42 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE, 



injure it ior purposes of manufacture. It is a fact well known to every farmer 

 m our country, that his corn, if taken from the cob within the period of time 

 mentioned, and put into garners, will become musty, and hence it is an invariable 

 practice with prudent agriculturists, to keep their corn on the cob until sold. How 

 then can it be expected that corn on a voyage often extending to five or sir 

 weeks, can be otherwise than injured ? A prejudice on that account has been ex- 

 cited in England, against this excellent and nutritious article of food, and it is no 

 uncommon remark from an Englishman, " Our horses will not eat your Indian 

 corn !" It is not strange that their horses will not eat musty corn — our own 

 horses u-ill not touch it, and what is more, even our hogs will not eat it, when 

 materially injured. 



The only method to get the article in England entirely sweet, is to give orders 

 for 7neal, and not for corn ; and let those orders be filled by manufacturers of es- 

 tablished character — let the meal be branded " Extra Corn Meal for the English 

 Market ;" then if orders come throxigh the same channel, they Avill always get an 

 article of uniform good quality, ready for cooking in any of the various modes 

 adopted, and so generally approved and admired in this country. 



Dr. J. W. Thomson. With great respect, .IAS. CANBY. 



THE COAL MINES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



THE READING RAILROAD AND BEAR-MOUNTAIN COAL FIELDS. 



Among the various industrial resources of our country, probably not one has? 

 undergone such extraordinary development as that which has occurred in the last 

 few years in the coal regions of Pennsylvania. 



Beginning in 1820, with only three hundred and sixty-five tons, as the total of 

 anthracite sent to market from that State, and going up to 1,631,669 tons in 1844, 

 one is amazed at the vast increase, and led at first to wonder for what new and 

 extensive demands it can have been required. The trade has nearly doubled in 

 the last four years. It is probable, indeed, that the Philadelphia, Reading, and 

 Pottsville railroad alone, will this year transport 1,300,000 tons — being more 

 than all the trade in the Union besides ; and even at the rate of their present 

 business, (not less, we believe, than 4,000 tons a day,) the supply is restricted 

 much below what would be sent — and for which there is ready and fair demand — 

 for want of adequate means of transport. But no representation, short of an ac- 

 tual view of this vast trade as it is going on, can give an adequate conception of 

 its magnitude and importance, as an clement of State riches, and, we may say, 

 of national wealth and power. 



The works at Richmond, on the Delaware, a few miles above Philadelphia, 

 are on a grand scale of correspondence with the number and richness of the fields 

 they are intended to accommodate. It is hard to say whether these works are 

 most to be admired for their amplitude, the substantial nature of their construc- 

 tion, or the labor-saving contrivances which enable the company to load and dis- 

 patch seventy vessels at a time, should as many be there ready to receive the coal 

 on its arrival, and that without handling from the time it is dug in the mine un- 

 til it reaches its destination on the wharves, where it is finally sold for consump- 

 tion. 



The whole establishment, the structure of the road and the cars, the ampli- 

 tude of the depot at tide-water, and the whole arrangements and contrivances 

 throughout, to ensure the greatest economy and dispatch, all evince a degree of 

 ingenuity and forecast that reflects great credit on the engineer, president, and of- 

 ficers of the company. If the exi)endilures have been very large, the results prom- 

 ise full renmneration. 'J'he whole concern presents a case illustrative of the 

 truth that the boldest expenditure is often the truest economy. 



(tfOj 



