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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



largely stimulated in the western states, the only demand 

 at present being for packing purposes and the eastern 

 markets; and a new market would be found for the 

 wholesome cuttings of the packing houses, which at 

 present are, to a large extent, boiled in the manufacture 

 of coarse waggon grease and glue. 



There are two packing seasons, namely, the packing 

 season proper and the summer packing. Summer pack- 

 ing is carried on to a comparatively limited extent, and 

 confined to beef. The demand arises in New York, 

 from the exhaustion of the stock of winter beef by ex- 

 portation or otherwise, and proceeds chiefly from the 

 Newfoundland fishermen of the British provinces. The 

 packing process, with the thermometer at 120 degrees 

 in the shade, is simple and effective, and shows how, in 

 an extremity, we ourselves could be provided with largo 

 quantities of animal food in a fresh and wholesome state. 

 The cattle are bought over-night, driven to the Chicago 

 slaughter-houses, killed and cut up, and packed in bar- 

 rels with crushed ice, and sent off" by railway to New 

 York in the morning. On arriving in New York the 

 beef is salted into other barrels, and it keeps well 

 throughout the summer. No statistics of the trade 

 have been collected, as it is not engaged in to any great 

 extent by any firm, nor by those who engage in winter 

 packing. The trade, nevertheless, has always been con- 

 sidered highly profitable. 



Winter packing begins with the cold weather in No- 

 vember, and is usually more active during the opening 

 month than during the other months of the season. 

 This, in the first place, is to be attributed to the pre- 

 mium price always paid for newly-packed meat in every 

 market ; and, secondly, to the contract practice which 

 usually fixes the number of hogs and cattle that each 

 firm is to pack. Thus, packing once begun, is actively 

 proceeded with, and towards the middle of February 

 there is little usually remaining to be done. The cattle 



and live hogs are supplied daily in large droves, and are 

 driven from the drove-yards to the packing-houses, 

 where killing and dressing are expedited by appliances 

 unknown in Europe. In some of these establishments 

 several thousand hogs and cattle can be killed and cut 

 up in a single day. The receipts of hogs at Chicago for 

 the present season, based upon the ascertained number 

 received in 1856 and 1857, are estimated at 500,000, of 

 the average dressed weight of 2601bs. ; and the esti- 

 mated receipts of fat cattle at 100,000, of the average- 

 dressed weight of GOOlbs. A large part of that supply 

 will find its way to Liverpool soon after Christmas, 

 and the Chicago supply promises to be largely ex- 

 ceeded by that of Louisville and Cincinnati, and 

 largely supplemented by the numerous minor packing 

 towns. 



Thus, the abundant harvest of the United States does 

 not alone promise cheaper bread, but — what is scarcely 

 less prized by the masses— cheaper beef. The impossi- 

 bility of moving the large western crops to the seaboard 

 until next summer will lead to the fattening of all the 

 lean hogs and cattle that can be spared ; and in whatever 

 form the carcases come to England, their presence can- 

 not long remain unfelt. They will increase the stock of 

 food, andj in conformity to a well-known law, the price 

 will be such that the demand will be stimulated to ab- 

 sorb the increased supply. In other words, beef will 

 bo cheaper. Whether beef and pork should continue to 

 be received from the Western States in the salted state 

 alone, is not unworthy of the consideration of those 

 generally who cater for the public. The summer ice- 

 packiug to supply the wants of the Newfoundland fish- 

 ermen at a low price, and the carrying of game in a 

 fresh state to this country, show that it is perhaps pos- 

 sible to open up an entirely new branch of trade, which 

 would be mutually advantageous to the American far- 

 mers and to the English consuming classes. 



FARMING WITHOUT THE PLOUGH. 



Arthur Young, visiting the farm of Mr. Ducket, at 

 Esher, in Surrey, in 1788, describes his scufHer " made 

 like a Kentish nidgit, with which two horses will do six 

 acres;" adding that he has gained six crops with only 

 four ploughings, viz., 1. Clover ley trench-ploughed 

 for wheat ; 2. The wheat-stubble horse-hoed for an 

 after-crop of turnips; 3. One ploughing for peas; 

 4. Before the peas are cut, turnip-seed sown broadcast 

 over them : 5. One ploughing for barley ; 6. The barley 

 stubble trench-ploughed for peas again, and turnips 

 may again be sown over them. Mr. Ducket laid great 

 stress on the use of the " shim" for cleaning bean 

 stubbles ; and thus drilled wheat on a bean stubble 

 without any ploughing at all, " except one land for a 

 comparison ; and it is remarkable that the wheat is 

 better after the shim than after the plough. He ac- 

 counts for it by observing that wheat upon whole land 

 lies dry— the rain does not equally insinuate itself. For 



many years Mr. Ducket kept a farm of more than five 

 hundred acres always cropped, never fallowed, and most 

 of his products far superior to what were found in the 

 best cultivated districts on similar friable loamy land. 

 The trench-plough going two-furrows deep, was the 

 implement by which the result was principally brought 

 about. Young says, " I have seen it work ten inches 

 deep, or on the contrary, only five or six. The use of 

 this tool is incredible ; to put one crop in immediately 

 upon the back of another, could not be done without it. 

 I have seen him plough-in rye that was six feet high, 

 and directly get a crop of turnips. He has also invented 

 a tool which he calls a miner, for working deep beneath 

 the furrow, to loosen the soil for carrots, without 

 bringing up the dead under-stratum, and for attacking 

 the roots of thistles deep in the ground.'' It is, indeed, 

 interesting to go back thus nearly a century to find an 

 incipient " Cotgreave" and subsoiler, and an illustration 



