STATISTICS OF BRAZORIA COUNTY. 325 creeks or small rivers emptying into the Brazos, are the "Limestone fork," "the Salt fork," the "Sulphur fork," and the "Alum fork." By the way, in the summer of 1844, after a freshet in the river which had partially subsided, the water from being very red and muddy became suddenly clear; the impurities were deposited at the bottom, and fish could be distinctly seen at the depth of over ten feet. The phenomenon created some alarm, and was only explained on the supposition that there was a rise in the "Alum fork" branch; at least we were all content to attribute it to that cause. But, sir, I am traveling beyond my limits. I set out with the intention of publishing in your valuable periodical the statistics of Brazoria county; I am unable fully to complete my design. The following statement (though correct as far as it goes, and taken from the books of the assessor) is still incomplete, as he has not yet finished his labors. The present flattering appearance of the crops warrants the following calculation as to the production; the price, of course, may vary with the fluctuations of trade : 66 2,600 acres in cane, producing 1,500 lbs. sugar per acre, at 6 cts. per lb.*. $234,000 7,054 " in cotton, 500 lbs. ginned cotton per acre, at 10 cts... 352,700 40 bushels per acre, at 40 cts. per bu... in sweet potatoes, pro. 300 bu. per acre, at 25 cts. per bu. 4.795 320 in corn 76,720 23,000 $686,420 This exhibit does not include Irish potatoes, peas, beans, rice, millet, fodder, oats, and tobacco, all of which are cultivated to some extent. These items, with the molasses from the sugar crop, would swell the aggregate production of the county to at least $750,000. If there is another county in the United States of equal population whose strictly agricultural statistics present so fair a showing, we waive our claim to the Banner without a murmur. * A friend writes us from Texas a few weeks ago: "The crops of cotton, sugar, and grain are No. 1. In the sugar district, that is, the coast country, they will make 3,000 hogsheads of sugar." Hurrah for Texas! Art. VI.-PROGRESS OF AMERICAN AND FOREIGN COMMERCE. AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURE.-No. II. RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR 1846-47-REVULSIONS IN ENGLAND— BRITISH CORN TRADE-AGRICULTURE OF GREAT BRITAIN-PROSPECTS OF FUTURE CROPS-FOOD ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPEPOTATO YIELD-HARVESTS-BRITISH PRODUCE MARKET-MONEY MARKET OF EUROPE-COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES, 1846-47 -EXCHANGES-AMERICAN FINANCES-AMERICAN PRODUCE MARKET-UNITED STATES EXPORTS, IMPORTS AND DUTIES. THE year which has elapsed has been fraught with events of the highest interest to the commercial world, and has afforded singular evidence of the strength and independence of the position occupied by the United States, as compared with that of Great Britain. That country from a condition of great apparent prosperity in the summer of 1816, has been in a few short months plunged in an extremity of distress, that for a time threatened even the stability of the existing social order of the empire. The fact that the leading commercial nation of the world is exposed to such sudden transition and awful reverses, no matter what may be the immediate cause, while the United States has, since the general explosions of the paper system in 1837, recovered its elasticity and steadily progressed in a prosperity which it is not easy to shake, affords evidence of vital decay in the commercial affairs of the Empire. In the summer of 1846, England was rich in the precious metals to an unexampled extent, her available capital, as represented in stocks of all descriptions of goods and produce, larger than ever before-provisions abundant and cheap, and the people well employed and prosperous. In a few short months the inhabitants of the islands were starving by thousands, the corn laws and navigation act, which had been undisturbed for nearly two centuries, were, in respect to them, repealed; stocks of goods had become nearly exhausted, exchanges were against England, half the bullion gone from the country, her merchant princes failing by scores, the rate of interest advanced to a point never reached since the reign of Queen Anne, and the very solvency of the government apparently at stake. This terrible revulsion is ascribed to many causes, the chief of which are, the failure of the crops, the railroad expenditures, and the action of the new bank charter bill. There is no doubt but the first two of these are main causes of the disastrous revulsion which we have witnessed, and as far as the insufficiency of the crops goes, is not only an incurable one, but one which recurs with increasing frequency and severity, and which must annually be of greater importance in its effects. It was not until toward the close of the last century that Great Britain ceased to be an exporter of grain, and not until after the close of the American Revolution did the importation exceed the exports to any serious amount. The events of the French war doubtless interfered to a considerable extent with her agriculture. The years 1800 and 1801 were of deficient harvest, and the first in England's history of large importations of breadstuffs. In these two years the harvests were short, and it was found that the population being 10,472,048, a bad harvest was COURSE OF BRITISH TRADE. 327 insufficient to feed it without an importation of 2,409,445 qrs. in each year. Ireland, at that time, had not begun to yield supplies; but the importation commenced with the union, and has gradually progressed, until, since 1828, about 3,000,000 qrs. per annum have been derived from Ireland, Since then, at each recurrence of a bad harvest the demands for foreign supplies have been more extensive, the wants of the population encroaching upon the capacity of the islands to feed them, until even in years of good harvests they do not yield sufficient without foreign aid, and every succeeding variation from the utmost capacity of the soil to produce, is productive of greater distress. The year 1816 was one of short harvest, and the distress was very great. From that time to the present England has never ceased to import largely. IMPORT OF WHEAT AND WHEAT FLOUR INTO GREAT BRITAIN, NATURE OF HARVEST, BULLION IN BANK, AND POPULATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 1816......scarcity Population. .20,362,511 .20,635,870 . 20,912,899 Imported-qrs. Price of wheat. Bullion in Bank. .21,193.548 .21,482,931 21.776.265 22,073,604 22,375,003 897,127. .58s. 8d..... 2,459,510. 22.680,518 .1,410.300....60s. 5d. 10,347.290. 23,304,120 6,835,020. 23,622,322 .2,205,751 .64s. 3d. This table embraces the wheat and wheat flour only, imported from foreign countries, and taken into the consumption of Great Britain in the thirty-two years, during which 9,000,000 people have been added to the population. Since 1839, the wheat harvest has been good, and was so last year. It will be observed, that for the ten years ending with 1830, during which some 3,000,000 were added to the number of the inhabitants, that the increase of food produced in the islands must have been very great; inasmuch as that the impor 46s. 2d. 6,781,000. 25 974,705 26,129,371 26,350,170 .26,443,495 26,711,694 27.005,521 27.602.908 .27,906.539 28,213,510 28,523,858 tation was not large, and prices not high. During the bad harvests of 1829-30-31, the quantity of food per annum imported was immense; but, from 1832 up to 1838, the quantity imported was small, showing a great abundance of home grown corn. A considerable portion of the increase was derived from Ireland, and from the improved system of culture, notwithstanding the low prices that ruled in those years. Since the harvest of 1837 failed, the importations have been large, notwithstanding, that since 1839 the English wheat harvests were good. Now, it is apparent that the production of grain must have been very extensive to meet this large increase of demand through the increased numbers of the population, or that some other article of food has entered more extensively into the consumption of the working many. In M'Culloch's statistic account of the empire, the quantity of land in the United Kingdom is given as follows: England. Scotland. Ireland. Total acres. Arable and gardens........ acres 11,143,370..2,553,725..8.000,000...21,697 095 Meadows, pastures, and marshes..17,605,630..2,489,725..6,603,000...26,698,355 Total acres.... .28,749,000..5,043,450 14,603,000...48,395,450 These lands are estimated to be distributed in agriculture, as follows: Ireland. Total. Prod. per acre. Yield. England. Scotland. Wheat ..3,800,000.. 220,000.. 500,000..4,520,000..26 bu... 117,520 000 Barley and rye... 900,000.. 280,000.. 200,000..1,380,000..32 bu... 44,160,000 Oats and Beans..3,000,000. 1,375,000..1,100,000..5,475 000..64 bu...350,400,000 Potatoes & turnips 1,200,000.. 200,000..2,000,000..3,400,000..9 tons.. 30,600,000 Now, it is evident, that if this product was sufficient for 20,912,899 persons in 1821, it could not have been sufficient for 28,523,858 in 1847, without a very material increase in breadth of land, and improvement in agriculture; both of these have taken place to some extent, and have so far increased supply, that when all the crops are good as in 1844, but little wheat is needed from abroad. The increase of the culture of wheat is, however, by no means equal to the increased consumption of food, the demand for which must at least have kept pace with the swelling numbers of the people, and also by an increased consumption per head. A considerable increase took place in the supply of grain from Ireland, that is to say, in 1820, 1,415,000 qrs. mostly oats, were received from that quarter, and was increased to 2,855,000 qrs. in 1842. The principal means by which the supply of wheat has been eked out, has been in the increased use of potatoes and coarser food by the people. Owing to the superior yield of potatoes, it is known that one acre planted with them will support as many persons as three acres planted with wheat, or as four planted with oats. Therefore, if all the arable land being planted with wheat, supported a certain number, say 20,000,000, it would, if all planted with potatoes support 60,000,000, and in that proportion, according to the land planted with potatoes. Exactly in this proportion, also, would the distress produced by a failure of potatoes be increased, and on the abandonment of that crop, the difficulty of returning to grain be enhanced. When wheat is high its consumption will be diminished, and potatoes and coarse grains substituted. As every acre cultivated with potatoes will yield BREADSTUFFS IN ENGLAND. 329 three times the human food that can be derived from one planted with wheat or oats, the dependence upon that crop has become very great, and the increase of its culture has enabled the manufacturing population to swell in numbers, where, had they been confined to wheat, the same land would have sufficed for one-third only of the people actually subsisted. During the years 1845-6, the potatoes and coarse grains of England failed, and the wheat crop was good. The great revulsion of the year 1839, was produced by the shortness of the wheat crop-the coarse grains not being so much affected. The consumption of the different kinds of imported grain was in each of those years as follows: FLOUR AND GRAIN IMPORTED INTO ENGLAND. The whole consumption of 1839 was, it appears, equal to 4,831,947 qrs., and of 1846–7, 8,435,730 qrs. The importation of 1839, supplied the actual wants of the people, while those of 1846-7 did not prevent famine to an alarming extent. This affords singular evidence of the degree in which potatoes and the coarse grains enter into the consumption of the people. If we compare prices of 1839 with those of May, 1847, we observe that a large foreign supply failed to depress them. 1839.. 1847.. Wheat. Barley. 70s. 8d.....39s. 6d.. .102s. 5d.....56s. 5d.. Oats. Beans. Peas. Rye. 25s. 11d.. .42s. Od.. 41s. 3d.....41s. 2d. .36s. 3d.. .73s. 11d.....59s. 10d.....59s. 3d. With a foreign supply nearly doubled, the prices remained 50 per cent. higher than in 1839. These are the terrible results of a failure of the potato crop, when the wheat harvest was good. The year 1839 was one of the highest prices and most disastrous results since the year 1819, and in seven years has recurred a failure of still greater magnitude. The population has increased in that time over 2,000,000 in number, and their ability to consume more food per head was enhanced in 1846-7, through the enormous railroad expenditure; yet the probability is that they did not eat more than they required. The effect of the potato failure has been to diminish, if not nearly destroy, confidence in that root; so much so, that it has been calculated that the planting of the present year has been 1,006,663 acres, instead of 3,400,000 acres, the usual quantity. The 2,400,000 acres thus changed from potatoes to other food, will support only one-third the number of people that they did under potatoes-that is to say, for example, if planted with potatoes they supported 12,000,000 people, they will sustain under other crops but 4,000,000; or in other words, to produce the same quantity of human food obtained from 2,400,000 acres |