lU 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



tween the size of a rail and a riding- whip, and ex- 

 claimed : You lying, lazy sconndrel, clear out— get 

 oft' this place at once, or I'll break every bone in 

 you body. Here he commenced the old story: 

 'Me know how to work, me know everythingT- 

 me no go if you no pay me I' Pay you, you lying 

 tbief, clear out or I'll break your head ; and seeing 

 I ica« getting excited Hans traveled." 



These are, of course, exceptional cases. Many 

 of the English, Irish and German emigrants make 

 the best of farm laborers ; but it is nevertheless 

 true that those who wait till the hurrying season 

 has commenced before they secure their hired help 

 will not unfrequently find themselves obliged to 

 put up with men who can not do more than half a 

 day's work — and what they do accomplish is not 

 more than half done. 



nrrEKESTiNa items from an interestino book. 



CoNGKKSs has recently issued the "Annual Re- 

 port on Foreign Commerce for the year ending 

 September 30, 1861," and in glancing it over we 

 have, without any attempt to systematize them, 

 jotted down a few facts which we think will interest 

 our readers : 



Our Consul at Melbourne, New South "Wales, 

 writes that " agricultural implements and harvest 

 tools of American make are much used " in that 

 country, as well as Kerosene oil and carriages of 

 all descriptions from the New England States. 



Our Consul at Antwerp, after alluding to the 

 large quantity of grain sent from America to Bel- 

 gium, waxes eloquent and draws a little on his irft- 

 agination as follows: "The flow of human food 

 from our "Western prairies to the densely populated 

 parts of Belgium seems a natural return for the 

 great family of Belgio-Americans to make to the 

 home of their birth. These narrow lands that are 

 tilled with the spade and harvested with the sickle, 

 can no longer compete with those broad plains 

 where ponderous steam-plows turn unbroken fur- 

 rows of miles in length, and where immense steam- 

 reapers pour the ripe grain into sacks for the mar- 

 ket the same instant that the straw is cut from the 

 stubble!" 



From Russia our Consul writes of a tract of 

 arable land twelve hundred miles long and four 

 hundred broad of such unprecedented richness 

 that, notwithstanding the centuries it has been un- 

 der cultivation, it still remains capable of support- 

 ing the many millions of the Empire as well as to 

 gupply the deficiency in the grain markets of 

 Europe, and bids fair to do so for ages to come. 

 Tie system of culture is of the rudest kind, and he 

 thinks that the demand for American plows, reap- 



ers, threshing-machines, &c., will soon be very 

 great. They have already been introduced to a 

 considerable extent. 



Elsewhere, he says, the most extensive fields of 

 grain are measured by the acre, but there they are 

 measured by the mile. "The grain fields extend 

 uninterruptedly for handreds of square miles, and 

 hour after hour, though wisked along with the best 

 speed of four horses, nothing can be seen but end- 

 less seas of rustling wheat or tall waving rye." He 

 thinks if the reapers of McCormiok, Wood, 

 Emery or Allen were sent there the sales would 

 amount to $100,000 the first year I 



Our Consul at Swaton, China, "Wm. Breok, Esq., 

 writes that the country in that district is richly 

 cultivated and densely populated. The principal 

 production is sugar. Mr. B. says : " The Chinese 

 in this province, and I believe throughout the 

 southern provinces, obtain their supply of sugar 

 from the sugar can«, as do those from the northern, 

 and not from the aorghum aaccharatum.'^ Bean- 

 cake is largely imported from Shanghai and used 

 as a manure. Tobacco is raised to a considerable 

 extent. 



A large fleet of Ocean steamers is now con- 

 stantly engaged in carrying live stock from Den- 

 mark to London, and the American Consul re- 

 marks: "Does it not seem strange, then, that 

 twenty million pounds of oil-cake are exported to 

 England also? Why should it not be as profitable 

 to fatten cattle with this article in Denmark as in 

 England ? The answer is that the cattle are raised 

 in the poorer districts of Jutland and Northern 

 Schleswig, and fattened in the rich meadows of 

 Lower Schleswig and Holstein." 



The cultivation of the beet for sugar in Austria, 

 notwithstanding the taxes now imposed upon it, 

 has increased so rapidly as to throw foreign sugar 

 entirely out of the market. Our Consul states, 

 however, that the manufacturers are now sufi'ering 

 from the efllect of over-production and speculation. 



The same writer states that "sirup ''is made 

 from the Irish potato, and also that beet-root 

 mixed with chicory root is used to a great extent 

 as a substitute for \;offee. 



According to the official survey there is still over 

 9,000,000 tuns of Peruvian guano on the Chincha 

 Islands. The freight from the islands to the United 

 States or Europe is $15 per tun. In addition to 

 guano, Peru possesses immense beds of nitrate of 

 soda, which is equally valuable as a fertilizer. 



