Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-05-20
Agrieultaral
H0arding the staff of Life.

We copy the following from the Coninev
cIoI BuLetin
There Is wide spread famine in the OIL
World. and the suferings OF the masses foi
want OF wholesome food in various parts OF
Europe, Asia and Africa, are fearful to con-
template Nearly every cable dispatch has
lately brought us fresh accounts of this de-
pIorable condition Of things, for which there
appears to he present remedy, owing TO
the positive lack of the means of subsistence.
In fact, both governments and people are
alike helpless and at a loss what TO do under
the circumstances. The appeals of the lat
ter To the former for relief remain unanswer-
cd: and probably no general relief can be af
forded the peEishing millions OF that hemis
phere until another crop of breadstuffs is
harvested.
In Italy, the people are trying to sustain
life by feeding on grass and moss. In Ger
many and Sweden the destruction has been
such, during the past winter, that thousands
have been FRUSTRATED by low fevers In
France and England there have been bread
riots, and the pauper establishments are filled
to Overlooking. In Algeria forty thousand
men, women and children have persisted
from starvation, and their dead bodies have
in many cases been devoured by the survv-
In India whose villages, remote from
points of supply, have been decimated by the
gaunt destroyer. In Russia, more than ten
provinces, consisting mostly of emancipated
serfs, and covering an area of fifty thousand
square miles, have succumbed to want, ag-
gravated by the severity of the climate. Six
teen millions of rOubles have been asked for
10 purchase supplies for the inhabitants of a
single one of these provinces in the vicinity
of Moscow.
There various causes assigned for this
general restitution of the people on the other
of no IF no
ing n succession of short crops of breadstuffs
during the last few years In some locali
ties, IL too redundant population has helped
TO preci plate the crisis which is upon
them In others, labor has been improbable
and the failure of capitalists engaged in pro-
ductive enterprises, has left the operative
classes without the means of support. In
Russia the trouble is ascribed to the improv-
idencc and ideness Of the enancipated serfs,
vino. being left to their own option, have
failed to make provision for their reasonable
wants by cultIyating the lands, and degener-
ated into a condition of vagabondage.
But Whatever may be the general or special
causes of this suffering among the denizens
of the Old World, it remains to be considered
whether the means anywhere at hand for
mitigating this suffering. So far the re-
sources of that part OF the globe are con.
cerned, it is evidently Of poverty and
scarcity combined. The supply of bread
stuffs has been growing smaller for several
years past, and prices continually going high
er, with short crops and industry diverted TO
other branches OF production The means
of the people, during the time. have
been diminishing in an inverse ratio to the
advance in prices, that they have been
obliged to subsist upon the most scanty pit
lance even where there was no absolute lack
of supplies
The grain crop in Europe proved failure
everywhere, last year. except in the immed-
ate vicinity of the Black Sea. The principal
markets have all been supplied from that
source until IL has been drained and the
competition among buyers forced prices up
beyond the reach of consumers. Then the
former were obliged to fall back upon this
country for supplies, and Notwithstanding the
high prices which also ruled on this side Of
the Atlantic, immense shipments of CalifOr-
MA wheat to England, France and Germany.
have been made during the last few months.
The shipments from Atlantic ports have
been much less. owing to n lack of Margin :
and the prospect is that, whatever may be
the resources of this continent the necessi-
ties Of the old countries, but little more re-
lief can 90 from the former to the latter, till
the hoarders and monopolists of breadstuff.
are willing to sell at low prices
1t IL a remarkable fact that. while we have
well ascertained surplus of breadstuffs, and
ton, this surplus is withheld from cOnsump-
ton. and that the cost of this article should
be maintained at the highest point in that
quarter of the globe where it is most abun-
dant, and the eXigencies of commerce the least
pressing. That there should be enforced
economy among the masses of Europe, where
the population IL redundant food scarce, anC
labor poorly compensated. is matter not t
he wondered at But the wonder is that the
m nh hprp WI brea
Is plenty and the wages of labor are high. II
is worthy of note that Europe sent flour
and wheat, on speculation, last year. at a
time when prices were very high, though she
had then less to spare than We
It Is true the poor do not actually starve
among us, surrounded are by abun-
dance OF the necessaries Of life. But the fact
that they do not starve is not so much due
to- this abundance as to the paternal and lib
eral character of our social institutions, which
care for and assume the guardianship of the
suffering and needy Yet in Boston, New
York, and all principal Atlantic cities,
where thousands OF barrels of -four are stored
and held at famine prices, thousands of ex-
emplary and Industrious people have been
fed by the hand of public charity, during the
past winter.
These facts argue rather unfavorabiy for
our svtsm of trade and dis 'ributiOn, when we
come to consider the resources of the country
At Chicago, chief interior breads tufts
market. the present stocks are very largely
IN excess of those at the same time in 1867
There is an increase in the stock of wheat oil
2i6, 224 bushels in corn, of ,302, 2SS bush
els, and in oats, of la, 81 bushels. The en-
tire stock of grain at Chicago is So per cent
above that of the corresponding period last
year At the beginning of March, there
were 92514 bushels of wheat in store al
the same date last year. 1t is estimated that
the stocks of wheat at the various points be
tween New York and Milwaukee. inclusive
aggregate :, 200, 900 bushels, against $500 )
600 bushels at the same period last year an
increase of nearly so per cent. The stock
OF wheat at Milwaukee alone on the 10th Of
April, was ] ,O77 900 bushels A compare
tive statement shows the receipts of flour anc
grain at the ports of Chicago, Milwaukee
Toledo, Detroit and Cleveland, from Januar,
LIST TO the close of February, to be nearly
double those of 1867.
Notwithstanding these liberal receipts, i
Is estimated, upon good authority, that from
40 to so per cent. of the last grain crop i:
still held back in the hands of western grow.
ere. But the markets are SO skillfully manip-
ulated by the ring of operate that supplies