The daily gazette. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1874-1883, 1881-09-07
British and American AgricuIture.

Br1ttsh anu American Agriculture.
The uncertainty attending the yield
Of British harvests, which have In late
years felt SO disastrously the climatic
eccentricities of The British Islands, is
again provoking English economists
to inquire whether it Is worth while to
keep up the agricultural contest with
American competition. "The truth
is" says the London Times, sthat the
future relations between the American
producer and ourselves form q prob.
lem that deserves closest consideration
but for the solution of which the data
do not at present exist" This was
written In the third week of the past
month, before the heavy rains had 80
impaired the British crops,in some dis
tricts. Although, despite these un.
welcome rains, the English farmer on
the average will reap q richer grain
harvest than he has done tor several
years, the increasingly precarious ma
ture of bis labor is disquieting.
"Whether the competition is too great
or whether homegrown corn is DOOM
ed, or not," the Times admits can be
decided only by "a cycle of favorable
seasons" which may never come to
the United Kingdom but it contends
that Sat present the victory of The
competitor is by no means assured. Z"
We are far from sharing the views of
our own optimists, who can see only a
gilded future for American agricul..
ture and consequent returns IN an un-
checked, ever widening and deepening
PactOius-like stream of wealth. With
a mIaratively virgin soil west of the
Mississippi and an agricultural area as
yet but half developed 1t is not vision
ary to anticipate as years roll on an
enormous increase of our grain pro-
duciion. But that increase will not be
realized by gigantic strides, the ane-
males of climate in each successive
season controlling results. II is there.
fore plausible reasoning, as the London
Times puts 1t, thal''in point of fact the
American crop is as subject as our
own to the weather and the weather il
quite as likely to be below the average
AS above it," Nothing, however, IL
more improbable than that our grain
belt is liable to blightiDg aud disas
trous seasons 30 frequently as the
grain fields of the British Islands, ly-
ing, as the latter do, near the northern
verge Of wheat production and exposed
to the d. solating storms of the edja-
cent ocean.
But the shortage of our wheat crops
this year is warning 10 us to accept
the reasoning of our transatlantic
rivals in its full force. For mapy years
we have depended mainly on the grain
crops for the surplus wealth of the ma.
tion, legislation having been shaped
chiefly in the interest of agriculture
and home manufacturers, to the COM
parative exclusion of our ocean com
merce--a vast resoHrce-which, In ar
interminable succession of bad har.
vests, England would and sufficient te
sustain her prosperity. When, only
last fall, the country was appealed to
to devise some measures which would
favor the restoration of the American
flag on the ocean and revise our van.
ishing mercantile marine, the tacit re-
sponse was that we had no need to
reap the golden harvests of the ocean
carrying trade while the granaries Of
the land were bursting with the new
grain crops. The short grain yield Of
this year will perhaps be a blessing in
disguise if it arouses the nation from
this delusion and stimulates Congress
to healthy legislation looking to the
relief and resuscitation oil American
shipping and commerce on the high
seas. With this additional source oi
the country's revenues opened up once
more an occasional short grain croE
would scarcely be felt.-N. Y. Her.
nJ1