Thus will it appear how small a portion of this great transit of agricultural wealth consists of corn, and how little New York can expect from all of those immense grain growing regions which we have named, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana, when a surplus of it is demanded. From these sources, and in that direction our expectations must be very limited, since giving 6,000,000 bushels of wheat, flour included, in one year, they only gave the insignificant quantity of much less than 287,000 bushels of corn, that amount including movements upon all the canals. To extend the table so as to embrace a series of past years, including those when prices reached their highest limits, will perhaps afford additional illustration of what We have not been able to obtain any very definite information in relation to Pennsylvania, but what we have is sufficient to show that causes have been and are at work there tending to produce a considerable increase of consumption. A correspondent at Philadelphia, extensively acquainted with this branch of trade in that State, Col. C. G. Childs of the Commercial List, gives us the following, which we are satisfied may be relied upon: "A large quantity of corn is used for distillation in this city and suburbs; and there will be an increased quantity of corn consumed in consequence of the scarcity of rye-the price of that article being higher than usual. The stocks in distillers' hands are light. Easton, sixty miles up the Delaware river, has become a great place for distilling. In three days this month (March), we received 1,700 barrels and 90 hogsheads of whiskey from that place. There has no doubt been an increased consumption of Indian corn, arising from the deficient crops of hay and a considerably protracted winter. The stock of Indian corn in the city is believed to be as small, if not smaller than usual, at the opening of the navigation, and shippers have had already to supply a portion of their wants from Delaware." The increasing manufacturing establishments, the iron works and coal regions of Pennsylvania, would strengthen still more these statements, by showing an increased consumption from that quarter, however great the usual consumption may be. From Delaware, according to the same correspondent, Philadelphia, as well as New York and Boston, may expect "rather more corn this spring than last, but from present appearances there will be an increased quantity of it converted into meal for foreign export." Maryland and New Jersey present nothing very striking in our From the best sources of information-the Baltimore Price Current among others-we glean that receipts at Baltimore have been light this season, and, in all probability, will vary little from usual seasons. The crop of New Jersey is an average one, and her exports much about the same. case. North Carolina, it is well understood, has always been, and is still, a great corn-growing State. Let us see what must be expected from North Carolina for the past year. Our information is sufficiently PRODUCTION OF CORN IN THE UNITED STATES. 481 The crop full. The crop would appear to have been a good one. in Carolina is a large one," says a writer whose letter is before us, "and the amount shipped to this port (Norfolk) from thence, will be as large as that of the year 1845, although we incline to the belief that the aggregate amount to be received here will be less than the amount received during that year, owing to the fact that, in those portions of Eastern Virginia whence we have usually obtained shipments of this article, the supply is more restricted, and, indeed, insufficient for home consumption, and compelling them, to some extent at least, to look to this market for their prospective supplies." To set off against this favorable estimate, there is an item which does not appear to us to have excited sufficient attention. The production of naval stores in the old North State has received a new impetus of late, and the result for the past year has been, that labor and capital have been attracted from other quarters toward this, which must necessarily be followed by a decrease of the number of corngrowers, and an increase in the number of corn-consumers in that State. The Baltimore Commercial Journal of the 1st of March, remarking upon the turpentine region of North Carolina, says: "This part of the State has never, to our knowledge, been in so prosperous a condition as at present. Lands have risen two or three hundred per cent.; negroes have risen probably fifty per cent.; and labor is so profitable that the country is full of capital to make investments. At a late public sale in Wilmington of negroes, the average price paid for men, women, and children, is stated to have been $550. In the lower part of Bladen, hands are hired from $125 to $160. A gentleman who had gone to Wilmington to sell his turpentine, in pocketing $1,900, remarked that it was the produce of the labor of four hands. As a consequence of this state of things, and for the first time, probably, many persons from the upper counties are moving down. The tide of western emigration may be said to have ceased entirely." Another correspondent at Elizabeth City, North Carolina, after reviewing the agricultural prospects of the State, concludes with the remark: "I presume the quantity of corn in this State for export at this time, 1846, is less than in 1845, by at least one-fourth. About two-thirds of the exports are made in the first six months of each year, and the remainder during the other six months." Leaving the Eastern States, we now turn our attention to those westward of the mountains, commencing with Ohio. The crop, it is well understood, has not been good, particularly in the northern part of the State. Emigration to the State is continually advancing. In the receipts of New York we may be considered to have treated partially of its tributary, Ohio; but the following table will still be in place, and not without its importance: ARRIVALS OF GRAIN AT CLEVELAND BY WAY OF THE CANALS. "This displays," says a writer, "a great decline in the trade of Ohio on her main avenues communicating with the lakes, and corresponds with the decline in the tolls on all the public works of the On the Miami canal, at Cincinnati, the amount transported State." was, In addition to the diminished crop of Ohio, the remarks made in relation to Pennsylvania also hold good, viz.: that manufactures being on the increase, home consumption is necessarily so also. The State, as we have seen in another place, is a large and increasing producer of pork, and is also largely occupied in the distillation of various grains. In the New York Shipping List, of December 20, 1845, we find a notice of the canal commerce of Buffalo, in which it is stated that the receipts of barley at that place are forwarded on to Ohio; and we know, as intimated in another place, that grain is imported from Missouri in considerable quantities to supply the distilleries there. We should not be at all surprised, indeed, if instead of having a surplus Ohio actually becomes an importer, as she has been before, of small grains. Indiana and Illinois next present themselves. Of these States, also, we have in part treated when upon New York. Comparing the business of the "Wabash and Erie Canal," for the last year, with 1844, the receipts of corn are diminished, while other grains are greatly increased. Wheat ..... 1844. 1845. .422,098 bushels. 23,714 barrels. These States are increasing rapidly in population, and will be treated of more at large when we come to New Orleans. Whatever may be the surplus of Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas, it is now understood very generally, that, instigated by high prices and other causes consequent thereon, that surplus has almost entirely reached its market at this time; these States being situated more advantageously than those of the North-west, which must long await the opening of navigation. In fact, a highly intelligent gentleman, who has traveled largely in Tennessee, writes us from Nashville, under date 26th April: "Tennessee has shipped much more of corn this year than usual, and much more than she ought-being induced by high quotations in the earlier part of the season. Owing to the high price of pork, much more has been fed away than formerly. These causes have created a great scarcity throughout the State. In Nashville corn sells readily at $2 per barrel (five bushels), when formerly $1 50 was considered an exorbitant price. You may rely upon it, there will be no more shipped from this State this year.' The same remarks, in all probability, will apply to the other States above named. We may, therefore, postpone a consideration of their surplus until treating of New Orleans. We have been employed in exhibiting the condition and prospects of the corn-growing States the present season; let us now turn to the other side of the question, and look at those sections of the RECEIPTS OF CORN IN NEW ENGLAND. 483 country which constitute the corn imported, or rather, which provide the home market to their neighbors. We commence with New England, whose increasing and extraordinary enterprise, adapted to purposes of manufactures, creates for her immense resources, and enables her to hold out an alluring market for the produce of her sister States. A proper understanding and appreciation of this cannot but effect much toward allaying those feelings of jealousy and rivalship, which have sometimes displayed themselves between different sections of the country; and sure are we, that if correct statistical information were disseminated North, South, East and West, showing the mutual reliance and dependence of these great sections one upon the other, it would tend more to cement and bind them together in a common brotherhood, than all other influences whatever. Regarding it in this light, we shall dwell at some length upon the subject TABLE 1.-RECEIPTS OF CORN AT BOSTON.* 2,011,451 1,835,163 1,540,306 1,937,352 2,371,406 TABLE II.-IMPORTS OF GRAIN AT PROVIDENCE, R. 1., 1845. 3,300. 1,500. .... 24,161 46,153. 84,910. 8.004. 2,636. 110,322 808 1,192. 40. .... 1,000.. TABLE III.-IMPORTS INTO PORTLAND, MAINE. In 1837, Boston imported 1,735,436 bushels corn; in 1838, 1,574,038 bushels; in 1839, 1,607,492; and in 1840, 1,868,431 bushels. TABLE IV.-IMPORTS OF CORN INTO PORTSMOUTH, N. H. 1843...... 1846-1st quarter.... .104,000 bushels. ... 32,000 The New England States operate as a scale to regulate prices of corn, and indicate supplies diminished or increased in the country, being the largest purchasers of that staple. Boston in particular attracts the first regard of operators. By our first table it will be seen what proportion the city took from each of the corn growing districts in the past, and we have shown that with the exception of New Orleans, the present year, there is no likelihood of increased receipts from either of these sections. New Orleans has indeed up to this time furnished 300,000 bushels more than in the corresponding period of last year, and the result has been, that although prices have rated unusually high at Boston, and of consequence may be supposed to have attracted the utmost amount of imports, yet, in fact, the gross receipts have not been any greater, but rather less, nor are stocks there any larger (we are authorized, on high authority, to state, that they are much less) than in usual years; showing that the imports at Boston, from other sources than New Orleans, have fallen off. We shall see, too, that while an advance in the price of corn has not attracted additional export, a much smaller advance in flour has, as will appear by the following table. COMPARATIVE RECEIPTS AT BOSTON FROM 1ST SEPTEMBER TO MAY 1, 1845 AND 1846. PRICE OF CORN AND FLOUR AT BOSTON FOR SIX YEARS. RECEIPTS OF CORN AT BOSTON FROM JAN. 1 TO APRIL 1, 1846. The high prices of corn for the years just given, nearly equaling iu some of them the price of flour, instruct us how great the difficulties are of bringing supplies to bear upon the wants of a particular market, and keeping prices down in that market, to the average remuneration of labor in the country. The prices above, were to the producer equally as encouraging, and yielded to him equally as much as the late and present Liverpool quotations do, which quotations appear From September 1, 1844, to September 1, 1845, the total exports of Boston were 33,901; during the same period of time, her imports were 2,687,955, showing the magnitude of her consumption.--Boston Shipping List. |