THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



427 



York. Above all, when the lakes and canals are closed for 

 the winter months, the Missisissippi still continues open ; 

 and that Western produce, for whose transit the Grand 

 .Trunk Railroad, and Canada, and New York have spent 

 so much, may take to itself wings, and Hee away. Let 

 another period of scarcity occur in Europe, and Americans 

 and Europeans will appear in Illinois ; and while the lakes, 

 and the St. Lawrence, and the Erie canal are ice-bound, the 

 railroads of Illinois, and Wisconsin, and Missouri, will bo 

 used to drain that produce (upon which the hopes of Canada 

 and New York depend) to the shipping ports of Cairo and 

 St, Louis ; and not only will scarcity in Europe be provided 

 for six mouths sooner than would have been the case before, 

 but the general supply of food will be more fully equalized 

 among the consuming masses of America and Europe. 



But, returning to the question, it may be asked why trade 

 has taken the Chicago route, instead of that by the Missis- 

 sippi, when the latter is the best? Happily that question 

 can be answered. St. Louis hitherto has maintained a high 

 standard for every kind of cereal product, and Chicago has 

 practically had no standard of any kind. As a consequence, 

 Chicago has been a ready market for every kind of produce, 

 good or bad, while St. Louis has restricted its receipts to 

 special kinds. That is the secret of the course of trade being 

 in the one direction, in place of being in the other. Western 

 farmers and country merchants were, to a large extent, de- 

 barred from St. Louis, even though adjacent to it ; aad in send- 

 ing stuff to Chicago, they could not help themselves. Here is 

 a plaiu illustration of the case, and of the point involved. 

 The produce of the Scotch herring fisheries does not find its way 

 to London, as Loudonera prefer herrings cured in a different 

 way, if not different herrings altogether; and although Scotch 

 fishing stations are nearer to London than to the German or 

 the Russian ports, still the herrings find their way to the 

 latter. Surely, from such a circumstance, it could never be 

 inferred that Stettin or Riga is nearer Peterhead than London 

 is, or that the Scotch herring trade could not, under any cir- 

 cumstances, be diverted into Billingsgate. Just so with 

 Western trade. The existence of the Mississippi route has 

 been uniformly ignored ; and if ever spoken of, the most dis- 

 paraging terms of unsuitablencss and inferiority have been 

 used ; and no man has yet been bold enough to call in ques- 

 tion the universally received opinion that no change whatever 

 is to be apprehended in the course of Western trade. Chicago 

 is universally regarded as the entrepot of the great North- 

 west, and people are only busied helping forward the most 

 stupendous schemes of shortening distance between Chicago 

 and the Atlantic seaboard. 



But strange to say, that policy to which Chicago owes the 



growth of its produce trade is being departed from. For the 

 past year or more, repeated efforts have been made to establish 

 grades of wheat, and corn, and flour ; but every effort hitherto 

 has failed. No sooner was it determined that wheat and corn 

 of a particular quality should form "standard," than dis- 

 satisfaction was expressed, and raodi6catiou of some kind or 

 other speedily introduced. The last charge provides for the 

 measured bushel being weighed, and standard wheat is classed 

 at sixty pounds per imperial bushel; and whether this last de- 

 termination of the Board of Trade is likely to be observed 

 for any length of time, it is needless in this connection to 

 inquire ; but the tendency to an adoption of the exclusive 

 system is very manifest. 



The Chicago people are not satisfied to be the mere medium 

 of communication for so many million bushels of grain per 

 annum, but are to insist hereafter that each kind of grain be 

 equal to a given weight ; and the object of that rule, be it ob- 

 served, is not to measure values more closely than before (as 

 no such rule obtains in Buffalo, Oswego, or New Yoik, where 

 Chicago grain is sent), but to oblige farmers to bring better 

 stuff to market. Here, in England, it has always been believed 

 that the farmer was more interested thau other people in the 

 quality of his own crop ; but it would seem to be otherwise in 

 Illinois. There, the farmer appears to be standing in his own 

 light — perhaps growing spring wheat when he should be grow- 

 ing winter, or growing light wheat when he should be growing 

 heavy, aud, besides giving a bad name to Chicago grain, he 

 does not seem to make the profit from his occupation that he 

 should do. These mistakes the action of the Chicago Board 

 of Trade designs to remedy; overlooking, however, the im- 

 portant fact that the previous similar action of the St. Louis 

 Board of Trade was the main condition of the development of 

 Chicago trade at all. St. Louis did in effect what Chicago now 

 atcempts to do, and instead of no more inferior Western wheat 

 and corn being produced, and no more inferior wheat being 

 manufactured into flour, the settler on the banks of the 

 Mississippi continued to break up and crop prairie in snch 

 way as his circumstances would afford, and the miller never 

 turned grist from his mill-door. The result was, that the pro- 

 duce rejected by St. Louis found another market — at Chicago 

 — and instead of all the beat lots going to the one market, and 

 the inferior lota to the other, the bad and good in general 

 went together : and while produce receipts at New Orleans 

 have been stationary for the past ten years, the enormous pro- 

 duce trade of Cliicago has been built up in that short time. 

 Like effects follow like causes ; aud when Chicago practically 

 rejects the lower grades of produce, some other market will 

 open to them, and that market will draw largely also of the 

 ' better kinds of grain. 



THE ENGLISH FARMER IN BELGIUM. 



Sir, — If you will allow me, I will, in as few letters 

 as I can, give such an account of the system of farming 

 pursued in the best parts of Belgium— viz., the 

 Flanders and adjacent districts — that anyone of your 

 readers, who chooses to devote one small field, for a 

 couple of seasons, to a trial of Flemish crops, may be 

 able to do so without much trouble or expense. No new 

 implements are required ; nor is there any operation to 

 be performed, which cannot be equally well done by our 

 own labourers. 



King George the Third instituted the Flemish farm at 

 Windsor ; but whether it was originally cultivated 

 according to that husbandry, I know not ; nor, if it was 

 so farmed, at what time that culture was abandoned. 

 It would bs interesting to obtain this information. 



During the last ten year.^, many improvements and 

 new crops have been introduced into Flanders. Never 

 was a more opportune time for their trial on English 

 soils than the present, with a view to prove which of 

 them may be advantageously and permanently placed 

 in our rotations. 



Wheat is now below the cost of growing it ; and 



turnips are diseased from, perhaps, their too frequent 

 repetition in the usual course on light land. Would it 

 not, therefore, be a benefit to the farmer, if some new 

 varieties of crops, fresh to the soil, and more profitable 

 to the grower, could be brought into our cultivation .' 

 and with the superior prosperity of the foreign farmer 

 constantly before our eyes, surely it must be advisable, 

 in this inquiring age, that my brother-farmers should 

 inquire into the cause of it, and endeavour to reap the 

 same advantages which they do. 



That they are in an infinitely better condition, as 

 regards returns for tlieir industry, than ourselves, is 

 indisputable. The question is, Why ? They pay higher 

 rents, according to the quality of the land, than we do, 

 their labour is lower, but we have the advantage in 

 machinery. The answer to the question is, They grow 

 more valuable crops than we do, which we could, and 

 do not grow ; and they also apply these crops to 

 manufactures in a way we are not allowed by law, but 

 which we ought to be. We want an extension of free 

 trade as far as the limits of equity and justice. 



I woiuUr no gentleman has ever made trial of the 



