Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-12-13
TIE CORN PRORLEsr.


port trade of this year is that the shipment
of corn has increased largely over that of
previous years, especially at the ports of
New York and Boston, fully equal in money
value to the shipm ant Of wheat from San
Francisco to Europe, thus showing that the
inherent value of the cereal is becoming
more appreciated by those who demand
cheap food. No crop in our country, says
the Boston Globe, with the single exception,
perhaps, of the wheat product, is so i'm
portant or so extensive as that Of corn.
What the potato is to Ireland corn is to
America. Our readers, especially those
who are interested in agricultural move
meDts and the prices obtained for the vari-
Gus cereal productions, have not failed to
notice the low prices realized by the pre-
Queer for this article. We have been told
that the carrying companies absorb very
large proportion Of the profits arising
from the sale of corn, and also that in con-
sequence of the cheapness of that article,
Western farmers have found it more profit
able to use the cereal in the fattening OF
swine or for fuel than to send it to market
OF course, there IS a radical reason why
corn is much cheaper than wheat as an ar
ticle of foreign export.
Corn is the chief cereal production of the
country, being nearly two-thirds of the ce-
real yield, and over twenty-six bushels per
head to tie population. Illinois, for in
stance, in 1871, produced 203, 391 900 bush
els of that article to 25,216,OO0 bushels of
wheat, being one hundred and six bushels
of corn and eleven bushels of wheat per
head to its population. At Chicago, the
great grain centre of the country, the corn
crop Of 1872 was valued at an average, per-
haps, of thirty cents per bushel. The corn
crop IS a national one, and is consumed not
as corn only, but alsoEn the form of products
it creates. As a bresdstuf then, its mil
lions of bushels sustain u5, and changed
into beef and pork, its hundreds Of
millions of bushels are represented in the
immense internal trade CT the country, be-
sides giving employment TO the carrying
trade of our salt water commerce. But
how shall the immense surplus of toe corn
crop be disposed of al fair prices? To the
mind of every intelligent enquirer, a strik-
ing anomaly is presented in the fact that,
although the experience of the people Of the
entire continent bears uniform testimony
in favor of the bealthfulness and the econo-
my of Indian corn, our great Indigenous
cereal, it is even yet but comparatively
known to the people of those portions OF
Europe to whom economy in the selection
of food is mnifsstly the great desderatum
with the exception of the southern eoun.
tries of that continent.
The foregoing exports Of Oreadstuff:
demonstrates the fact that, comparatively
speaking, the people of Europe have not
yet learned to make maize, or corn, an ar
ticle Of food, Notwithstanding it contains a
larger proportion Of nutritive properties
than any other sub9tanca from which bread
is made. Referring to the figures bearing
upon the shipment of breadstuffs to the
continent of Europe, excepting the current
year, we find that The number Of bushels
of corn sent from New York in 1871 was
Il, 42S, 122 against 2l,42S,O15 bushels OF
wheat, and in 1870 only 3S5,752 bushels Of
corn we're exported, while the number OF
bushels of wheat was 16, $50, $50, to say moth
ing Of the immense quantity of -four shipped
during the same period. The export ofcorn
from January l, 1872, to December 1,
1872, amounted TO 24,942 ,192 bush
sis, and the export of lour was 1,O89,35
barrels, and Of wheat 1867, 1872 bushels.
It is proper TO state here that the increase
in the Shipment of corn in 1872 has been
os an artif ,ial character, to some, extent,
caused Big the reported shortness of the Eu-
rcpean crops and predicted famine. The
statistics Of City years past show that the
corn exported to the continent of Europe
is much less in quantity, and consequently
less Ia value than the wheat and its pro-
ducts exported. IS long ago SIS 1921, the
value OF corn aud its manufactures ex-
ported was only S616,279, while the value