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AGRICULTURAL.
DANIEL. LEE, m. D., Editor.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1859.
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF AMERICAN
AGRICULTURE.
The November number of the Working Far
mer has an article on “ the present condition of
American Agriculture," credited to the London
Fanner's Magazine, which wo have good reason
to believe was written by one of the editors of
the Working Farmer, and sent to England for
its publication, as containing a truthful and in
structive account of ‘•American Agriculture.”
Feeling considerable interest in the character
and reputation of that large class of citizens
who own and cultivate the soil of the United
States, regardless of geographical lines, we have
read with some care the letters of the American
correspondent of the London Farmer's Magazine ,
and we are sorry to say they do great injustice
to the subject discussed, and especially to South
ern agriculture and slave labor. We copy the
following from page 255 of the Working Far
mer:
“ That Virginia, for the settlement of whose
domain Raleigh labored so long and so earnest
ly, and which was once the queen of all the sis
ters of the confederacy, should, with 75,000 il
literate inhabitants and but 3.000 copies of her
agricultural paper in circulation, be reduced to
the very verg® of sterility and decay, will sur
prise no one who has studied the inevitable conse
quences (f cultivation by slave lal>or."
Thu the above statement, made alike to the
people of Great Britain and this country, con
tains a most pregnant and injurious error, we re
ligiously believe, and feel abundantly able to
prove, so tar as it is possible to prove any nega
tive proposition. The readers of a London agri
cultural magazine of high character and long
standing, are told by an American agricultural
writer, that “the inevitable consequence of culti
vation by slave labo ,” is “to reduce a State to
the very verge of sterility aud decay,” and com
pel its inhabitants to become alike “ illiterate ”
aud poverty-stricken. This is a serious, aud
even a terrible charge to bring against the agri
cultural industry of some fourteen or fifteen sov
ereign States ; and we submit the question to
an impartial world (if any such world exists,
which is doubtful), whether the misuse of any
kind of labor, of money or other property, or
the abuse of anything involves “ inevitably ” the
condemnation of the thing, the property, money,
or labor, wrongfully, or mistakenly employed ?
It is the want of adequate and abundant labor
in the old State of Virginia to improve the soil
and cultivate it properly, and not the existence
of slaves, that places her tillage in a false posi
tion. The demand for laborers to go South has
been so great and exhausting, that no farmer
could afford to keep slaves enough to do full jus
tice to his farm, and Virginia agriculture.
Field hands, that cannot earn over $l5O a
year, each, in tbo Old Dominion, will earn from
S3OO to $450 in the best cotton, rice and sugar
districts in the South and Southwest, while the
expense of taking a negro from Richmond to
Alabama, Mississippi or Texas, will rarely ex
ceed from $25 to $35. Indeed, as was well
stated by Mr. Hull in his late agricultural ad
dress, no man can afford to work slaves aud
make only three and a half bales to the hand,
when for ten or fifteen dollars a head his ne
groes may be taken to land that will yield seven
bales or more to the hand ; and the higher cot
ton is, the larger the premium offered to abandon
old plantations and all poor soils, and concentrate
the entire force on rich virgin land. These facts
cannot be refuted ; and they prove beyond the
reach of a reasonable doubt, that there are not
slaves enough to cultivate at once and property,
the fields of all the northern and all the south
ern slave-holding States. Give Alabama, Miss
issippi, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, and the
broad and ftrtile domain of Texas, what slaves
their agriculture demands for its full develop
ment, aud not one woolly head will remain in all
the South out of those States.
Suppose a man should undertake to haul con
stantly what was a fair load for five mules, with
two ? He would naturally drive hard, wear out
his team prematurely, make it look poor, mean
and worthless, and after fretting for years at the
weakness and inefficiency of his force, he might
himself adopt the equally false and popular no
tion that mules are inferior to horses for all haul
ing purposes. Virginia has never had more
than twofi-fths as many slaves as the load to be
hauled, or work to be done, required: and be
cause those she did have failed to work a mira
cle, and each two perform the labor of five, every
defect in her agriculture is charged as “the in
evitable consequence of slave labor 1"
“ Truth is mighty, and will prevail;” and this
is very near the exact truth. Slavery was has
tily condemned eighty years ago; was tried af
terwards ; and when fairly tried, was found not
guilty. But how shall we reverse the unjust ver
diet of condemnation ?
Can it be done by pursuing a policy which
originated in hostility to the institution —which
invokes both the moral power and material aid
of England, France and all Europe to crush it as
a detestable thing, no better than piracy? It
this condemnation is known to be, and felt to be
unjust, why keep Virginia agriculture in a false
position before the civilized world, in London
journalism, to the serious detriment of Southern
intelligence and character, and literally compel
the noble mother of States to part with all her
slaves, and depend exclusively on white labor
ers, who will vote ever with the North ? Is it
not time that we modify somewhat Our present
system of planting industry, and employ a part
of our capital in sheep-husbandry and wool
growing, in which far l£ss labor is needed, and
of course no slaves from Virginia to prosecute
the business successfully ? The concentration
of slaves on a comparatively small area by ex.
3>»JS gOTOJKKEK KIKWJ SH BXAKSXU3B.
elusive planting, is a virtual surrender of about
two-thirds of all our present slave territory to
freesoil labor, and its influences. This weighty
fact has been too little considered. Every man
who buys a slave from Maryland, Virginia, Ken
tucky or Missouri, opens the door a little wider,
and invites free soil voters to settle in these
States for agricultural purposes. Laborers, they
must and will have ; aud we ask in all earnest
ness, where they are to come from ? It is ab
surd to suppose that two negroes will perform
the work of ten, or even five. It is suicidal to
place slave labor in all the border States in this
alike unjust and disadvantageous position.—
Our agricultural employments must be more di
versified-spreading slave labor over many mil
lions of acres of grazing lands —instead of
crowding more and more negroes into a few cot
toD fields. *
The writer who attempts to describe for a for
eign magazine “ the present condition of Amer
ican Agriculture,” betrays as little knowledge of
his subject in the Northern, as in the Southern
States. He lauds Mr. Mapes and his Working
Farmer most extravagantly, whilo he ignores
the existence of the American Agriculturist, an
older, and far abler journal, with some four or
five times larger circulation. It is with no in
considerable reluctance that we ever expose ag
ricultural quackery like that of the Patent Of
fice and Working Farmer; for by it, we make
bitter personal enemies, and receive little or no
thanks from the public. Not one man in a thou
sand has any idea of the amount of cheating
now successfully practiced by selling nearly
wortliless articles under every conceivable false
pretense as being of peculiar and great value.
In the whole catalogue of agricultural humbugs,
perhaps there is no one more ridiculous than
that based on the notion that an atom of pot
ash. or one of sulphur, phosphorus or nitrogen,
is “ progressed ” and improved, every time it
forms a part of a living organism, as taught by
the manufacturer of “ Mapes’ Nitrogenized Su
per-phospliate of lime.”
——
Four Valley, Houston Co., Ga. )
Nov. sth 1859. )
Dr. Lee— Dear Sir :
Though I believe it is contrary to your cus
tom to answer privately, inquiries from your
correspondents on the subject to which you are
devoted, I beg of you as a special favor, to be
so kind as to give me by letter, the information
sought below.
Since I have no domestic manure to spare for
grain, please tell me, (now that you are acquain
ted with all the foreign and manipulated fertili
zers,) the very best article or preparation for
Wheat, and for Barley on an exhausted sandy
soil, and the quantity in pounds or bushels ne
cessary per acre, to secure the maximum yield
of both.
Now, that my barley has been sown a month
or more, what would be the best top dressing
for it? What is the comparitive merit of
Rhodes, Hoyt’s, and Reeses’ Super Phosphate
of Lime ? What preparation shall I have made
as the best manure, and enricher of the soil for
cotton, on an exhausted sandy land ? (pine land.)
Give me a recipe wbioh in your will
best stimulate the growth, while it permanent
ly enriches a poor sand soil.
I propose to manure all my land cultivated in
cotton, and follow the year after with corn,
without manure, putting all my manure each
year on cotton, follow with corn. So in the
recipe above requested, please take into ac
count my cotton seed, stable, and cow-pen ma
nure, and combine them with what you may
think best.
Please accept my best wishes aud highest es
teem. S. C. Edgeworth, M. D.
We shall answer the above letter in the only
way we can consistently with our numerous
and pressing duties.
There is no commercial manure that can be
bought which will not cost from fifty to one
hundred percent more than cotton seed at ten
cents a bushel to be used as a fertilizer. Ifyou
can now grow cotton, corn and peas on your
land, you can produce all needful manure at
home far cheaper than it is possible for any
man at a distance to manufacture it and send it
to yon. Either you must wrong him, or he must
cheat you; for the transportation alone will more
than consume all legitimate profits to either
part} - . If your land is so poor that cotton, corn
and peas will not grow, then your condition is
the same as that of the writer, who has tried
wood ashes and salt, (which used to answer a
good purpose on corn in New York,) with no
effect. We have also tried guano and commer
cial super-phosphate this year with no benefit;
and we are now paying something over a dollar
a load of about a ton or less, for stable manure,
i as the cheapest article we can obtain.
Buy all the cotton seed you can for manure,
j and sow them over your barley lots and wheat
fields. Pay a dollar per 100 lbs. for all the
; bones you can purchase. Boil them in strong
lye until they fall into a powder, and then mix
| the lye and bones with dry, half-rotted, or not
rotted at all, cow-vard manure. This will give
you potash cheaper than any city dealer will sell
it to you; and also bone dust aud organic fertil
j isers. The reason why ashes, phosphatic
. guanos and super-phosphates fail on our land,
and may on yours, is the lack of ammonia and
carbon in the soil. The minerals are all only
| special manures, and do not meet the entire
j wants of growing crops. Cow-peas plowed in,
and stable manure, give plants all they need;
I but neither phosphoric nor sulphuric acid, nor
| salt, nor wood ashes, nor lime, can do this.
They are partial fertilisers; yet all are good for
| the enrichment of the soil.
Our friend should remember that agriculture
j is not an exact science; and therefore its recipes
J and formulas are necessarily varied to suit an
infinite diversity of soils and of meteorological
influences. He must carefully study both gene
ral principles, and all the facts which belong to
localities. One of the most thorough and criti
cal analysts this remarkable age has produced,
Baron Liebig, analysed the wheat plant, and
from its constituents made, with great care, a
recipe for English wheat-growers. It was fairly
| tried several years, and most signally failed;
and mainly because he relied too much on the
atmosphere to nourish this important cereal.
If yon can raise perennial lucerne, that will
yield rich food for wheat, cotton and corn.
Clover is next best, and English grasses next.
Make grazing lands by the hundred acres, sup
port all your tillage fields. We cannot under
take to say whose super-phosphate is better
than that of all others.
—— •
Montgomery, Ala., Oct. 30, 1859.
Dr. Lee: —Please inform us, whether lime,
which has been used in the manufacture of coal
gas, is valuable as a manure on clay and sandy
lands. The caustic qualities of the lime seem
to be extracted by the process, and a strong
smell of gas remains with it. This article can
be obtained cheaply at all coal gas works, and
if valuable as a manure, should not be thrown
away, but turned to profit by spreading over the
fields in this vicinity. Please let us hear from
you through the medium of your paper, and ob
lige, Yours truly, W. C. Bibb.
In northern cities, lime that has been used to
purify gas, sells at about the same price it would
bring for agricultural purposes, if it had not been
so employed. It should never be applied di
rectly to crops from the gas works, for it con
tains bitumenous substances that will injure—
perhaps kill plants. But composted with any
vegetable matter, like forest leaves, straw, or
swamp mud, every virtue in any lime will be
developed, except that of perfectly new and
caustic lime. There is too much acidity in most
organic substances, and in soils rich in mould,
which is corrected by the application of lime in
any form. Every one should use marl, where it
can be had at small costs.
■■. . ——
THE INCREASING NECESSITY FOR MAKING
FARMING A SCIENCE.
The population of the world is increasing
steadily with the years; while if the capability
of production,does not increase in the same
ratio, we shall evidently come to want. It is
said that our vast country, if skilfully tilled, is
capable of supporting 500,000,000 of human
beings; but it is plain that it could not be done
by the present system of tillage. And yet, we
may confidently believe that this immense num
ber will one day inhabit our land; and if so,
what shall they eat ? In Belgium, the most
densely peopled country on the globe, 538 per
sons occupy, and are fed from, one square mile;
and yet it is well known that the soil of that
country is by no means the most fertile in Eu
rope. Our country is naturally far richer. Still,
even at this early date, we see immense tracts
in Virginia deserted entirely, and thrown open
as commons, on the plea that they are so poor
that a “living cannot be made on them,” though
without doubt they were once fertile and remu
nerative. Out on such farming! Unhappily,
this method of cultivation and its inevitable re
sults are too common in this “ fast” age and
country. Most of the European States, so far
behind us in other respects, and which we so
haughtily and often unjustly taunt, are vastly
our superiors in this particular.
Again; the ever-increasing variety and num
ber of insect enemies which annually infest and
destroy the crops, imperatively demand new
preventives—new - means of defence and preser
vation against them. As the country is cleared
up, and civilization advances, the various grains
and vegetables, like the human budy, are wasted
by new and fiercer enemies. Wheat, our great
staple product, and one of the constituents of
human existence, lives a precarious life, and
withers before the attacks of puny, contempti
ble bugs. Coni, the pioneer cereal of America,
is cut down in the gretn and vigorous youth by
the unsightly worm, and poor man is left with
little hope and less bread. What shall be done?
Shall we continue to plow and sow and not reap,
as did our fathers ?
Then the only thing to be done after there
remains no more land to be settled (which must,
most assuredly, be the state of affairs at some
future day,) and the population is still increas
ing, is to farm better. Laud speculation must
be abolished, and men must be content to own
no more land than they cau thoroughly and
profitably till. And not only that, the princi
ples of good farming must be more studied. In
fact, farmers must no longer work with the
hands only, but with the head also. It must no
longer bespoken of contemptibly as “Farming,”
but as “ Geoponics.” Agricultural Colleges
must be founded and supported, in which far
mers' sons can be taught the science of their
art as lawyers are in theirs. Europe supports
400 of these schools; the United States but two.
The effects are readily seen in their respective
system of agriculture, and the extent of their
population. Much must be allowed for the
youth of our country; still, much is needed.
—
SHEEP VS. OTHER STOCK.
The Kentucky Farmer thus briefly enume
rates some of the advantages of keeping sheep:
They make the quickest returns for the in
vestment in them, being ready to eat at three or
four months old, and yielding a valuable fleece
at one year old, and perhaps a lamb also.
Their substance is cheaper than that of any
other domestic animals—grass and stock fodder
being all they will require at any season.
They supply the family, at all seasons, with
the most wholesome and the most delicious
meat, of the most convenient size for family use.
They present valuable products in two forms,
their wool and their flesh, both of which are
adapted to home consumption, and to sale, and
both of which are adapted to either domestic or
distant markets.
The transportation of them to market alive is
cheaper than that of any other live stock (not
blooded) of the same value, and the same is true
also of their wool, compared with other and
similar agricultural products.
Wool may be more easily and safely kept in
expectation of another market, than any other
and similar product, as it is less liable to fire,
insects, rats or rotting.
An investment in them is self-enlarging, and
rapidly so, by their annual increase, while their
wool pays much in the way of interest at the
same time, which is not true of many, if of any
similar investments.
Sheep, here, have but one enemy, the dog,
and his brother, ignoramus legislator; who, not
having the capacity to comprehend the whole
subject, and to explain it to his constituents, al
lows the dog to run at large unrestrained by
law, and thereby this inestimable value is al
most entirely lost to the State.
E2T On some of the market gardens near
London, as many as five crops are raised in one
year, the principal object being to raise the finest
specimens for high prices. Under such a sys
tem of culture, slugs and other insects are very
formidable foes, and to destroy them, toads have
been found so useful, as to be purchased at high
prices,—as much as a dollar and a half a dozen.
AGRICULTURAL PREMIUMS NOT PROPERLY
DISTRIBUTED.
The end which should be sought in offering
agricultural premiums is, undoubtedly, to stimu
late effort for improvement in the results of hus
bandry. It cannot be questioned that much
good has resulted from the encouragement thus
afforded by State and County Associations; for,
aside from the mere pecuniary value of prizes,
the spirit of active emulation is thereby awa
kened. In looking over the premium lists of
various societies this year, it will be observed
that a largo share of the more valuable prizes
are offered for the mere results of culture, while
the means by which those results may be at
tained are comparatively neglected. Thus, lib
eral premiums have been offered for the best
specimens of grain and vegetables, without re
gard for the manner of their cultivation. The
sight of a mammoth pumpkin or beet, a basket
of superb potatoes, or a display of luscious
grapes, is very gratifying, but of little practical
use, unless we may know how they were pro
duced. li, sometimes happens that the exhibi
tor can give no particular reason for his success;
he found a large chance specimen iu the garden
or field, and “brought it to the show.” But this
proves nothing, and improves no one. A speci
men of much less size, brought to superior ex
cellence by a well-conducted plan, with a des
cription of it accompanying the article exhibited,
would be much more worthy of the award. Some
societies very properly require such information
to be furnished by exhibitors as will be availa
ble to others desirous of attaining the same ex
cellence.
Again, agricultural implements have been as
signed a rank far below their actual worth.
Much of success in farming operations is due to
the use of improved implements. Take from
the cultivators of this country their improved
plows, and we should at once be set back fifty
years in agricultural development. Blooded
stock, however high, or horses, of whatever
strain, would avail but little in countries where
tilling implements are rude and defective. Yet
in the several announcements of premiums for
this year, we noticed premiums ranging from
$25 to SIOO are offered for the best thorough
bred horses and bulls, while the best plow is
only to receive a silver medal. In one instance
SIOOO is offered for the best blooded horse, and
only SIOO for the best Steam Plow, the success
iul introduction of which will require an outlay
of means and talent sufficient to import a score
of the choicest horses, and which, when once
made to work well, will add more to the agri
cultural progress and wealth of the country,
than all the horses that ever ran their owners
to ruin upon a race track.
Neither should the giving of premiums be
restricted to mere productions. We now need
more than almost anything else, well conducted
trials of different modes and processes of culture.
If a judicious scale of prizes were instituted as
an encouragement to careful experiments, the ef
fect would be good. In this way many an error
might soon be exploded and many a truth dis
covered. Let our Agricultural Societies consid
er this matter. — American Agriculturist.
hi •
A CRACK IN THE HOG-TROUGH
Some time ago a friend sent me word that he
gave, every day, nearly twenty pails of butter
milk to a lot of shoats, aud they scarcely improv
ed a bit on it. Thinks I, this is a breed of hogs
worth seeing—they must be of the sheet-iron
kind; so I called on him, heard him repeat the
mournful tale, and then visited the sty. In or
der to get a closer view of the miiuculous swine,
I went into tlio pen and on close examination
found a crack in the trough, through which much
of the contents ran away under the floor.
Thinks I, here is the type of much of the fail
ures and misfortunes of our agricultural breth
ren. When I see a farmer omitting all improve
ments because of a little cost, selling all his good
farm stock to buy bank, or railroad, or mortgage
stock, robbing himself and heirs, thinks I, my
friend, you have a crack in your hog-trough.
When I see a farmer subscribing for half a
dozen political and miscellaneous papers, and
spending all his leisure reading them, while
he don't read a single agricultural or horticultu
ral journal—thinks I to myself, poor man, you
have got a large and wide crack in your hog
trough.
When I see a farmer attending to all the po
litical conventions, and coming down liberally
with the dust on all caucus occasions, knowing
every man who votes his ticket; and yet to save
his neck, couldn’t tell who is President of the
Count} - Agricultural Society, or where the Fair
was held last year, I “unanimously” come to the
conclusion that the poor soul has got a crack in
his hog-trough.
When I see a farmer buying guano, but wast
ing ashes and hen manure, trying all sorts of ex
periments except intellectual hard work and
economy; getting the choicest seeds, regardless
of cultivation and good sense; growing the va
riety of fruit called “ Sour Tart Seedling,” and
sweetening it with sugar, pound for pound,
keeping the front fields rich and neat, while the
back lots are overgrown with elder, briars,
snap-dragon, and thistle, contributing liberally
to the Choctaw Indian Fund, and never giving
a cent to any Agricultural Society—such a man,
I will give a written guarantee, has got a crack
both iu his head and in his hog-trough.
When I see a farmer spending his timo trav
eling and visiting in a carriage, when he has to
sell his corn to pay his hired help, and his hogs
are so lean that they have to lean against the
fence to sustain themselves while squealing, I
rather lean to the conclusion that somebody that
stays at home will have a lien on the farm, and
sometime the bottom will come entirely out of
the hog-trough.— Orange County Farmer.
—
Alabama State Fair.— Our friend, Wm. H.
Ogbums, Esq., just returned from a Georgia and
Tennessee trip, tells us that a general impres
sion in Georgia is that our STATE FAIR is
held in October. How the mistake originated,
we know not, but let it suffice that the Fair
commences in this city on the loth of November,
and holds four or five days.
Our Georgia cotemporaries will confer a spe
cial favor by copying the above, or giving the
notice in substance.— Montgomery (Ala.) Mail.
—
Boxes axd Wheat. —The Scientific American
publishes a statement that according to Sir Rob
ert Kane, the distinguished chemist, one pound
of bones contains the phosphoric acid of 28
pounds of wheat. A crop of wheat of 40 bush
els per acre, and 60 pounds per bushel, weighs
2,400 pounds, and thus requires about 86 pounds
of bones to supply it with that essential material.
The usual supply of bone-dust (3 to 4 cwt. per
acre) supplies each of the crops for four years
with a sufficiency of phosphoric acid, which is
given out as the bones decompose. It may
therefore, be conceived what would be the effect
of a double dressing of bones, renewed each
year from time to time, by adding doses, all giv
ing out the phosphoric acid by the slow process
of decomposition.
WOOL AND ITS PROPERTIES.
In ancient times the people of most northern
climates clothed themselves with the skins of
animals. In winter the fur or wool was turned
inward.
This practice is continued among the peasants
of Russia to this day ; many of them make of
sheep skins with the wool turned inward, for
their ordinary clothing in winter. These skins
were called among the Saxons (from whom
de derive our language) felts, i. e., skins. So
that, strictly speaking, the word “felting” means
manufacturing a skin or covering; but is now
generally used in the same sense as the “ful
ling.”
The phenomena of the felting properties of
wool long remained a mystery. This gave rise
to many speculations as to the cause of it. It is
asserted that the “ surface of each fibre of wool
is formed of lamella; or little plaits, which cover
each other from the root to the point, much in
the same manner as the scales of a fish cover
that animal from head to tail.”
The edges of wool are so hooked, or more
properly serrated, that they resemble the teeth
of a fine saw; all the projecting edges pointing
in a direction from root to point, and that, con
sequently, in the process of fulling, the fibres
can move only root end foremost.
The serrations of wool are the great cause of
its felting quality. But its elasticity, pliability,
and the spiral curve, contribute greatly to ren
der it more perfect. Hence the fine wool of th*
Barbary sheep which is very glossy and perfect
in every respect, except that it wants spiral
curve, is inferior in value to the Merino, which
has many spiral curves. In order to complete
the felting process; the presence of soap or mois
ture is necessary; these add greatly to the co
hesion of wool or fur. Hence when cloth or
stockings are simply placed in water, and are
sugered to remain a considerable time, they will
frequently be fulled by this means. The varia
tions of heat from day to day will cause an al
ternate expansion and contraction of the wool
so as to causo the felting process to proceed.—
By means of these qualities of wool and the al
ternate pressure and relaxation of the hand or
machinery, the fibres of wool are compelled to
imitate the process of weaving, being driven root
end foremost in every direction, so as to form a
solid and firm body, which cannot be unravelled,
and which is far superior to what can be ob
tained merely by weaving.
—
The Great Easters as a Cotton Carrier.—
The success of the Great Eastern as a construc
tion is admitted on all hands, but its pecuniary
success is yet to be tested. It is pretty certain,
however, that such a vessel in the course of de
velopment given to the commerce of the world
would soon become necessary. The commerce
of the world has so increased of late years that
the quantities to be carried at any onetime, from
any given port to any other, have so much in
creased that the capacity of the vessel requires
to be proportionably enhanced. To illustrate—
cotton is the principal article of export from the
United States. The whole quantity exported in
1820 was 00,000,000 pounds, or 200,000 bales,
of the average weight of the present day. That
would require to transport it 140,000 tons of
shipping, or 10,000 tons per month. Thetonago
cleared in that year from the cotton States was
195,G37. In 185 G, the quantity of cotton export
ed was 3,000,000 bales, or 1,350,000,000 lbs.,
and the tonage cleared from the cotton States
was 1,098,795 tons or comparatively, thus:
Cotton exported. Tons. Bales
lb. Bales. cleared per ton.
1820 90,000,000 200,000 195,637 1
1856 1,350,000,000 3,000,000 1,098,795 3
The return for 1856 shows an increase of two
bales per ton of shipping cleared from the South
for foreign ports, but a good deal of cotton —
115,000,000 pounds, or 210,000 bales—were ex
ported from New York. The actual quantity
and shipping from New Orleans was 670,000
tons, and the number of bales 1,500,000. If we
take ten months as the shipping season—in 1820
there were shipped but 20,000 bales per month,
and in 1856 there were required 110,000 bales
per month. The capacity of the Great Eastern is
27,000 bales, hence this vessel clearing once in
each month would, in 1820, have carried the
whole crop, but would now carry but one-fourth
of it. The commerce of the world, embracing
every product of industry, has increased in a
similar ratio, and the activity of interchange since
the abrogation of the Navigation Laws of Great
Britain in 1816, and the modification of all laws
for the restriction of trade, has become very great,
calling for a greater quantity of tonage and great
er speed in the transportation.— U. S. Economist.
AGRicur/rr re. —Of all the sciences known to
man that of agriculture is the most important, as
turnishiug the aliment absolutely necessary for
human sustenance. Its pursuit has been consid
ered an honorable one from the remotest anti
quity ; then, and until the last quarter of a centu
ry, it was simply an art practiced with greater
success by others. The scene is now, however,
wonderfully changed. Soils and crops are re
duced to their primitive elements in the labora
tory of the chemist, atmospheric influences are
thoroughly investigated, and the farmer may
know at a trifling cost how to obtain the fullest
advantage from the broad acres which he tills.
This is the age of high farming; the man who
works as his grandfather did is a laggard in the
race. Success in agriculture can only now be at
tained by a skillful adaptation of means to ends.
Land must be dressed by the most efficient im
plements, and the produce of the soil skillfully
garnered. Labor, both horse and manual, must
be economised by steam; and, above all, as the
grand-key stone of the arch, manure, carefully
selected, must be liberally apppled. This ques
tion of manuring is far from being understood
even at the present moment by the bulk of the
practical farmers of this country; to the majori
ty of them the usual analysis of soils and fertili
zers are so many occult formulae. It is on all
hands admitted that to farm without manure
more or less concentrated, is about hopeless a
task as attempting to draw water from a well
with a perforated bucket; but until our husband
men learn to view chemical science as a neces
sary and indispensable adjunct of successful
farming, thousands of rubbish will bo annually
sold, and the fairest fields continue to bo inade
quately cropped.
—■
The Scientific American speaks of a new in
vention for horse shoeing, designed to obviate
the continual driving of nails in the hoof, by
which great injury is sometimes inflicted upon
valuable horses by utiskilfull workmen. A
groove is made in tbs underside of a common
shoe, into which ia fastened a piece of iron of
the same width and shape as the groove, only
thicker and slightly curved upwards, the junction
forming a c uni pie to dovetail. The advantage of
this inner shoe is, that it is made to project be
yond the ordinary shoe, and when worn down
can easily be removed and replaced by another
without pulling off the shoe from the horses
hoof.