THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



15 



the seed fails, or the insects destroy the young plant, 

 there may be time for a second sowing perhaps as 

 soon OS those wlio sow late from fear of the seed 

 rotting in the ground. 



Value of root cultiv tion. 



There is no doubt in my mind that the cultiva- 

 tion of roots tor cattle, swine and horses is a busi- 

 ness of profit and worthy the attention of the farm- 

 er — such as the ruta baga, mangel wurtzel, sugar 

 beet and carrot. I made trial of carrots this last 

 fall for my fatting hogs, by boiling and mixing them 

 with a liltli- Indian meal. I thmk my liogs have 

 done equally well as they have done when I fed 

 with clear meal. If I should have my health an- 

 other year, my intention is to sow something like 

 an acre and a half with those roots. 1 am well per- 

 Bunded we can raise them at less expense than we 

 can raise the same value in potatoes. The sugar 

 beet or carrot is the most valuable for feeding cat- 

 tle, swine and horses. 



Making our farms a little better every year, as 

 every farmer maj' do by an economical use of his 

 time and means, we may gain something and get a 

 comfortable living here among the rocks ; and per- 

 haps we shall be as well off as those who go to the 

 far West when we have done with this world's 

 goods. 



i am not personally acquainted with the editor of 

 the Visitor. I never saw him but once, and that was 

 at my father's house about thirty ysars ago, when 

 it was a social meeting, talkmg about "old Menot- 

 oney" (the place of his and my adopted mother's 

 nativity) the "signs of the times," &c. I have al- 

 ways considered him as my friend ; and I would 

 ask who is our friend, if he is not the friend to the 

 farm.er .' 



Yours with respect, 



SAMUEL WESTON. 



Mason, Jan. 8, 1840. 



Statement of Brighton Market for 1839. 



25,954 Beef Cattle, Sales estimated at 1,116,624 

 15,2»2 Stores, 



02,400 Sheep, 

 26,088 Swine, 



2."),S30 Beef Cattle, 



9,573 Stores, 



104,640 Sheep, 



20,104 Swine, 



427,056 

 214,650 

 143,534 



18-38. 



$1,901,864 



Sales estimated at 

 " $3,058,004 



1337. 



31,644 Beef Cattle, ■'1 



16,216 Stores, I Sales estimated at 



110,2;16 Sheep, 

 17,052 Swine, 



J 



$2,449,231 



1836. 



Sales estimated at 



$1,858,202 



36,504 Beef Cattle,") 

 11,858 Stores, 

 82,630 Sheep, 

 15,667 Swine, 



1635. 



51,096 Beef Cattle, 1 

 15,872 Stores, [ Sales estimated at 



r 



J 



$1,878,032 



en dollars which at the time of high prices costs 

 him twelve and fourteen dollars the barrol ? If he 

 sells not to exchange, but to lay up or obtain the 

 money for other purposes, he will best meet the 

 loss without repining. The farmer free from debt 

 can kee]) his produce till it will bring the best price, 

 and take all advantage of fluctuations of the mar- 

 ket. 



We do not like to hear a farmer s.ay it is cheaper 

 and better to buy his pork than to raise and fat it 

 when it will bring only si.\ cents a pound. Does 

 a pound of pork afford less nutriment when it 

 brings six cents than when it brings ten cents .' 

 Suppose nearly every l)ody who raises pork sliould 

 leave it off because it will not bring so much as the 

 price of the articles necessary to feed it : the con- 

 sequence would at once be to raise the price of pork 

 and depress the prico of the ai tides on which pork 

 is fed ; and the fevr who continued to keep hogs 

 and fat them might soon command almost their own 

 price for all they would have to sell. 



Again: ifaman, a farmer, raises neither pork 

 nor any thing else, because it bears too low a price 

 for the labor, where shall he obtain money to pur- 

 chase the article he may want even at the depress- 

 ed price .' Water is an indispensable article of dai- 

 ly and hourly use ; in this part of the country it 

 costs nothing, and is generally esteemed to-be of 

 no great intrinsic value, because it is within the 

 reach of the lazy and improvident as itisoftlie 

 vigilant and careful. Of what value would water 

 be estimated, if it should become scarce, or could 

 be procured only by wearisome labor? Yet man is 

 ungrateful to his provident Maker who does not 

 value this article higher than silver aad gold. — 

 Man is also ungrateful when he complains that the 

 creatures and Iruits of the earth are so plentiful 

 that they will not pay his price for rearing and 

 preserving them. 



season for gathering it canoes are rowed among tho 

 grain. A blanket is spread upon them, and the 

 grain is beaten upon the blankets. It is, perhaps, 

 of all the cerealia, except the maize (Indian corn) 

 most prolific. It is astonishing, amidst all our ea- 

 ger and multiplied researches, that so little atten- 

 tion has been bestowed upon this interesting and 

 valuable grain. It has scarcely been known, ex- 

 cept by Canadian hunters and savagci, that such 

 a grain, the resource of a vast extent of country, 

 existed. It surely ought to be ascertained if the 

 drowned lands of the Atlantic country, and the im- 

 mense marshes and stagnant lakes of the south, 

 will grow it. It is a mistake that it is found only 

 in the northern regions of this (the Mississippi) 

 valley. It grows in perfection in the lakes about 

 Natchitoches, south of 32 degrees, and might prob- 

 ably be cultivated in all climates of the valley. — 

 Though a hardy plant, it is subject to some of the 

 accidents, that cause failure of the other grains. — 

 The grain has along slender hull, much resembling 

 thit of oats, except that it is longer and darker. In 

 detaching this hull the Indians use a process of 

 drying, that in most instances destroys its germin- 

 atincr principle. Those who have found this grain 

 unpleasant have perhaps eaten it when smoked and 

 badly prepared. There is, probably, the same dif- 

 ference in quality, too, as in other grains. The 

 grain that we have eaten was as white as the 

 common rice. Puddings made of it tasted lik^ 

 those made of sago." 



93,100 Slieep, 

 23,142 Suine 

 It is gratifying to learn from the foregoing ta- 

 bles (presumed to be correct) that notwithstanding 

 the (Jepreci.ation in the prices of cattle during the 

 last ye.nr, the amount of sales at the Brighton mark- 

 et was only about one hundred and fifty thousand 

 dollars less than that of the year 1838, when, the 

 prices of catlle, sheep and swiiie were at the high- 

 est point. The fat beeves kept back in the country 

 on account of the fall and w^-.ich will be driven in 

 during tlic present winter will probably bring the 

 amount raised for sale in 18'J9 greater than the a- 

 raountsold in 1838. 



There ought to be no halting in the raising of 

 cattle on the part of our farmers even at the pres- 

 ent prices: cattle are really high enough in pro- 

 portion to every thing else. Fluctuations, e.t- 

 pansions and contractions in demand and price, are 

 at all times inconvenient and injurious to some- 

 body : they never would take place, or they would 

 be of much less frequent occurrence, under a prop- 

 er system of currency and credit. It is really too 

 bad that a man of the greatest labor and enterprise 

 should sometimes experience greater losses in pro- 

 port'on to the extent of his efforts — for instance, 

 that he slumld pay the liighest price in purchases 

 for feeding, and be obliged to sell at the lowest 

 price the creature fed. The difl'erence is not so 

 great to the man who raises not nuich beyond his 

 own consumption, and buys only what he pays for 

 in his own produce. AVhat matter is it to the far- 

 mer, that pork sells for six instead of tenor twelve 

 cents n pound, if he purcliasos with it flour at sev- 



V, iia Rice of the West. 



^KMilford, MassncUuselts, Jan. 9, 1840. 



" I will do my best to get as many subscribers 



as I can for the Visitor, as 1 think the paper is do- 

 ing a vast deal of good. It gives the farmers that 

 kind of knowledge which they most want. 



"I wish to be informed in respect to the cultiva- 

 tion of the liild Rice found in our Northern and 

 Western lakes and rivers. I believe it may be rais- 

 ed in our flowed meadow and swamp lands thatare 

 flowed tor running our factories. If you or any of 

 your correspondents'will give the necessary infor- 

 mation through the medium of your paper — how 

 the seed may he procured, and the manner in which 

 it may be cultivated— you will confer a great favor 

 on many of your readers, as well as on 

 Your humble servant, 



PEARLEY HUNT. , 



We have no personal knowledge on this subject, 

 but solicit from some friend at the West who has, 

 the information asked by our correspondent. 



Of all the books on the Western country we 

 find none so interesting and so particular as Flint's 

 "History and Geograpliy of the Mississippi Val- 

 ley ;" from that book we extract the following in- 

 formation, which we do not doubt will interest our 

 readers as it has interested us : 



"Wild Rice, called by the French/oWcs avoincs 

 — by the Indians, mcnomtnc. It is found in the 

 greatest abundance on the marshy margins of the 

 northern lakes, and in the plashy waters on the up- 

 per courses of the Mississippi. It grows in those 

 regions on a vast extent of ccuntry. It is^ there 

 that tiie millions of migrating water fowls fatten, 

 before they take their autumnal migration to the 

 south. It is there, too, that the northern savages, 

 and the Canadian traders and hunters, find their 

 annual supplies of grain. But for this resource 

 they could hardly exist. It is a tall, tubular, reedy 

 water plant, not unlike the bastard cane of the 

 southern countries. It very accurately resembles 

 the cane o-rass of the swamps and savannahs on 

 the GulfTif Mexico. It springs up from w.iler,s of 

 six or .'ioveii feet in depth, where the bottom is 

 soft and muddy. It rises nearly as high above the 

 water. Its leaves and spikes, though much larger, 

 resemble those ofoats, from which the French give 

 it itK name. Its culm is jointed, as large as the lit- 

 tle linger; leaves broad, and linear, jianicle more 

 than a foot in length; the lower branches w'ith 

 spreading barren dowers, the upper with t'erlde 

 and erect ones. The seeds are blackish, smooth, 

 narrow, cylindrical, about three quarters of an inch 

 long, deciduous. Il is suid to hurc Iceii iHscvfirrd 

 in thr linoks nf Mufsachuselts. When it is intend- 

 ed to be preserved for grain, the spikes are bound 

 together, to preserve them from the ravages of buds 

 and water fowls, that prey upon them in immense 

 numbers. It thus has a chance to rijicn. At the 



Acknowledgments. 



[nrThe Editor of the New York Daily Whig has 

 forwarded us several English newspapers received 

 by the late arrivals : he uiust have understood the 

 pleasure we derive from perusing these newspa- 

 pers at all times of leisure, thus to have been at 

 the pains to minister to our gratification. 



The Editor of the Faujiikr's Mo.vtulv Visitor 

 is underobligations to the newspaper press through 

 out the country for the favorable notice which his 

 journal has received. Contemporary agricultural 

 papers have noticed his labors with a kind and gen- 

 erous spirit, speaking well of every effort that de- 

 served praise, and silently passing over any thing 

 that might be censured. 



The daily Press of the Cities, which is devoted 

 more to the concerns of commerce and trade and 

 the noise of political discussion than to the domes- 

 tic arrangements and economy of the farmer, has 

 taken frequent occasion ;to extract from us, and to 

 speak well of us. Among other papers which do 

 not exchange with us, and whose editors of course 

 are paying subscribers, we mention the Times and 

 Evening Journal of Boston, andj the Journal of 

 Commerce of the city of New York which gives us 

 an exchange. The weekly paper issued from the 

 last office is always received in good time to assist 

 in making up the latest foreign and domestic mark- 

 ets, and is worth many times the price it costs us. 

 There is an industry and tact in collecting and im- 

 parting useful information in that Journal that 

 may well commend it to the support even of the 

 Farmers of the interior, who will obtain in the 

 weekly sheet all matter of interest that appears in 

 the daily news. 



The editors of political newspapers throughout 

 New England, and especially the political newspa- 

 pers of every denomination through' thi.^ State, 

 liave extracted from and commented upon the arti- 

 cles in the Visitor in a manner of which we have 

 no reason to complain. Every thing regarding our 

 paper thus far has been pleasant and agreeable. 



Especially does it invigorate our pen to be visit- 

 ed and have our works commended by judicious 

 farmers from the various towns, who practically 

 know much more about agriculture than we can be 

 supposed to know. When they tell us that our la- 

 bors are infusing a spirit of improvement in the 

 farmers of their neighborhood — when they tell us 

 that our news of others' success arouses many to a 

 determination also t^ deserve success — when they" 

 tell us that we have awakened men who have long 

 pursued a system of cultivation caicubited to ex- 

 haust the sod and had become so discouraged as to 

 think they must leave it, to try a different course, 

 and adopt the renovntins process vpon their lands — 

 when they tell us that the Farmer's Monthly Visi- 

 tor is welcome to the winter fire-side and is con- 

 sulted a.i a monitor by the old as well as the young, 

 by males and females; — when they communicate 

 with us in these kind words of approbation, wear© 

 cheered onward, and induced to redoubled efforts 

 to please and gratif)' the thousands who look to our 

 columns for information. 



Tho^e icishinfr to obLuin thcist rohinie of the I'is- 

 itor can hare the bach numbers sc7it to their address 

 at the regular sulscription prices, bij sending a line 

 to the pw'disher free of pos'a^c. 



