Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1890-06-21

would have on the price of corn. 1t
is true that corn fields can be CONVEX
ted into wheat fields, and that such
conversion would aid materially in
advancing the value of corn; yet af-
ter devoting even three or four mill
lion acres of corn lands to wheat
growing there wGuld still be a yearly
deficit in the worlds. supply Of
wheat. The price of wheat will con-
tinue high, we shall be short of corn
and meat, and high as wheat may be
corn growing will be, relatively,
more profitable, and when this occurs
we shall find the land again revert
ing to corn growing. Corn is the
sheet anchor of American agricul-
ture, and without abundant supplies
of that grain it will be impracticable
to supply the ever increasing demand
for meats. While we have recently
had an enormous surplus of corn re-
sulting from two crops much above
the average in acreage yield, we
have but little new land that is suit
able for or can be devoted to corn
culture, and the annual increase Of
population is such as to require the
addition yearly of more than 100000
, acres to the corn fields.
Corn we must and will have, even
: if the European cries for bread, and
while we might, for the next year or
two, do with less corn land, we shall
soon be converting such fields as now
supply the eXportable wheat to the
growth of the corn required at home.
BY the time the next corn crop is
marketable, we shall require the full
product (corn) of about 100000
: acres, and shall have the product of
: 7S,5OO,O 900, and in the event the yield
! proves a short one, shall need it all,
and in one or two years at most pop
ulation will have overtakep the corn
= product, and will then soon outrun
f it, necessitating the diversion OF
. much wheat land to corn-growing.
All this follows from the (practical)
=. exhaustion of the arabic lands. The
Fl. believer in cheap wheat probably
forgets that but 50 per cent. of farm
: areas, (for the whole country can be
? devoted to the growth of staple
e crops, but such is the fact also that
u at this time less than SO per cent. is
: so employed, and that of the entire
e cultivated area Sc per cent. is en-
0 ployed'in growing corn, wheat, hay
oats and cotton, and that we are moi
e likely to have of corn, hay or oats
more than enough to meet home re-
!. quirements after 1892; hence no por
ton of the area now employed ir
j. producing these staples can long BIZ
h used to produce wheat.
q The American farmer can get or
+ with less wheat, but without ar
:. abundance of corn he cannot NEE
O public expectation in the shape O
G beef, pork, mutton, and that bever
age which may fail to cheer, but il
p sure to inebriate; hence the corr
). field is ultimately certain to grow il
% breadth at the expense of the whea
field, although the exact reverse may
be the case for one Or two years.
In Canada, including the Canadian
Il Northwest, wheat production doe
,, not increase any faster than tn,
- home requirement, and is not like),
40 to, the wheat area being a Limited
70 one, and the best portion covered
o. with an immense forest growth
h Canadian wheat exports are not in
\, creasing, and the entire Canadian
+. product is less than that of any on
,o of several of our States.
- INDIA-AUSTRALAS AMER
ICA.
- "The BEARS" in order to affect pr
o. ces, have held up India as grea
wheat "bugaboo," bat the facts ar
VI that India has not, in ten years, in
~ creased the acreage or product, nc
20 have the Indian exports increase
90 since 1882, while the cotton fields al
v yearly enroaching upon the whes
~ area; cotton-growing, as in this cOur
10 try, being, relatively more profitable
10 and as wheat advances in price an
tends to absob more land, so cotto
= will advance, as India and AmeriC
10 furnish nearly all the cotton of cen
-, merce. We should remember thu
- India is densely populated, and thE
is the land was, practically, all occupie
m many centuries before the discover
~ of America, and that with the peaC
DC which reigns under British rule, POI
N ulation is increasing greatly-quit
as rapidly as does food production