Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1873-10-24

implements. The prices of the pre-
ducts of agriculture are larger tha
they were thirty years ago, or the pre-
ducers could not pay the prices no1
2 ruling for labor.
: But the effect of this doubling of tn
compensation of agricultural labor an,
liberating one-third Of the persons for
merly employed, and giving them t
other industries, is felt in all branche
t of business. The laborer now has mon
/ ley to provide his family with comfort
unknown in his mode of, life thirt7
years ago. The Immediate consequence,
of this plenty of money with the peo
pie who will work, are better educa
tion, and more independence and ele
walton of character. Savings Banks
have larger deposits, merchants sell
more goods, and all branches of bust
ness are quickened. But very seri.
GUS objection, has been made by Mr.
j Delmar, in his article in the Times, tc
| the influences Of the improvement Of
the implements of agriculture, and
that is over-production ofgrain crops.
We are told that the population OF
North America is 52,0O0,000, and that
.l16 bushels of the cereals is all that can
be consumed by each individually
branches of consumption being taken
into account, including the amount
tconverted into liquors, starch, &c., and
the amount fed to animals, and he gives
the quantity of cereals produced by
this population at 1,725, 100000 bush
Iels in the year 1870, which is IS 1-5
bushels each, and he says that the far
Imers Of the United Safes alone eensid-
lered, produce 40 bushels per casita of
the whole people, which is q ZINES
their power of consumption.
This calculation like many others
based upon census returns is manifest
Ily erroneous, for 1870 has been SO long
past that by this time we should know
exactly the effects of such over produc-
tion upon the prices Of grain. Since
1870 the crops have been reported as
good, and by this time would, by such
calculations, be on hand an inconceiv-
able immense quantity of unstable
grain. For it is now claimed that we
Iexport only very small percentage of
the crops produced in this country.
| Mr.. Delmar says he ''learned in
his late tour in Europe, in the charac-
ter Of delegate to the Statistical Con-
gress, and from other sources, that the
world is to-day producing more bread
than it can eat, Z and he says that eve,
Las one Of the principal grain produc-
I ing G0IEnJf1s OF Ji1e W Grid, are large
participants in an over-done industry,
and the sooner we abandon the policy
lof endowing agricultural colleges and
turn the minds of our children rather
toprofeiency in nlec chanics, the better. :
This is the first that any of us have
heard Of there being any danger of
lover production Of food growing out of
anything that agricultural colleges are
doing.
These alarming figures have fright
Iened the learned Doctor of Divinity
who edits the official organ Of the most
numerous denomination of Protestant
Christians of this country into saying
sit is plain that in a merely CONNER
cial sense, agriculture is an oVerdone
form Of industry. In the parlance Of
the street, farming does not pay can
lnot be made to pay, and that ssthere
lis great danger that this superabun-
dance of material wealth, if not en-
1 ployed for some higher purpose, will
Head to habits of luxury and dissipa-
ton that can result only in the utter
decentralization of society,".
/ ] cite these speculations Of men of
figures to show that the improved ma
chines of agriculture are charged with
vast responsibilities even the ruin of
the nation by feeding the people too
well.
TO allay fears that may have been
caused by these alarmists, let us say
that there certainly is no such surplus
of food, nor has there been, as this
manipulation of figures says there was
in 1870. For if such an access of
twenty-four bushels per capita had
been produced, it must either be stor-
led, with the crops since raised or ex-
ported to other countries. If it was
| yet here, the prices of grain could not
be as high as they are. To export
such a surplus, calling the average
weight per bushel fifty pounds, would
employ 5,700 ships carrying 100 tons
each, and taking each four loads in a
year-for the total weight Of such a
quantity ef grain would not be less
than 22,800,000 tons, and would fully
tax all the trunk-lines of railroad and
all the canals, to the exclusion of all
other business from the west to the
east.
/ We have heard much complaint of
the high prices that manufacturers Of
implements and reapers put upon them,
and of the resulting too large profits
that they receive.
No actor, according to Che Danbury
Ne,os man, has yet been able to coun-
terfeit that expression of JOY which a
man shows when discovering a ten
cent stamp in his paper of tobacco.
BGA man in Peoria claims to have
a stone that Washington threw at a
wood-pecker on his fathers cherry
tree.
B0An Iowa clergyman who had a
7 ,4l.Ix 4,