Deduct one-third for the supposed deficiency, and we have a total this year in round numbers of little more than 20,000,000 qrs. ; to this estimate, however, must be added whatever amount of grain has been imported from abroad; but it is believed that this resource will do little towards supplying the defi ciency. If the population of the United States be fourteen millions, as a late writer supposes, and the annual average consumption of each individual, young and old, be five bushels, as estimated in Great Britain, 8,750,000 qrs. of wheat would be required to feed them, and a greater quantity of Indian corn and rye substituted. Assuming the foregoing estimate as correct, the produce, it would appear, of the past season, is more than sufficient to supply the nation with bread. If the whole could, therefore, be distributed through the country in equal portions, according to the wants of each, this partial failure of the crop would occasion no suffering. But this distribution is impracticable, and it is obvious enough that the poverty, the idleness, the improvidence, and vicious habits of multitudes, must be severely punished by the difficulties of obtaining the necessaries of life. For it must be taken into account, that large quantities of grain are consumed in the distilleries, and four or five millions of bushels, probably equal to the foreign supply, manufactured into flour for the West Indies and South American markets. A rapid advance has been the natural consequence of the want of supply, flour at New York being noted at eleven dollars 75 cents to 12 dollars; wheat, 2 dollars 12 cents per bushel. At Baltimore, flour 10 dollars 75 cents; and wheat, 2 dollars 28 cents. At Philadelphia, flour 11 dollars; wheat 2 dollars 25 cents. On the influx of wheat and the opening of the inland navigation in spring prices receded, as might have been anticipated from the large quantities of grain directed from all parts of Europe to the same destination, and the quotations are now 2 dollars 50 cents to 3 dollars per barrel cheaper for flour, and 70 to 75 cents on the average per bushel lower for wheat. The causes assigned, however, in America for the depreciation are different to those which are currently believed to have operated disadvantageously on the Transatlantic markets. Previous to the demand becoming urgent from America, most of the wheat in bond in England had been warehoused for three or four years, and the quantity of really good quality was very limited. Most of the early arrivals in the United States were cargoes of wheat from London and Liverpool, and few, very few, proved perfectly sound, and the same fact is applicable to a large proportion of the heavy exportations which succeeded from the more Northern European parts out of and in the Baltic. Much of the wheat was taken by the American millers as it arrived, who had on hand native grown qualities, with which admixture they were enabled to manufacture a flour that was taken into general consumption. When the internal water communication closed for the season, and home samples could no longer be procured to mix with the foreign, the flour was made exclusively of the latter, which it has been found was not suited to the tastes of the American consumers, thougà sold at prices even much below that of the native fiour, and the disposal throughout the winter appears to have been on a comparatively limited scale. The favourable account sales of foreign wheat in the fall of the year produced larger exports from Europe, and the stocks, though they are now large at the leading ports in the United States, yet not one tenth of the bulk is in perfectly sound condition; nor does it seem likely that the millers around New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, will be able to obtain such a quantity of native sound wheat as would enable them to work up much of the foreign corn before another harvest. Thus the Americans are placed in the singular position of possessing in the three principal flour marts a considerable quantity of wheat to meet their emergencies, but which is almost unavailable, in consequence of the inferiority of its quality, and the millers deprived of the power of improving the manufactured article to any extent. Had the imports proved sound, there is little doubt the latter advices from America would have reported a very different state of the market to those received, as the cargoes would have been readily taken off at fair prices; but under the circumstances, it is to be feared that European exporters will now sustain serious losses on their shipments, as it is generally estimated that, calculating the freights and exorbitant charges, with duties no less than 1 dollar, 80 to 85 cents per bushel, on an average, will at present barely remunerate them for the speculation. In conclusion, we have extracted the following remarks from an intelligent correspondent, who, speaking of his countrymen who had imported on their own accounts, but who, by the bye, form a remarkably small proportion of the number of importers as compared with those encouraged to consign, says "Information of the state of our markets has already gone out that will stop further shipments from your side of the Atlantic ; and circumstances may arise that will induce the holders of foreign wheat, at any additionally material reduction, to take the benefit of the drawback, and reexport it to Europe. You had better let us starve for wheat bread than bring in unsound wheat." And by the last accounts from New York we find that the inferior wheats had become so great a drug, that large quantities were about to be reshipped to Europe. MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. I. Race Horses. It would be absurd to draw a comparison between the English race-horse in training, and the horse of the desert, "educated," as Mr Gibbon eloquently says of him, "in the tents among the children of the Arabs, with a tender familiarity, which trains him in the habits of gentleness and attachment." Nevertheless, we are inclined to believe that the tempers of many naturally quiet horses are made uncertain, and ofttimes decidedly vicious, by want of proper judgment, as well as good temper, in those also who have the management of them. Brutes, like men, demand a peculiar mode of treatment, when we require them to do their utmost for us; and it is certain that this principle holds good in regard to both, namely, that if general kindness gains its point, cruelty provokes resistance, and a proper degree of severity produces obedience. We often hear it asserted that the British thorough-bred horse has degenerated within the last few years, and is no longer the stout and long-enduring animal that he was in the bygone century, particularly during the last twenty years of it. We are inclined to believe that there is some truth in this. We do not think we have such good four mile horses, as they are termed, as formerly, which we consider easily ac counted for. They are not wanted, very few four-mile races being now run, even at Newmarket or the country, and, therefore, a different kind of racehorse is sought for. It may, however, be true, that the inducement to train colts and fillies, at a very early period of their lives, for these short races, has had an injurious effect on their stamina, and, consequently, on the stock bred from them. Formerly, a horse was wanted for a lifetime, now he is cut up in his youth to answer the purpose of perhaps but one day,-a system, we admit, quite at variance with the original object of horse-racing, which was intended to benefit the community, by being the means of producing, as well as displaying, the constitutional strength of the horse in its very highest perfection. Another cause may have operated in rendering thorough-bred horses less powerful than they were, or less capable of enduring severe fatigue. During the period of high weights and long courses, horses and mares were kept on a training until after they had arrived at the age of maturity, neither did they begin to work so soon. Whereas now, no sooner have they won, or run well for some of our great three-year-old stakes, than they are put into the stud to produce racing stock, which perhaps is to be used much in the same manner as they themselves have been used, or we should have rather said, abused. But to return to the alleged alteration for the worse in the British race-horse. We admit the fact, that he is not so good at high weight over the Beacon at Newmarket, or any other four-mile course, as his predecessors were, whose descent was closer than his to the blood of Herod and Eclipse, and the descendants of that cross, said to be the stoutest of any. Nevertheless, he is, in his present form, more generally adapted to the purposes to which the horse is applied. He has a shorter but more active stroke in his gallop than his predecessors had, which is more available to him in the short races of the present time, than the deep rate of four-milers of old times; and he is now required to start quickly, and to be on his legs, as the term is, in a few hundred yards; he is altogether a more lively, active animal than formerly, and as such, a useful animal for more ends than one. But as it is action, after all, that carries weight, the thorough-bred horses of this day are not deficient in that respect, unless undersized; and there are more thorough-bred hunters at this period, and have been more for the last thirty years, than we have ever known before. This improvement of action also qualifies the full-bred horse for the road, whereas, formerly not one in a hundred was fit to ride off turf. Indeed, daisy-cutters and thorough-bred horses were nearly synonymous terms; but at present a young lady on a bit of blood is an every-day sight; and a young gentleman on any thing else in the parks, or on his road to the hounds, is become rather a rare one. -Nimrod. II. The American Wolf.-Considerable numbers of this animal were seen on the narrow Isthmus of Boothia, where they arrive early in the spring to intercept the reindeer on their way to the north. None were killed by us during our late voyage, owing to their extreme wariness; but their tracks were occasionally seen during each of the winters. They are very troublesome to the Esquimaux, robbing their hoards, tearing the skin covering off their canoes, and killing their dogs. It is a remarkable circumstance, that a single wolf will go amongst any number of Esquimaux dogs, and carry off any one from amongst them without the others attempting to attack it. Such is their extreme fear of the wolf, that they tremble and howl whenever they are aware of its approach. The wolf will seldom attack a man, except when starving; but, if alone and unarmed, it will not care to get out of his way.Captain Ross. III. A New Manufacture.-A new manufacture has been introduced into the west of Scotland-the weaving of straw hats. The straw, instead of being plaited by the hand, is woven with the loom, the warp employed being a slender thread of silk, which unites the straw firmly together, and produces a very beautiful fabric. It is woven in pieces of twelve yards long, and about an inch broad. IV. Canine Smugglers.-The method of smuggling by the use of dogs is singular. A strong middle-sized dog is well fed and kindly treated at some convenient place within the French territory. He is afterwards carried over the Belgian frontier, where he is beaten and kept without food one or two days. The skin of a larger one is then stitched round him, within which fine lace, damask, or very fine Verviers cloths, or manufactured tobacco, is closely packed. The dog, thus starved, whipped, and laden, scampers off to where he has been caressed and fed, and generally escapes the vigilance of the douaniers, although, by official statements published by the French government, about one in seventy of the great number employed are stated to be shot. It is, however, estimated, that if one in twenty were destroyed, and their lading seized, there would still be sufficient profit left to encourage smuggling.— Macgregor's" My Note Book." V. Herculean Feat.-A short time since the little village of Northiew, in this county, was the scene of much gaiety and amusement, by the accomplishment of the following extraordinary feat, by Mr Henry Evely, of that place. A bet of £5 having been previously made between him and Mr Robert Leach, of Black forrington, that he would, within the short space of an hour, in his thrashing machine, thrash one hundred bushels of oats, and bind the straw into bundles; the performance was witnessed by almost all the yeomanry in the neighbourhood, and, extraordinary to relate, within forty-seven minutes Mr Evely thrashed 1334 bushels, and bound the straw into 240 bundles -a fact unparalleled in the annals of agricultural labour.-Exeter Post. VI. A Fact for the Naturalists.—A correspondent informs us that he witnessed on Monday night, on one of the docks a little above Fulton-market, a regular procession of the wharf breed of rats, which was some five minutes in passing. The creatures passed, one by one, towards a particular point; and, after all had passed, our correspondent had the curiosity to examine what speculation such a multitude of the fraternity were upon. Upon a closer examination he ascertained that they had obtained an entrance into a barrel of ship-bread; and soon after every one of the animals returned, each carrying a sea-biscuit. New York Sun. VII. Influenza.—Decker, in his Wonderful Yeare, printed in 1603, speaks of persons who were apprehensive of catching a disorder which prevailed at that period in London similar to the influenza, and says, "they did go, most bitterly up and downe, with rue and wormewode stuft into theyr eares and nostrils, looking like so many bores' heads stuck with rosemerie to be served up at Christmas." Date. The Average Prices of the TABLES OF PRICES, &c. different kinds of GRAIN, per Imperial Quarter, sold at the following Markets :— TABLE shewing the Weekly Average Prices of GRAIN, made up in terms of 7th and 8th Geo. IV. c. 58, and the Aggregate Averages which regulate the Duties payable on FOREIGN CORN; the Duties payable thereon, from February to May 1837. 1837.8. d. s. d. s. 3 24 7 22 11 13 7 22 10 13 d. d. . . 8. d. 8 22 9 13 636 11 37 6 36 10 37 637 837 |