LYFORD S PRICE CURRENT. 349 



articles, and the calculation is the fairer as one is from Boston (the " Ploughman") 

 and the other the Baltimore American, thus showing the price in different parts 

 of the country. The first says that hay, within 20 miles of Boston, has averag- 

 ed $15 a ton for 30 years past ; the other gives the present price of oats at Bal- 

 timore at from 35 to 40 cents. Well, say 35 and the expense of each horse kept 

 up and at constant work is rather more than $80 a year, or $160 for a pair of 

 horses, for feed alone, heing the interest on about $2700 ! ! What think you. of 

 that, gentlemen keepers of superfluous horses ? Then again remember that a 

 grub the size of a horse-bean, or a touch of the colic, kills him and you lose 

 your capital altogether — a fortunate riddance if you can possibly do without the 

 horse. How diflerent with the thrifty Yankee who in lieu of the horse plows 

 his li acres a day with his patient oxen that are ready to work every day of the 

 year, and at the end of their lives give him 1600 weight of prime beef, worth, at 

 4 cents a pound, $64. 



See how much more expensive to keep a horse than a man, — 13 bushels of 

 corn a year, or a peck a week, is an abundant allowance for a man. Then, ac- 

 cording to the experience of the President of the Agricultural Society of Saratoga 

 County, 100 pounds of meat, with " garden sauce," is all sufficient. The corn at 

 60 cents a bushel, will amount to $7 SO. The meat at, say, 6 cents, $6. Total 

 $13 80, or more than six men for one horse ; or add for the man's clothing equal 

 to his food, and say nothing about the shoes and tackle of the horse, and you can 

 keep three men for one horse. But the horse is useless without a man, whereas 

 there are many kinds of work that a man can do without a horse. After all, be 

 it remembered, $80 for every horse you keep where he is constantly kept up, 

 worked, and fed, and where hay is worth $15 a ton, and oats 35 cents a bushel. 



There is not a foot of land in Prince George's or Ann Arundel county that might 

 not be worked with great saving by mules or oxen ; nor is there a horse team in 

 a wagon in either that travels as fast as would Mr. Blagden's Devon oxen with a 

 Yankee driver. But, between them all, we have been run away with and forgot- 

 ten the extract from friend Lyford : 



Corn and the Forthcoming Crop. — We have more than ouce, recently, been request- 

 ed to say something by way of caution to faiTners, (if peradventuro any remarks we make 

 might reach and bo regarded by them,) in reference to the condition in which they have 

 hitherto brought their crops to market, and the gi-eat necessity which experience has taught 

 buyers — to be careful in future how they operate in the article. 



Farmers ouglit to be very particular iu cleaning and preparing their corn for market. The 

 large shipments made last season to Europe have imparted knowledge to shippers to a great- 

 er extent than they before possessed, for which, in the shape of losses, many of thom have 

 paitl high prices, and this will admonish them to take better cai'e for the future. The forth- 

 coming crop of tiio United States this year will be unprecedentedly large, reaching probably 

 52.'), 000, 000 bushels, so extra large has been the breadth of ground planted ; and this im- 

 mense amount will be disposed of in various ways : Much of it will find its way to Europe, 

 where, as that which reached tliere last season was well received, so will likewise be this 

 and subsequent receipts — and much will be consumed at home, as flour will, in all probabil- 

 ity, be scarce and high during winter in the Atlantic markets — and in the West, stocks of 

 cattle and hogs will be fed with it, and large quantities will l)e distilled. To enable fiirmers, 

 then, to obtain good or saving prices, it will be necessary to have (he article freed iVoni all 

 foreign matter, as the presence of any uncleanness not only injures the appearance but like- 

 wise the flavor ; and as underwriters will no longer take risks on corn shipped in bulk, bags 

 must be ]irocured by shippeis who are not disposed to pay freight for more than they can 

 avoid. Farmers, therefore, will readily perceive the necessity, for their iiUerest as well as 

 repul4ition, to bring their corn to market properly cleaned, and thereby obtain good prices, 

 instead of having it abounding with foreign matter, which the shipper will have to remove 

 before ho can ba;j and put it on shipboard, for which he will deduct t?i his ??ji«(i the expense 

 thus incurred. We are borne out iu our opinion, aside from what purchasers have stated to 

 us, by the following : 



The New- York Express says ; — " A vast portion of the embarrassment that has overtaken 

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