The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-08-24

form as it is gratifying that in all sections
of our broad and fruitful land the harvest
has been abundant, insuring plenty for
ourselves and large surplus for exporta-
ton. OF every species Of crop used for the
food of men or their useful servants, the
domestic animals, favoring season has
given us bountiful returns, and besides sup
plying the wants Of nations afflicted with
short harvests we have the questionable adj
vantage Of being able to furnish our count
less distilleries and breweries with grain to
be converted into beverages which even in
moderation may not be beneficial and in
excess are destructive to health. But, in q
large view, distilleries and breweries are O
blessing. Next to modern commerce,
which enables nations whose food crops are
deficient to draw upon the abundance Of
more favored regions of the globe, these
wasteful establishments are the chief safe
guard against famine, that drest Of
human calamities. The distilleries cause
more land to be put under Gull
tivation, and the habit of raising
grain to supply them prevents even sue
cession of bad harvests from entailing the
misery Of absolute dearth. When bread is
dear there is less money to be spent in bev-
erages. The business of distillation is
checked by high price Of the raw material
and diminished market for the product and
large amounts of grain which would other
wise be converted into alcohol are released
for human food. Distillation, therefore,
deleterious as that branch of business is in
some aspects, so increases the harvests Of
every year that famine is infrequent in mod
ern communities. If India were n country
in which large amounts of grain are annually
raised for distilleries the pressure Of the
present famine would be com paratively light,
because the surplus grown for that purpose
would so into the food supply Us soon as the
price of grain became too high for profitable
distillation. The wholesale suffering caused
by one season Of severe famine probably out
weighs all the misery caused by drunken
ness in whole generation. In ancient
times it was customary to establish public
granaries for storing the surplus corn of
abundant years against years of dearth but
our modern security consists in the fact that
great deal more is planted than is expected
to be needed for food, and that we have only
to stop the distilleries to insure a sufficient
supply until importations can be made.
The United States have still more efficient
security against the possibility Of famine,
in the fact that they raise vast amounts of
grain, not merely for the distilleries but
for large expectation, so that after the worst
harvest conceivable we should have food for
our own population.
We are exceptionally fortunate this year
in having magnificent food crops, ut n time
when the English harvest is short, and
when the other ordinary sources of English
supply are somewhat interrupted by
the war. The concurrence of circum-
stances by which the foreign " mar
ker for grain is enlarged when
our crops are abundant is singularly
opportune now, when the PROSTATE bust
ness of the country needs some strong i'm
pulse to put it again on its feet If our
government does nothing for our relief we
are, at least favored by Providence, which |
gives US abundant crops precisely when |
there is an excellent foreign demand to take
them off our hands at good prices, and
when there is no other resource for infusing
new life into our stagnant trade. The benef-
cent interchange of sun and rains, the ex-
emption from blight and frosts, the fertility
of our soil and the never-failing industry Of
our husbandmen, are blessings for which
we are happily not dependent on
the caprice Of politicians, and We
can never be quite ruined by bad
government so long Us kindly suns and
rains and the cheerful toll of our agricul-
turists crown the rolling years with plenty
We have reason to rejoice that there is SO
much of which bad government and mis-
taken public measures cannot deprive us.
AS to the foreign market for breadstuffs
which, in connection with our abundant
crops, is the hopeful element of the situa-
ton. we must try to understand the real
facts and not delude ourselves with extrava-
CANT expectations. 1t is quite certain that
the English market, which is our chief for
eign market for grain, will be good; but this |
is rather the consequence of n moderate
wheat crop in Great Britain than of an
interrupted supply from Russia, our princi-
pal competitor in that market. The grain
crop of Russia this year has been as album
dant as our own, and the theatre of the
present war is not on Russian but on
Turkish soil. To be sure Russian wheat
cannot be exported from the Black Sea
ports, but it must be remembered that
since the Crimean war Russia has con-
structed railroads, and that considerable
portion of her wheat harvest can be
sent by rail to the Baltic and shipped
thence to England. 1t will, indeed, be
burtiened with heavier freight charges
but on the other hand the deprecated
Russian currency and the state of the ex-
changes between that country and England