Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1880-08-13
WEEKLY CHRONICLE.
Food as Wealth.

Agriculture was the first business
of man, and must of necessity con-
tinue to be the employmentof the
masses, as long as the earth will en-
dure. The most pressing care of all
is to provide for the food wants of
the body, and the labor to satisfy
these is as obligatory under the equa-
tor as in the frozen regions near the
north pole.
Man is here by necessity forced to
till the soil, to aid the earth by his
skill, and thus happily from her pro-
duce enough food for himself, the cul-
tivator, and all those who are Deepen
dent upon him for their daily life.
Without the farmer, all other indus
tries would soon cease; the mills
would be idle, the railway trains
would block the useless depots, ships
would rot at their wharves, and all
the familiar sounds of the tools now
musical in our ears, and tie invigora-
ting hum of the busy city, would give
place to a despairing, unanswered cry
for bread
Wealth is nothing but food, and the
means of procuring it, excepting per-
haps in those cool climates like ours
wheresome shelter from the weather,
either of clothing or Of houses, is de-
manded. 1t has been written that
paper money is not wealth; neither
are diamonds, although selling for
millions; but that gold only is real
wealth. However opinions may vary
each of these is as much wealth as the
other, and none of them is OF any
value, except some one, not their
owner, has food enough aid to spare
and is willing to exchange some Of it
for one OF these articles.
1t is again written, and with an
apparent show of reason, that as we
may have shipped across the ocean
during the past year $300,0O0,0OO
worth Of farm produce and that we
have five times that amount left, that
our home reserve is worth only ST.
| 5OO,000,000. Can this be true? Let
hungry Europe offer again to buy oil
rs the same quantity of grain, beef
and pork we have just sold her !;
would $5OO,0O,O00 buy itP We think
not and there is not enough gold
silver and precious stones in the
world to to take from US our entire
supplyTof food product. Gold may be
dispensed with; food can not. Colo
can never measure the value of oul
farm produce, but merely regulate:
thevalue of of our surplus we will
not sell our life, and the life of the
nation is it's food, and the nation
is the farmer.
The lands cultivated one hundred
years ago can not be made to supply
enough for the surrounding inhabi.
tants, anu an unseen, but not unfelt
meridian divides the land Of sea rcity
upon the east from the land of plenty
upon the west. This line slowly but
surely travels westward, and as the
center Of our population moves, and
is still every year drawing nearer t.
the setting sun. As a country We
have, and no doubt shall for many
years continue to have, large an
nual harvest of all food products
enough and to spare; but surely as
the sun moves westward every day
can we see the time in the future
when many Of our most fertile States
now furnishing to US here and the
people Of Europe millions of bushel:
of the most nourishing grains, viii
silently enroll themselves with those
who are now compelled to go down tt
Egypt to buy corn i RobtJ. Dodge
of the American Institute.