The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-09-10

600 bushels; Nebraska, 16,40O,OOO bushels;
Dakota, II, 900 bushels. These enormous
crops, raised on rich, fresh lands, largely by
the use OF improved machinery which assists
| to pillow and plant the fields, and cut, bind and
| thresh the grain, enabling three men to culti-
vate as many acres In our country as twelve
| men cultivate in England, France Or Ger
| many, are having effects In other lands than
our own. They make bread cheap Ia England,
and thereby break down the existing system
of British agriculture and even shake the an
| Client foundations OF the British land system
| upon which rests the fabric OF British power !;
they so threatened the prosperity OF German
| farmers as to make Ii necessary Tor the lmpe-
rial government to establish tariff on for
| egn grain for their protection; and they
make the price OF grain In France SO low
| as to cause discomfort among the French
| farmers, who, with all their frugallty, COM
plain that they cannot raise grain at Ameri-
| can prices. Thus, the extension OF our wheat
growing region during the. last twelve years,
and the remarkable application of labor
saving machinery to the production Of grain,
| while bringing about important notifications
in politics, transportation and industry in our
| own country, are having effects wide and
deep ia the civilized portions OF the Old
World.
French paper, In an attempt to reconcile
French farmers to the decreasing prices OF
grain caused by American competition, tells
! them that the Western farmers OF the United
States are drawing on the future by overtaxlng
4 the capacity of their soil; that they are ex-
hausting their lands by bearing away from
them the millions OF tons OF grain which they
part thereof to them; and that this process
must, IN the course. Of years, exhaust the
Western States, as those Of the East have
been exhausted. The French Minister of Com
merce, too, la an address to an audience OF
farmers told them that "the present eSagger-
| atea production of wheat and Indian corn in
| the fat Western States will not last forever"
These assertions are true. The present sys-
tenn OF grain raising Ia the West is a process
! Of gradual depletion; the land ID being bed
| to exhaustion. We are robbing the soil and
| the future generations into whose hands 1t
| must fall. But the evil Is irremediable, or
| rather unavoidable under existing conditions.
| Raising grain for q distant market Is all that
the Western settler can do even though he
knows it Is sapping the land he Gu tivates. He
owes debt on his farm, and he must draw
upon it heavily, for time, for the means OF
paying that debt. But the process will cease
after awhile, as the West becomes thickiy
populated and out of debt, and Its large farms
divided into smaller ones, less wasteful
system of agriculture will be adopted; rota-
ton OF crops, fertilizing and feeding o por-
restore the lost elements of fertility, and re-
pair the damage OF the present exhaustive
tillage.
"A new feature In London society Is the en-
ployment of paid amateur performers at pri
yate entertainments. ''You go to one house."
says monthly magazine, "and listen to
young man pleasantly warbliug on the piano
to hushed crowd, and your hostess tells you
in q whisper. that he Is very much In request,
and that she pays him ten guineas for his
three songs. The next evening you are at
dinner, and there, opposite you, is the young
man, whom Ia the simplicity of your heart
you regarded as an ordinary professional vo-
ealist, and you find that he is an officer re-
tired from service, and the nephew of a bishop.
At third house you meet a medieval design
er; at fourth comlc entertainer; at fifth,
a reader at d sixth, an amateur actor, and
so on-all young men OF irreproachable con-
nections, all In society, and all who receive