76 



NEW ENGLAND FARMEK. 



Feb. 



439,200,000,feet, or 83,000 miles of string— three 

 times enough to go around the earth. If every 

 retail clerk pold one hundred pounds of sugar each 

 da}-, it would require ncixrly 25,000 clerks to sell 

 it all in the year. If the dealers, wholesale and 

 retail together, made a profit of only two cents a 

 pound on this sugar, these profits alone would 

 amount to nearly $15,000,000. Can some of our 

 young school friends tell us how much tea this 

 would sweeten ? — American Agriculturist. 



EFFECT OF RAILROADS ON FARM 

 PRODUCTS. 



The annexed paragraphs are from an Address 

 by George F. Magoun, Esq., delivered before the 

 Des Moines Agricultural Society, in Iowa, as wo 

 find it published in the Iowa Farmer. 



I naturally mention here, as a great aid to 

 agriculture, improved roads. Plank and rail- 

 roads are simply science applied to locomotion. 

 Why is a farm on a railroad worth ten times as 

 much as one 50 miles distant ? Because its pro- 

 ducts can be carried swiftly and cheaply to a dozen 

 of the best markets, while the latter is confined to 

 one, and that a poor one.* Railroads have in- 

 creased the amount of milk bought in Boston five- 

 fold, and advanced pasture land 130 miles from 

 New York 600 per cent. Property in 70 counties 

 of Michigan has increased in value in a term of 

 years $55,000 ,000 ,but three-fourths of the increase 

 has been in those 12 counties which are traversed 

 by railroads. The Illinois Central will add $40,- 

 000,000, the Burlington and IMissouri R. R. will 

 add $15 or $20,000,000 to the worth of the lands 

 over which it passes. You can raise a better and 

 surer fruit crop than the orchardists of western 

 New York, but theirs is hurried by steam to the 

 best markets in a few hours, and sold three or four 

 times while you are getting yours to a poorer 

 market. Chicago has been supplied with peaches, 

 &c., this season from Alton ; another season and 

 our own county will pour into that market, and 

 the noble orchards and nurseries which flank our 

 beautiful Orchard City will rise to the value of a 

 near neighborhood to the Garden City of the 

 Lakes. Some of you will yet send off your apples, 

 wheat, pork, potatoes, beef, mutton, to the Lake, 

 and they pass from your doors T)y rail, and get 

 your advanced price, and on your return pass an 

 old fogy neighbor trundling his into town in his 

 slow and ancient wagon. f ^Michigan farmers 

 changed the balance of trade in favor of the State 

 $2,000,000 one year, by putting in more wheat ; 

 but without a quick run to market their excess of 

 wheat would have rotted on their hands. With- 

 out railroads it would take 2 months, at $50 or GO 

 a head to get lieeves from the West to New York, 

 and they would arrive unsaleable. Now they go 

 in 7 days, in prime order, at a cost of $10 or $12, 

 and at the rate of 22,000 a week : they go even 

 from the Cherokee nation, west of Arkansiis, 

 marked with the hieroglyphics of the Indians who 

 raised them. A Des Moines county farmer has 

 proved it will pay here to raise stock for the 

 shambles of the Atlantic cities. One advantage 

 of railroads is the dressed meats that can be con- 

 veyed 1000 miles fresh, leaving hides, horns, offal, 

 &c., behind for fertilizing and other purposes. 

 Ohio dressed moats are now on the tables of New 



York city. Another advantage will be that artifi- 

 cial fertilizei's can l)e brought to us cheaply when we 

 know how scientifically and profitably to use them. 

 Railroads decrease the fluctuations of markets it; 

 will not long be true tliat "ten wet days in Eng- 

 land derange the exchanges of the world." They 

 improve the outward aspect of the country — farms 

 which are under the eye of passing thousands 

 daily arc neater, cleanlier, and more tasteful — 

 perhaps the occupants are also ! I would not say 

 how much our railroads, east and west, will make 

 us prosper, but I will say that the men are r ^w 

 here in middle age, who, l)efore their white 1' lira 

 are harvested by death, will see the fruit md 

 grain and cattle of Southern Iowa and the Platte 

 V^alley become an important offset in New York 

 to our purchases of English, French, and German 

 goods, and in the Pacific ports to our importations 

 of silks from India, and teas and porcelain from 

 China and Japan. 



* A ton of com is estimated not to be worth hauling by a wagon 

 when 170 miles from market ; while at the sane* distance upon a 

 railroad it would be worth $22 10. A ton ot wheat 330 miles 

 from market is not worth the hauling by wagon. Vlt by railroad 

 it would be worth $44 35. 



t A single hotel in Chicago consumed daily 125 dozen eggs, 200 

 chickens, 68 bushels potatoes, 200 pounds butter ; $250 is paid 

 monthly for milk, $300 for bread, $960 for meats, &c. Would 

 our fanners have here such markets for their small produce. and 

 grain .' Let them help the Eailroads, asd the Kailroads 

 WILL help them. 



For the New England Farmer. 



BEE CULTURE--NO. 1. 



In this and subsequent communications which 

 may be furnished, I propose to invite attention to 

 a most interesting and profitable branch of rural 

 industry. In so doing, I would not be understood 

 as calling the attention of agriculturists alone to 

 this subiect. The impression has too long existed 

 that the cultivation of the soil alone, or especially, 

 is concerned in the management of thellonuyBee. 

 There are very many individuals in every commu- 

 nity as well situated, to say the least, as the hus- 

 bandman, for successful prosecution of this enter- 

 prise. It is not an enterprise which requires great 

 capital or great muscular energy or great extent 

 of territory, as personal possessions. Any individ- 

 ual, however limited his resources, who has com- 

 mand of a little leisure,may share in the luxury and 

 profits which result from the labors of the lloney 

 Bee, and the amount of time required in the va- 

 rious operations of Bee-culture is much less than 

 is generally supposed. There are ten months of 

 the year during which Bees may be said to take 

 care of themselves ; that is, the attention which they 

 need is very trifling. The aggregate degree of at- 

 tention which a dozen swarms of Bees require 

 during the year is less than a dozen house plants, 

 or a single canary, bird would necessarily demand. 

 The time is at hand when professional men and 

 young persons, and even females and aged persons 

 who are much at home, will be among our most 

 successful Bee-keepers ; to say nothing of the me- 

 chanic, who being muchat home is peculiarly well 

 situated for giving attention to tfiis enterprise. 

 When the 8ul)ject shall be proi)erly understood, 

 especially when the lesson shall be effectually 

 learned, which some have learned, that the Honey 

 bee can be domesticated or rendered manageable, 

 as truly and almost as safely as any other crea- 

 ture which is made for the service of man, or as 



