Lynchburg Virginian

From the Richmond Compiler.

THE PRESENT HIGH PRICES.

We extract from a Northern paper, the following paragraph: How shall we live!--Flour eleven or twelve dollars a barrel--Rye, 1.50 per bushel--Corn do.--Butter 25 cts. per pound--Potatoes, 75 and 50 cts. per bushel--Wood higher than ever-- therefore, how shall we live ?

We will be marvellously kind, as well as marvellously wise, and tell you. In the first place, eat no cakes, pies, or any thing of this kind, but live on plain and wholesome food. Buy no little nicknacks, such as nuts, raisins, &c. In the next place, be economical in dress--Brush up and mend your old coat, and wear it a little longer ; ditto, your other garments. Get your old hat ironed over, and let it last an extra three months.--Wear cow-hide boots instead of calf-skin--they are not only cheaper, but better for cold weather. Avoid unnecessary rides. Stay at home, and if you are without a home, and bachelors, get married forthwith, and provide yourselves with one. Save wood by making your dwellings tight, and by using stoves, and keeping your Doors shut! Follow these directions, and if you don't get along well enough, it is because you are lazy, and we must be pronounced poor theoretical economists. [Hampshire Gazette.

Thus it seems to be throughout the country, How vividly do we remember the good old times ("all times are good when old,"), when flour was selling at five dollars a barrel, Indian meal at sixty cents, and all other kinds of provision at prices not more than one half what they are now. The failure of the wheat crop throughout the country, is, we suppose, the cause of the rise in bread stuffs, but why all manner of necessaries have advanced so awfully in price we cannot divine. We pay at least five cents higher for our coals than we did twelve months since, and experience great difficulty in getting them at all.

We have often wondered that our farmers do not endeavor to raise crops less precarious than wheat. What with the ravages of the fly and the casualties to which the wheat crop is subject, we believe it to be the most difficult and least profitable crop, taking one year with another, that can be raised, and yet almost every farmer makes the attempt every year, and very frequently the produce of his fields is not as great as what was sown. That our climate is better adapted to other products is clear. Why are not our hills covered with vineyards, as in France? Has experience not shown that the vine thrives well in Virginia. and that for the land cultivated and the labor employed, as large, if not larger gains may be made from the juice of the grape as from any thing else?

We were told a few days since, by a very intelligent gentleman who cultivates a few acres of vineyard near this city, that he had made about 320 gallons of wine to the acre from his fields this year. We know not the price he received for his wines, but rating them at $2 a gallon, the revenue derived from one acre would be greater than could be realized from any crop with which we are acquainted. We think we are not visionary when we express the hope of seeing lower Virginia, to a considerable extent, a wine producing country.