The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-10-13
The Greatest Crop Of the WOrAd-some
Interesting Figures.

: A question widely discussed involves the
relative value of the wheat, cotton. tea, ana
hnv crops of the world. Which of these pro.
ducts employs the greatest. amount oil the
worlds capital2 1t il said that hay leads the
rest. and the items that enter into the ac-
count as stated are somewhat startling, ana
will make Changers hair stand on an end.
Cotton and tea are local crops, While nay Is
nroduced everywhere the world over, and
thus the has crop greatly outwclghs either OIL
the other two. The aggregate reported Value
OF all farm products for 1870 was s., 44I ,o5S,-
GSs: but as this includes additions to stocks,
. betterments," &C., it is probably too high.
Now the hay crop for that year-that Is, the
grass dried and cured for use or. solids re-
oorted at over q 100000 tons. This, at half
the selling price in the large cities, would
amount to S405,000,000, and is far greater
than the aggregate home-value OF the cotton
crop or any other crop. But the cured
..hay'' is but portion OF the grass crop.
The other portion is used OH the ground,
and il requires considerable calculation 10
,nt at the value SO used. even in the rough
est way.
Tn the first place, live stock, including
horned cattle horses, sheep, swine, &c, 10
the value Of 81 ,525, 000,0 COO were fed from 1t
that wear. Averaging the lives of these at
five wears. we nave one-hfth OF that sum as
representing the grass fed to them in 1870
namely, S305 100000; nextwe find the value
of the animals slaughtered for food IN
that wear to be S309,000,000; and as this
is an annual product, the whole of 1t
will for the present be credited TO the
grass crop; next we find that the but
ter crop of 1870 was 514 100000 pounds,
which, at the lew average OF 20 cents,
amounts to Sl2S,000,000, and this goes TO
the credit of grass next we have 235, OO0,'
900 gallons of milk, which, averaged at the
low estimate of 10 cents per gallon, adds
$50 900 900 more to the credit OF the grass
Drop then we have 100000, 900 pounds OF
wool, at 25 cents pound, adding S25,000,-
600 more; and, finally, 100000 pounds OF
cheese, at 10 cents, adding over S5,000,OOO
to the total Of these credits to the grass crop
of 1870, which aggregates 1887 ,OOO,0O0.
Now let us add the value of the ebay y
crop as given above-viz, $405, 900, 000-and
we have grand total for bay" and the
products of grass consumed on the ground
amounting to S1,292, 100000! This is, of
course, subject to the deduction, as the meat,
butter, milk, cheese, and wool-producing
ami mails consume other food besides grass
and hay. TO make ample allowance for
this we deduct the entire value of the corn
and oats crops of 1870, estimated at S27O,-
100000, and this leaves a remainder. Of
81, 0S2, 900 900 to be credited to the hay and
grass crop OF that year, when the reported ag-
gregale of all farm products was 2,441 >
538,65S. If our estimates make even the
toughest approach to accuracy, the value OF
that crop was two-fifths Of the aggregate
value of all farm products, and hence we
NAV infer that two-tifths of the capital thea
invested in agricultural pursuits was de-
voted to the grass crop, and this, in the
United States, equals I'm round numbers
S4,575,000,000. From these figures the de-
duction is palpable that King Cotton is I'M
forced to admit that all g flesh " and all else
is hay, if not " grass" -Memphis appeal.