The Labor Of Detaching
A Bushel Of Corn From The Hulls Or Cobs Is Considerable, As Is Also
The Task Of Carrying It To Market.
I have known potatoes in
Ireland so cheap that they would not pay for digging and carrying
away for purposes of sale.
There was then a glut of potatoes in
Ireland; and in the same way there was, in the autumn of 1861, a
glut of corn in the Western States. The best qualities would fetch
a price, though still a low price; but corn that was not of the
best quality was all but worthless. It did for fuel, and was
burned. The fact was that the produce had re-created itself
quicker than mankind had multiplied. The ingenuity of man had not
worked quick enough for its disposal. The earth had given forth
her increase so abundantly that the lap of created humanity could
not stretch itself to hold it. At Dixon, in 1861, corn cost four
pence a bushel. In Ireland, in 1848, it was sold for a penny a
pound, a pound being accounted sufficient to sustain life for a
day; and we all felt that at that price food was brought into the
country cheaper than it had ever been brought before.
Dixon is not a town of much apparent prosperity. It is one of
those places at which great beginnings have been made, but as to
which the deities presiding over new towns have not been
propitious. Much of it has been burned down, and more of it has
never been built up.
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