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prietors or tillers, from negligence or impossibility, cease to cultivate it. The revenue, or general product, of land in the United States, must be calculated, therefore, with a proportionate allowance for these facts. I do not include in this calculation the rent, or price of tenanted granges and farms, which will make about a third of the general product of land in these States: let us allow this, then, to cover the deficit which must necessarily result, in the sum total, from the causes which I have mentioned, and we shall find that the product of land in this country cannot amount to much more than 200 millions of dollars.[1] It is, however, the most important branch of national wealth. Three fourths of it is consumed in the country, and the balance exported.
The product of the woods, mines, and waters, of the United States, forms another branch of public wealth. The Americans obtain from their woods timber for ship building, and for other purposes, for which it is used in other countries; but the timber
- ↑ To form a just calculation of the annual produce of agriculture in the United States, and of the quality of the land, it is necessary to keep in mind, that the bushel (an American measure very nearly corresponding to the fanega of Castille) of seed wheat commonly produces a harvest of 10 bushels, or fanegas—of rye and oats 12—of Indian corn, spelt and black wheat 15—of rice 18—of potatoes and turnips 24; and that each field produces, in common, but one crop in the year.
