i.IlX!i VxriXXriOIlJiii x jruLV-iu-uiv. 



NOTES FOR THE MONTH.— BY S. W. 



Soil- ANALYSES and Dr. Lek. — It is pleasant to 

 read an article, now and then, from the now far off 

 Dr. Daniel Lee, once the efficient editor of the 

 young Genesee Farmer — a man who did so much, 

 in the dark day of our agricultural Uterature, to lift 

 up the mind of the farmer from the slough of hered- 

 itary prejudice and hoary error. If, like the learned 

 LiEBiG, it is his ftxult sometimes to make experiment 

 bend to theory, he can at least boast of being ui very 

 respectable company. But Dr. Lee ingenuously 

 admits that his early notions of the reliability of 

 soil-analyses have been modified \>y his own experi- 

 ments. That part of Dr. Lee's article, in the last 

 Farmer^ which interested me most, is his remarks 

 on Mr. Wells' analyses of some of the semper-fertile 

 soils of the Scioto bottoms. As the Dr. pertinently 

 remarks, " Mr. Wells tells us how much water, hy- 

 grometric and combined, the soils contain, and the 

 amount of waxy and resinous matter ; but we learn 

 nothing of the quantity of nitrogenous elements that 

 may be present in any form" — a serious omission, 

 which can only be palliated by the fact of the utter 

 inutility of soil-analyses ! 



I confess that my faith was a little shaken in Mr. 

 Wells' solution of the causes of the lasting fertility 

 of the soil of the Eee Eee bottom, which he ascribes 

 to the "fineness of the mineral particles, and to the 

 amount and condition of their original organic mat- 

 ter." It appeared to me that their enduring fertility 

 was due, in part at least, to the large quantity of 

 animal fteces and ligneous matter annually left on 

 and turned into the soil. The large stalks of the 

 Dent corn, being inedible, are rarely removed from 

 the field. After the largest ears are plucked and 

 carted out of the field, cattle and hogs are turned 

 in ; the hogs glean the nubbins, and the cattle break 

 down the tall and ponderous stalks to devour their 

 leaves. I have seen several plows driven at one 

 time in a large field on a Miimii bottom, in the 

 month of April, and the field appeared, in the dis- 

 tance, to be thickly strewn with monstrous corn 

 stalks. These, after being plowed in, must, on 

 decomposition, give to the soil that absorptive 

 power which no mechanical condition of the min- 

 eral particles could alone give, beside sup] living it 

 with that ammonia and carbonic acid which the 

 atmosphere does not supply for a maximum crop. 



Monetary Panic and Kevulsion. — Two years 

 ago, in the fastest and largest city of the western 

 lakes, a resident of some pretensions was heard to 

 boast that said city was "bound to rival New York." 

 His prediction, then laughed at, is already verified, 

 and that great town now beats New York in ht^r 

 career of depreciated currency, in the collapse of 

 business, fall in rents and the prices of real estate, 

 and aU the other iUs that such a city might be sup- 

 posed to be heir to, when the great bubble of the 

 credit system had exploded ! But the city of New 

 York, and every other commercial or manufacturing 

 town, is benefited by the revulsion. It is the only 

 panacea for the inflated state of our banking, rail- 

 road, and commercial systems, and the consequent 

 moral corruption and the diseased effeminacy of tlie 

 domestic circle ! Self-denial, retrenchment, and re- 

 form, never take place in times of monetary inflation 

 and ostensible pecuniary prosperity; like "patience, 

 they are ' plants of a bitter growth,' but they bear a 

 sweet fi-uit." 



The Troubles of another Great Western City. 

 — From the new cities of the Upper Mississippi Val- 

 ley, we continue to hear the most stirring accounts 

 of the revulsion in the times, the poverty and insol- 

 vency of the outside country, and the total absence 

 of the circulating medium, with the exception of a 

 meagre issue of new but irresponsible paper promises. 

 Even that boasting young city near the head of the 

 valley, whose name stands as a ]>arody on that of 

 the great apostle to the Gentiles, boasts now only 

 of its own infirmities — a late but precious moral 

 experience! But, to show up one of the most 

 crying evils that the late monetary expansion has 

 brought in, I AviU merely advert to a few of the 

 details of a printed report, I have just received, of 

 a committee appointed by the tax-payers C)f Milwau- 

 kee, to ferret out the extent of official profligacy and 

 covert doings of the mimicipal governors of that 

 city. It appears, on the Mayor's own showing, 

 that he 'has received but $101,763.07 as the net 

 proceeds of sales of $220,000 of the city bonds. 

 Other bonds were issued, from day to day, some of 

 them not even countersigned by either the treasurer 

 or comptroller, and for " the most ordinary objects 

 of expenditure." When money costs so great a 

 sacrifice of promises to pay, one would have thought 

 that the city fathers would have been the more 

 economical of its use ; but the reverse was the case. 

 A site for an engine house was bought fur $10,000, 

 and a new engine for $2,500. Five thousand dol- 

 lars were voted by them to purchase school furni- 

 ture, chandeliers and other decorations, whUe the 

 old furniture was almost thrown away. Seven 

 thousand dollars Avere paid for bridge repaii's alone, 

 and the Alderman who was chairman of the bridge 

 committee made out the contractor's bill himself^ 

 and certified the same ; thus assuming the anoma- 

 lous office of creditor and auditor! It is also 

 asserted, in the report, that the contract for paving 

 a street where an Alderman resided and held real 

 estate, was made at fifty cents the yard ; while, in 

 the streets of tax-payers, contracts were given at 

 $1.70 per yard. But these are only a lew of the- 

 items continued in a report of sixteen pages. ThC' 

 total amount of the city tax is $088,408.28 — more 

 than twice as large, says the report, as the whole 

 State tax of Wisconsin! The salaries of Mayor, 

 city officers, and Aldermen, with the wages of their 

 subordinates, alone amount to $70,000 — nearly 

 seven-eighths tlie amount of the xchole tax of Detroit^ 

 a city of more real wealth and a larger population ! 

 It is said that no city on the face of the globe was 

 ever so heavily taxed, Sacramento in golden Cali- 

 fornia not excepted. But the astounding disclosures 

 made by the committee, have induced the Legislature 

 of Wisconsin to suspend the collection of the tax 

 until June next, and to grant an injunction to stop 

 the sale of city bonds by the present municipahty. 

 Tlie present st^ate of collapsed trade all over the 

 Union, is proof tliat the ultimate point of folly and 

 recklessness in the aftairs of men, has been reached, 

 and that a certain return to a sound and healthy 

 state is now in progress. 



Ticks on Sheep. — Had I not seen the name of 

 John Johnston at the end of a communication with 

 the above title, in the last Farmer^ I should have 

 passed it without reading; but as the canny Scot 

 never fails to be both interesting and instructive, 

 I read on until I found that Mr. J.'s great specific 



