million bushels of wheat, whilst Illinois only produced 9,500,000 bushels. In 1860, however, Illinois produced no less than 23,000,000 bushels, or more wheat than the States of Pennsylvania and New York put together.

As wheat-producing countries, the Western States made, indeed, the most remarkable progress during that decade. What can be more wonderful than the details shown in the following table :—

WHEAT PRODUce of WesteRN STATES (in Bushels).

In 1850, the ten States classed as Western States, with a population of 6,370,000, produced 46 million bushels, or 7 to each inhabitant: in 1860, with a population of 10,219,000, they produced 102 million bushels, or 10 to each inhabitant. The increase of produce, therefore, largely exceeded the increase of population, though the population had increased more than 50 per cent. We shall see hereafter, that greatly as the means of transport had increased, those facilities were far from keeping pace with the increase of production, and the consequent requirements of the country.

The prices obtained for corn by the wheat-growers in the Western States materially depend upon the demand for corn in the European markets. An unfavourable crop in Europe naturally occasions a rise in price in America. Prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, complaints were beginning to be made that the growth of wheat was comparatively unremunerative: but the large demand occasioned by the War, and the high prices consequent thereon, naturally lessened those complaints. In point of fact, the Western farmer has been receiving prices for his produce, during the last few years, which he cannot expect to be wholly maintained, now that the War has ceased, and that the country is about to return to specie payments. It was the same, it will be recollected, with our own agriculturists, who revelled in high prices during the war at the early part of the present century, and made extraordinary profits until the introduction of Sir Robert Peel's Currency Act of 1819 put an end to the inflated currency previously existing.

But there is one circumstance in favour of the Western farmer. Improved railway communications will greatly reduce the rates of freight for his produce, and he will, probably, receive net prices in gold equal to what he has lately received in paper; the saving in freights counterbalancing the depreciation of prices in the Eastern markets.

It is a favourable feature, moreover, for the Western farmer, that whilst his own produce increases so far above the ratio of his home population, the reverse is the case many of the Middle and Eastern States. New England

in

is becoming almost entirely dependent upon the Western States for breadstuffs; and the Middle States (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware) produced only 30 million bushels of wheat in 1860, to 35 millions produced in 1850, although the population of those States had increased nearly two millions in the interval. The decline in the wheat-production of these States is to be attributed primarily to the employment of portions of the population and the use of portions of the soil to greater profit. There can be no doubt that with a rapidly increasing population, employed in the Eastern and Middle States in more profitable occupations than wheatgrowing, the demand for corn from the Western States will continue to increase, and thereby prices will be assisted.

The extent to which the population relies upon the Western States for wheat can be best shown by the statistics of shipments of grain from the West. Let us take Chicago: which is now one of the greatest grain markets in the world. Prior to 1838, only 17 years ago, there was no shipment of corn from Chicago. In that year 78 bushels of wheat were exported from that town. The trade has increased as follows:

The largest proportion of this enormous movement of wheat was for the accommodation and supply of the consumers in the Eastern and Middle States. The quantity of wheat destined for export mainly depends, as before observed, upon the character of the crops in Europe, and the consequent condition of the European Markets. During the period when famine prevailed in Ireland, the quantity of wheat shipped from Chicago was even greater than it was six or seven years afterwards. In 1859, however, the total shipment of wheat to Great Britain only amounted to 295,248 bushels. In 1860, it rose to nearly 12,000,000 bushels and in 1861 and 1862, to 20,061,000 and 29,798,000 bushels respectively, falling in 1863 to 16,000,000 bushels.

The Superintendent of the Census of 1860, in his able papers upon the agriculture of the country, discusses the question "Whether the Western States are capable of supplying the increased demand and growing deficiency of the New England and Middle States, besides supplying the rapidly increasing home demand, and have a surplus to export to foreign countries." He appears to arrive at a conclusion that they cannot: but in this I must venture entirely to differ from him. From all that I observed in the United States, and from the statistics and accounts before me, I believe the supply of wheat to be obtained from the Western States to be absolutely unlimited. I believe that those States will always be able to produce more than sufficient for every home demand, and will always have a surplus to export.

In such case, the price which rules for wheat in Europe

must materially affect the price of the whole of the American markets, and thus wheat will continue to be grown at a profit in the Western States, which it certainly would not were it to be solely governed by the home demand. The dearest market in the world, wherever it may be, must rule the prices of the markets generally; and the market which through facility of communication is nearest to that which is the dearest, will reap the earliest advantage, whilst that which is most distant will have to struggle, in the competition, weighted with the cost of freight.

And this leads to the conclusion that there is nothing so desirable for the interests of the great West as to obtain every possible facility for reaching the European markets. The great element of the cost of everything is cost of transport; and although it may be said that the cost of transport must eventually fall on the consumer, yet it is obvious that it must affect the producer also, for if the prime cost of the article and the cost of transport put together should exceed the value of the article in the market in which it is delivered, it is obvious that the shipment becomes unprofitable, and that the demand for it abates, and ultimately ceases.

Let the Western States, however, have the freest and fullest access to the European markets, which means the lowest possible price for carriage, together with absolute certainty of speedy transport, and I believe they will be able to grow their wheat at a profit, and that the production of it will, in consequence, be so much stimulated that the supply will be practically unlimited.