266 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 5. 



of primary necessity to the countries demanding 

 them, which they would have done, had the sup- 

 ply been naturally adequate, or capable of being 

 forced. 



"The husbandry of every country depending 

 mosdy cm the market for cattle and shee| ai 

 wool; how far is the bad culture of America owing 

 to a wapt of them/? Is there a demand for beef, 

 mutton, and wool, in any quantities for exportation, 

 or otherwise? And how far does the existence of 

 these circumstances, in the vicinity of large towns, 

 remedy such bad cultivation? 



The answer to this has, in a great degree, been 

 anticipated in the answer to tbeiasl question; what 

 farther is requisite, will be found in detailing the 

 prices of artii les in the different parts of the coun- 

 try when I was there. 



179-1, September. New York city. Beef, 3] 

 &d.to3§ Lfd.; mutton, 3-*} ^|d.; veal, 5 T 4 T; d. to 5| 

 T 8 B d.; land, per quarter 2s.; pork, 5 ,-^d.; pigs, live 

 weight, 2^d. perlb.jbutter, Is. HA. new rnilk3| T ;-M. 

 per quart; chickens, lOd. to Is.; hay, £25s. to £2 

 16s. 3d. per ton; wheat, 5s. 7.ld.; barley, 3s. 11 pi.: 

 maize, 2s. 9|d.; rye, 3s. l^d.; oats, Is. S^d.; per bush- 

 el. 



New York Slate. Beef, 3 ^d.; mutton,2§ r " B d.: 

 butter, 9d.; wheat 5s. 4,^,d.; pair of good oxen, 

 five or six years old, from £ 13 10s. to £ 14 12s. 6d.; 

 three years old, £6 15s. per pah;. Fal sheep which 

 may w'eigh 141bs. per quarter, 6s. 9d. each; wool of 

 good staple 41bs. per fleece, Is. 5.UI. per lb. 



1794, October. Albany. Beef and mutton. 

 2;} ,^1.: butler, S^ i|d.; wheat, 5s. 9|d. 



1794, November. New England. Beef and 

 million, 3^d.; butter, fromS^d. to lOgd.; wheat 6s. 

 9d.; a drove of lean cattle going into Pennsylva- 

 nia to be fed, some ol wmch cost .CIS a pair; and 

 when fat would weigh 1500 lbs. or upwards, hide 

 and tallow included. 



About Chesterfield and Massachusetts, the best 

 sheep in the United States, weigh as high as 20 lbs. 

 per quarter, fleeces as 7 lbs. each, long wool but 

 coarse, used for combing, sells for 2s. 3d. per lb. 

 In Rhode Island, extremely fine wool fleece, from 

 I;j lbs. to 2 lbs. sells for Is. 1-^d. per lb. unwashed-, 

 hay, £ 1 10s. per ton. 



Boston. Beef and mutton, 4£d. per lb,; butter, 

 Is.; butter in barrels, from S^d. to 9fd.: used to be 

 3d. and 3fd.; geese, 2s. to 2s 3d.; turkies and fowls 

 •I'.d. per lb. ready for the spit. Cattle for the cu- 

 ring-Twuses in all parts of New England, in the 

 drove, calculated at 18s. 9d. per hundred lb.: lade 

 and tallow included. Beef from 31s. 6d. to 45s per 

 barrel of two hundred pounds nett each, according 

 to quality; the first is very bad, the last excellent; 

 the demand is far greater than the supply, pork 

 per barrel, not surpassed by any in the world, 72s. 

 to 70s. 



1794, December. New York City. Wheat, 7s. 

 10 id. 



Philadelphia. Beef 44 hi. to 7 gd.; mutton and 

 veal, 3| |d. to 5\ |.;best flour, 3Ss. 3d. per barrel, 

 of 1 cvvt. 3 quarters nett; wheat 8s. 4|d.: best tim- 

 othy hay, £3 12s. per ton; maize, 2s. S\ "'d. but- 

 ter 9d. to 10^ hi.; milk, 4f Id. per quart; bread of 

 superfine inspected flour, lib. 7 oz. for 3^ fd.; of 

 inspected common, lib. 8oz. for ditto; of inspected 

 rye, 2 lbs. 3oz. for ditto. 



1795, January. Common meadow hay, £3 per 

 ton; best timothy, £4 10s. 



March. Wheat 9s.; flour, 47s. 3d. per barrel; 



fowls, 3s. to 4s. 6d.; ducks, 5s. Sj[d.; butter, from 

 10+ |d. to Is. 1 <d. 



Prices current at Trenton, the depot for Phila- 

 delphia; wheat, 9^.; rye. 'is. 9 J- fd.; maize, 3s.; oats, 

 Is. 9v* "d.; buckwheat, 2s. S^fd.; ditto meal, 4s. 9± 

 |d. per hundred lb. 



May. Virginia, most part of the state. Beef, 

 2d.; mutton, 2gd.; wheat, (east of the Blue Ridge) 

 6s. 9d.; flour, 36s. per barrel; maize, Is. 8.jd. per 

 bushel; wheat (west of the Blue Ridge,) 4s. lJ-d.; 

 floor. 25s. lid. per barrel: rye, 3s. -Ud.; maize, 2s. 

 7-2-d. Richmond. Beet; 4jd.; mutton, 6d.; veal, 

 B-^d.; lamb, 5s. 3d. per quarter; wheal, 7s. 6d.; flour, 

 42s. 9d. per barrel. 



June. Maryland, Baltimore. Beef, mutton, 

 and veal, according to quality, from 51 -:d. to 7 

 hi.; butter, Is. 2} >;d. to Is. 4f ]d.: wheat, 9s.; 

 flour, 49s. 6d. per barrel. 



Jul)-. Philadelphia. Wheat 10s. 2 1 , |d. 



New Jersey. Mutton and veal, 3£ fd.; beef 

 scarce at this season; baiter, ll.ld. 



New York City. Beef and mutton, 6|d. and 

 7 : f ,",,d.; veal somewhat cheaper; butter ll^d. and 

 Is. 0£ T %d.; wheat, 9s. 10d % 



From the above detail of prices, it will not only 

 be evident, that the demand for exportation must 

 be greater than the supply; but that the consump- 

 tion of the great towns, affords a price more than 

 sufficient !<>r all the articles that are carried to them. 

 A very large proportion of the supply, both for ex- 

 portation, and the consumption of the large towns, 

 is brought from very great distances; cattle from 

 the Chinessee country on Jake Ontario, andjiom 

 Kentucky, into the neighborhood of Philadelphia; 

 the former nol less than six hundred miles, the 

 latter about seven or eight hundred. The chief 

 part of the flour comes in barrels, li'om the beads 

 of the rivers tliErt fall into the Atlantic; and some 

 by laud carrige, from t]io neighborhood of Fort Pitt 

 to Philadelphia, a distance of three hundred miles. 

 That a supply in itself moderate, when compar- 

 ed with the vast extent of country, should be col- 

 lected from such great distances, is sufficient proof 

 that the large towns have not beneficial effect on, 

 or power to remedy, the bad cultivation of the 

 country, even in their own vicinity. 



"It is said that all the better soils in the central 

 states, when exhausted and left, cover themselves 

 with white clover; ascertain the fact; and observe 

 what soils they are, upon which this fact occurs 

 most." 



In every part of America, from New Hamp- 

 shire to Carolina, from (lit; sea to the mountains, 

 the land, whether calcareous or argillaceous, 

 whether wet or dry, whether worn out or retain- 

 ing its original fertility, from the summit of the 

 Allegany ridge to the sandy plains of Virginia, is 

 spontaneously covered with white clover, growing 

 frequently with a luxuriance and perfection that 

 art. can rarely equal in Europe. In the northern 

 Slates, it affords an herbage throughout the year; in 

 the southern, the seed ripens about July; after which 

 time the heat, of the sun scorches it up, and I be- 

 lieve it is no more seen till the spring following. 

 The climate or soil, or both, seem particularly fa- 

 vorable to this genus of plants; the trifolium repens, 

 pratense, arvense, alpesire, are abundant, and se- 

 veral others are to be met with. It is probably too 

 late now to ascertain whether white clover be a na- 

 tive of this, as well as the old continent. 



I am told it is never met with far back in the 



