, but also because the
, crop itself, even with this additional land,
was a bad one. -u ,.s' hr- -.z
!. l, Virginia, probably, has raised within her
own borders, previous to the rebellion, an
average supply Of food for her own people ;
:. but who supposes she has done so in the
last two seasons, with SO large n portion OF
white agricultural laborers in the army, and
when the Eastern section Of the State has
either been wasted by the presence of con
tending armies, or has been in such con.
slant state of alarm and distrust that the
crops have not even been put into the
ground, aud all the Western portion loyal
to the UnionP P7ulslsa fari
t. Tennessee, from whence the South was
in the habit Of receiving such large supplies
of food, will, from the same causestbat are
operating on Virginia, have no surplus to
spare, aud even if she had il would be in.
J accessible to tho rebels. The same is the
case as regards Kentucky. i'sla. i1sa'a on
The States Of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois,
and those ON the Upper Mississippi, from