Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-08-14

reflections by the remark recently made
in our presence by one Ofthese little wise
acres to the effect, that if all the farmers
in the country should follow our advice,
and sow more wheat, the market would
be glutted and wheat would bring no
thing That for his part, ne should just
put in enough to use and no moro.
Against such short>sighted stupidity it is
useless to reason. There is, however, a
large class of reasonably intelligent far
mers, who, without the data upon which
to form a correct opinion, are in doubt as
to the demand there is likely to be for
wheat For the benefit of this class, we
collect few facts from tho monthly re-
port Of agriculture, the Country Gentle
man, London Field, and other sources.
Not the most careless observer can have
failed to notice the fact that as the harvest
approaches every year, the price Of the old
crop run up rapidly, and there is a feverish
anxiety in the public mind to know the
stale of the new crop. This anxiety 10
largely due TO the fact that the supply is so
little in excess Of the demand that there il
LEFT no margin for short crop. What we
witness here is well described by the Marx
Lane Express, Of England, which says:
Exhausted as the stocks of wheat are in
every country Of Europe and those OF
America, az WELL there need to be more
Chan an average crop in the wheat growing
countries of the world TO meet the demands
Of Western Europe and reinstate the usual
stock" Here we have the fact established
that with the demand stationary, it re-
guired full crop to meet il. But the de-
mand is not stationary. II is steadily on
the increase from two distinct and perma-
nent causes.
/. The increase of population.
I'd. The increased consumption Of wheat
! attending the advancement in the mode oil
life of The masses of men. f5f8
To meet this natural increase, there had
been, in America, a steady increase in the
number of acres sown, and the crop
| gathered, previous TO the war. But the
war reduced this amount by many millions
Of bushels, and it has only this year
reached the amount Of the crop of 1861
So that the last seven years may be thrown
out as lost. But though the supply has
not increased the demand has kept on grow.
ing. The population has increased steadi-
ly and the use of wheat has been largely
increased by the increase in emigrants, who
dc not use Indian corn. I.i sf la..a.
According TO the estimates of the De
partment Of Agriculture, there have been
100000 acres OF wheat harvested in the
United States this year. Allowing an
average Of ten bushels to the acre, which
Is quite as much as it will turn out, there
viii be harvested 200,000,000 bushels OF
wheat Estimating that only the same
| amount Of land is put in wheat for the
next crop, at two bushels 10 the acre, which
il ascertained 10 be the average, there
will be required 100000 busheles
for seed wheat, leaving 100000 1000
bushels for flour. The estimated present
population of the United States is forty
millions And it is calculated that five
bushels per head is an average of the
amount used, SO that If all were to rely
upon wheat for bread, ii would require
fully 200, 100000 bushels, leaving nothing
for seed. But there are several other arti-
Giles of breadstuf that take the place Of
wheat, so that the wheat crop will not be
required to make all the bread. II is only
reasonable, however, to estimate that at
least one hundred and fifty millions OF
bushels will lee required for bread. This
leaves only margin of ten millions for
expectation, an amount entirely TOO small
for the demand.
Thus il is, from this brief and fragmen-
tary showing, apparent to any intelligent
observer, that at least the present demand
will be kept up, even if the next crop
should be, the world over, as good as the
present While il, ..as there are innumer-
able probabilities viii be the case, the crop
should fall short in any considerable wheat
section, the prices must be 50 far increased.
In view of these and many other considera-
tions, we advise and urge upon the Dixie
farmers TO stick to wheat. Immediately,
and in the future, it will pay.--Dirie Far