The Greatest Crop In The World
A question widely discusscd involves the relativa valué of the wheat, cotton. tea and hay crups of theworl !. Which of these products involves I'.e greatest amount of the world's cap1 al Y It is said by the Ilay Reporter that hay leads the rest, and the items that enter into the account as stated are somewhat startling. Cotton and tea are loc il crops, while hay is prodr ed everywhere the world over, and t e hay erop greatly outweighs either of the other two. The aggregate reporte I valué of ali farra producís in TIn ted States for 1870 was #2,447,538 - i.butasthis includes additions to stocks, "betterments," etc, it was probably too high then, but the census of 1SS0 will no doubt show even larger figures. Xow the hay erop for 1870 - that is, the grasa dried and cured for use or sold - is reported at over 27,00o,000 tons. Thia, at half the selling pi re in the large ciües, would amount te 405,000,000, and is f ar greater than ilie aggregate home value oi the cotin erop or any other erop. But the "i ured" hay is but a portion of the grass erop. The oi lier portion is used on the ground. and it requires considerable calcula; i uns, to get tl i 1 1 i ' l TT'iï'ïllii C! f l ■ , ' i ! ] Ai si 11" 4"lï hl Liiü vtiiuti au useu, e'. ,.;i in me roiighest way. In the flrst lace, live stock, including horned ca Ule, horses, sheep, swine, etc, to the ilue of $1,525,000,000, werefedfrom tthatyear. Averaging the lives of these at flve years, we have one-fif th of t hat sum as representing the grasa fel to them in 1870, viz., $305,000,000; i;-xt, we flnd the value of animáis sla;f!itered for food in that year to be $: 09,000,000, and as this is an annual product, the whole of it will for the present be credited to the rass erop; next, we lind that the butter erop of 1870 was 514,000,000 pounds, whic i, at the low average of twenty-ftve cents, amounts to $128,000,000, and this goes to the credit of grass; next, we have 235,000,000 gallons of milk, whicli, averaged at the low estímate of ten cents per gallon, adds $25,001,000 more to the credit of the grass erop; then we have 100,000,000 pounds of wool at twenty-five cents a poun-l, adding $25,000,000 more, and, flnaily, 53,000,000 pounds of cheese at ten cents, adding over $5,000 10 to the total of these credits to the grass erop of 1870, wfaich aggregates $887,000,000. Now, let us add the value of the "hav" erop as givenabove vis., $405,000,000,-and w e have a grand total for "hay 'r and tho producís of grass consumed on the gruundamounting to $1,292,000,000. ïhis is, of course subject to deduction, as the meat, butter, milk, du esa and woolproducing animáis consume other food besides grass and hay. 'j'o make ampie allowance for this, v e deduct the entire value of the corn :nd oat crops of 1870, estimated at $270,000,000, and this leaves a remainder ( I' $1,082,000,000 to be credited to the liay and grass erop of that ye;ir, when the reported aggregate of all farm pro 'mets was f2,447,528,659. If our ehtimates make even the roughest approach to accuracy, the value of that er p was twofifths of the aggregati value of all farm products, and heuct wemayinfer that two flfths of th ( - pital then invested in agricultural ursuits was devoted to the grass erop, and this in the United States equals { n round numbers) $4,575,000,000. Krom these figures the deduction is palpable that King Cotton is unerowned and dethroned. Mr. William N. Arinstrong, the Attorney-Geueral oL King Kalakaua gives a flat eontradiction to the stories that the King is going about the worlé to fina a market for the Sandwicl Islands, or that he lias irranged to sel them to China under tbe sanction of a fraudulently importad ( hiñese vote. H appears that he has no constitutiona authority to do anyth ug of the kind and indeed any public st will see, whei the thing is fairly put Uefore hiui, tha1 the Sandwich Islai; Is constitutioi would be a queer sorl jf document il Jt re.-illy permitted su h transactions Mr. Annstrong very j tstly says thai the King has no more i ight to sell hit. kingdom than Preside. it Garfleld would have to sell the Unito! States. It waa probably owing to that blind populai prejudice and auspicio i which even the most innocent kings canuot alvvays avoid, that the design f putting the Sandwich Islands on ; !ie market was attributed to Kalak.ma. ïhe l'act really is that the King started out on hia travels for jus t ;' ie same reasons that plain citizens gcuerally do. His reading and experience luidtaught hini that there were other ;:o'jntries in the world besidej the S.-.idwich Islands, and these he desired ti i see, to observe the. manners and cus! 1 1 as of their inhabitants, and probab y also to study the different methods C "running" the various government I machines by which the different co;;ntries are made happy and proaperous. It appears that emigranta are wanted in the islands, but Portuguese aio preferred to Chinese. According to Mx. Armstrong, the King has i vd a "good time generally," the other ' ings making it pleasant for him ■whei e er he went. Au old man, with ;: Uead as destitute of hair as a watc:mlon, entered an Austin avenue tliiir store and told the cleik he wanted a bottle of hair restorer. "Whafc bind )f hair resfcorer doyou prefer?" "I ri kon l'll have to take a bottle of red hair restorer. That was the color of :ny hair when I was a boy. - Tema 8ftiñgs.
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Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat