One word as to the prospects of the British farmer. We know from undoubted authority that in many parts of the United States, for example Ottawa, excellent land may be purchased for £1 an acre, broken up for 7s., burdened by no poor nor county rates, and unconscious of the presence of the tax-gatherer. Land such as this can, indeed, afford to produce corn at an almost nominal price--ballast for the ships that shall bring back the overweighted and ruined yeomen and peasants of England to New York and New Orleans! But, vast as the immigration has been, the production of food has greatly outstripped it; and as fresh tracts of virgin land are, year by year, brought into cultivation, and internal communications opened or improved, we see no reason whatever to believe that the export of grain to England will diminish, or the price of that grain be enhanced. Let our readers bear in mind the wonderful development of the mining and manufacturing resources of America, to which we have just directed their attention, and then see how, in spite of, or far rather concurrently with that, the production of food also increased. We again quote from _The Harmony of Interests_. How great was the increase may be seen by the following comparison of the returns under the census of 1840, and the Patent Office Estimates for 1847:-- Wheat Barley Oats 1840 84,823,000 4,161,000 123,071,000 1847 114,245,000 5,649,000 167,867,000 ----------- --------- ----------- Increase 29,422,000 1,488,000 44,797,000 Rye Buckwheat Indian Corn TOTALS 1840 18,645,000 7,291,000 377,531,000 615,522,000 1847 29,222,000 11,673,000 539,350,000 867,826,000 ---------- ---------- ----------- ----------- Increase 10,577,000 4,382,000 161,819,000 252,304,000 Showing an increase of not less than 40 per cent in 7 years, during which the population only advanced 23 per cent.