300 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



cents per hutshel ; coffee, 14 to 21 centsper pound ; 

 Virginia coal from $9 to §15 per ton ; flour, .sl-l 

 to $15 per barrel ; liay, $21 to $24 per ton ; 

 molasses, 48 to 54 cents per gallon ; peas, $2,50 

 to $3 per bushel ; rice, 7 cents per pound ; rye, 

 $1,75 to $3 i>er bushel ; sugar, loaf 23 to 25 cents 

 per pound, brown 11 to 15 per pound ; teas, hyson 

 $1,70, hj-son-skin $1, souchong 68 to 75 cents 

 per pound." 



In this list of prices, I do not see any thing 

 that comes near it now except butter, which is 

 probably about the same now as then, at retail — 

 28 to 30 cents a pound. I have heard tell tliat 

 during the war of 1812, for two years molasses 

 was two dollars a gallon, and most other groceries 

 in proportion. Tliis was owing more to the foct 

 that all our seaports at that time were ))lockaded, 

 and, as these articles were mostly of foreign pro- 

 duction, they could not be obtained scarcely at 

 any price. But this list of prices named above, 

 was some three years after peace was declared, so 

 the country had got pretty much over the war 

 question by that time. But then, with these high 

 prices thirty-eight years ago and the present high 

 prices, are the laboring people better off now than 

 then? Of course they are, and why? Because 

 they can earn three dollars as easy now as they 

 could two then. Probably there is two dollars 

 in circulation now, throughout the country, where 

 there was one then, or in that ratio. But then, 

 again, Ave have three times the population to 

 support noAvthatwe had then, taking emigration 

 and all. Most of this, however, is productive 

 labor in good times ; but in hard times, like the 

 present, much of it lies idle for want of employ- 

 ment. But, tlien, what is the remedy? For 

 hard times and high prices, like the present, it 

 will probably be a difficult matter to answer. 

 One thing is certain ; more agricultural produc- 

 tions must be raised, and, of course, more men 

 must turn their attention to cultivating the soil. 

 But will they do it? 



And another thing is, farmers must lay out 

 more capital on their lands ; tliey must both 

 learn to farm more and farm better ; the present 

 prices of farm produce will justify a liberal out- 

 lay in manures, in labor, skill, &c. Still, my 

 experience has led me to see that, with the body 

 of farmers generally, they were no more ready to 

 lay out capital in farming when corn was a dollar 

 and a quarter a bushel, than when it only brings 

 but fifty or seventy-five cents. What appears to 

 be wanting most among farmers, is a generel ap- 

 preciation of the business as an employment ; 

 and when this can be fairly understood, no lack 

 of enterprise will be wanting on the part of far- 

 mers to make farm improvements, and raise all 

 the produce they can. 



A grumbling writer in the New York Tribune, 

 a few days ago, on the high prices of grain, says, 

 in substance, that the lowest prices of corn that 

 he can find in the corn districts or the "prairies," 

 is forty-five cents, and from tliat up to seventy- 

 five cents a Irashel, while flour is from ten to 

 twelve and thirteen dollars and a half a barrel for 

 tlie best in Nov.- York. Very well. A letter in 

 your last paper, from INIr. Daniel Fay, dated Os- 

 kalooza, Iowa, March 20, siiys, "corn here is 

 worth twenty-five cents a bushel, wheat from 

 sixty to seventy-five cents a busliel, and pork from 

 two to three cents a pound." He further says. 



that when "they get a railroad from Mississippi 

 river, after the 'hard times' are over, (very well 

 put in,) their produce will be worth more." 

 Also, "the city of Oskalooza is only twelve years 

 old, and yet they have 2500 inhabitants, with 

 merchants, stores, &c., furnishing every thing 

 for comfort that is wanted." This writer in the 

 Tribune further says, that "there is not one old 

 dingy field in Connecticut but that can be made 

 to produce wheat with more profit than at the 

 west. The ground is here to hold the seed, and 

 that is all that is wanted, for 'science' points out 

 the proper ingredients to apply to make the grain, 

 and any dollar so expended will pay back fifty 

 per cent, a year," &c. Now this is all fine talk 

 for outsiders, but, in plain English, there is no 

 truth, in reality, in one-half of the ideas, but a 

 mere ranting exaggeration of the subject. But 

 we recognize in this grumbling writer in the 

 Tribune one who, a few years ago, was on a 

 prairie farm at the west. But why did he not 

 stay on the flirm and raise grain, and help make 

 "cheap bread," instead of leaving and coming to 

 the city, to live in some six by eight "dog hole," 

 and join in the general hue and cry about starva- 

 tion of the poor, high prices, nothing to eat, &c. 

 Consistency has, in former times, been called a 

 "jewel," and I think there is something in it ; 

 but it is a principle which we generally adopt 



last. L. DURAND. 



Derby, Conn. 



THE EAETH THAT WE WALK OK. 



It may surprise some readers to learn that all 

 the earths — clay, flint, chalk, &c., are nothing 

 more than the rust of metals ; that at one time, 

 during the age of this world, they were all 

 shining, brilliant metals. Geologists speak of 

 the earth as being hundreds of thousands of years 

 old. All their philosopliy is based wpon mecl an- 

 ical science : the formation of strata, the upheav- 

 ing of mountains, the burying of forests, have 

 been attributed to some "great convulsion" — 

 that is, to some shaking together of the earth's 

 crust. Whether this great age of the world be 

 true or not, it is very certain that before any of 

 these events could have taken jDlace, the forma- 

 tion of each of the earths must have hoi-v- ''he 

 work of ages ; otherwise the metals, of wLl.;'. 

 their ba,se consists, could not have been so com- 

 pletely rusted as to assume an earthy texture. 

 To understand this, we must leave tlie mechan- 

 ical, that is, the geological theory, and enter upon 

 the primary or chemical theory. It cannot be 

 disputed that the first changes of the earth's sur- 

 face were of purely a chemical nature. Combina- 

 tions took place then as now ; the metallic bases, 

 by mere contact with the atmosphere or water, 

 passed into oxyds, as the chemist calls them, or 

 earths, as expressed in daily conversation. Chem- 

 ists thus recognize something like forty different 

 kinds of these oxyds or earthy bodies, some being 

 very scarce, and others as plentiful. By the 

 merest touch of air, some of the metallic bases of 

 these earths instantly pass into the rwstyor earthy 

 state ; some, by contact with water, are so ener- 

 getic that they burst into flame. 



By this process of reasoning, we come to the 

 conclusion that the world is one mass or globe of 

 mixed metals, of which the mere crust has be- 



