Farmkhs' hegister— venison ham manufactory. 



849 



})ut the name in Hebrew characters. One con- 

 tends it means nothinfi; more nor less than the 

 ohl jiiike hoe of antediluvian memory ; another 

 contends that it is the scooiee that is meant, for we 

 don't call things by the same name even in the same 

 county. 



How then, are farmers, whose education has not 

 liEen so liiMeral, or whose business has kept them 

 mostly at home, to arrive at the information with 

 regard to their soils, indispensably necessary to a 

 judicious system of manuring ? How are they to 

 become acquainted with the agricultural instru- 

 ments used and approved of by their more intelli- 

 gent brethren? Through your valualde journal 

 much information may be acquired, no doubt ; but 

 as I said before, much of it is unintelligible ; and 

 even if accompanied with plates, as many of your 

 numbers probably are, where shall we find a me- 

 chanic, (ill a slaveholding state, where the mecha- 

 nic arts are mostly confined to ignorant negroes,) 

 that can look at a print and make a plough tliat 

 will run three furrows.^ Atsomeunguardedor un- 

 important joint, as it was thought, the plough gives 

 way, the project is abandoned in despair, and 2 days 

 labor, at 75 cents per day, is charged to the wild 

 and visionary editor. These questions are hard to 

 answer: they have often been propounded with 

 but very unsatisfactorj^ answers. Can it be gained 

 by agricultural societies.' Experience says no. 

 But tew of any society have travelled much ; and 

 fewer still for the express purpose of making an 

 agricultural tour, and very few would be willing 

 to task themselves with the labor of writing out 

 an essay, to be read before a society, if they were 

 not to be equally benefitted by tlie lucubrations of 

 ethers ; and it could not be expected in any little 

 county society, that there should be many men of 

 that kind of travel and experience which is necessa- 

 ry. Permit me then, with all modesty anddeferencej 

 to suggest the followingplan, whicli, if not a correct 

 one, is as to me original, and I hopesomeofj'our cor- 

 respondents will improve upon it, (for if you think 

 it worthy, this is for publication.) The plan is, let 



some competent man, ( — , _Es(]. if 



posssible,) who has travelled extensively, and had 

 experience in farming, commence a tour : let him 

 take with him some acids, scales and weights, 

 ounce glasses, blow pipes, and the necessaries 

 for analyzing soils: let him announce that he 



will be at on such a public day, say 



at court, where and when he will address the 

 public on the subject of agriculture, (he may 

 make his audience select by having tickets for 

 admission ;) he may make known that he has 

 the means, and will accompany home, for the pur- 

 pose of analyzing soils, such as choose to emplo)' 

 him at § — per diem ; he can make it a business to 

 collect information for your journal, and enlarge 

 your siibscripiion list ; he may organize agricultu- 

 ral societies, or schools, throughout the county — 

 which, by visiting quarterly, and addressing on 

 such subjects as the season and state of crops 

 might require, be beneficial to them, and they of 

 course to him. We have our itinerant tacticians and 

 military schools, which are well paid; and cannot 

 agricultural societies, or schools, be sustained on the 

 same grounds.'' We pay a Yankee itinerant, who 

 patches our old wooden clocks ; and will we not 

 amply compensate a scientific man who shall walk 

 over our farms, and instruct us in its nature, in its 

 defects, and the remedies? Surely we willj and 



Vol. I.— 82 



that amply. Ten dollars per diem would be an 

 inducement that science would not blush to re- 

 ceive, and niany would rejoice to pay on those terms. 



The agricultural lecturer would say to his em- 

 ployer, " Here, sir, you have calcareous matter; 

 here too much alumine — bring sand ; here too 

 much sand— bring clay ; there is a bog— haul ten 

 loads of that bog mud to each acre of that field ; 

 here you must have a covered ditch ; there you 

 should have a meadow ; this lot will suit clover — 

 that, herds grass ; here you need never sow wheat — 

 the soil does not suit ; there, if you sow oats, your 

 land is impoverished ; on that piece of ground, you 

 may cultivate the thorn for hedges; on that 

 you may plant cedars; live fences are, or are not 

 desirable, &c. &c. Let him look at the farming 

 tools ; let him suggest improvements in the con- 

 struction of barns, stables, and farm pens ; and 

 point out where a compost lied could be easily and 

 profitably formed — all Avhich he could do on the 

 spot, and for which he would be amply compensated. 



Mr. Editor, be pleased to take these hints under 

 consideration, and court from your correspondents 

 an opinion of their practicabiiity; and thus, per- 

 hai)s, something may be said likely to prove pro- 

 fitable. F. G. A. 



[We do not agree with our unknown correspondent 

 F. G. A. in the details of his plan, though much in favor 

 of his object, and of some of the means proposed. Agri- 

 cultural tours certainly would produce much benefit to 

 the individual farmers travelling in search of Information, 

 as well as still more to the public, by their, pubhshed 

 reports.] i 



VENISON HAM 3IANUFACTORY. 



From the [Ohio] Farmer and Mechanic. 

 The followino- article has been marked for our 

 notice in the Wheeling Gazette, and an inquiry 

 propounded as to the truth of the statements. In 

 reply, we can assure the writer that an establish- 

 ment for "using up" sheep, was in operation in 

 this neighborhood, until very recently ; but is now 

 suspended for the present, although it may be re- 

 sumed during the next autunm.' The business, 

 however, is not, we think, of the stamp the wri- 

 ter supposes ; being conducted, not by foreigners, 

 or the agents of foreigners, but by two respecta- 

 ble farmers from near Geneva, state of New 

 York, where they have carried on the above bu- 

 siness largely for eight years past. So far from 

 seeking to destroy the sheep, or injuring the wool 

 growing business, at a present sacrifice, they make 

 a profit of from twenty five to forty dollars per 

 hundred on the sheep they butcher, and this alone 

 is their inducement. It is supposed the effect will 

 even prove beneficial to the breed of sheep by de- 

 stroying the indifferent stock heretofore reared by 

 our farmers, and causingtheirplace to be supplied 

 by a superior breed. So far from being true that 

 they seek only ewes, wethers are preferred, though 

 they generally take entire flocks, paying an ave- 

 rage of about ^1 12i per head. The sheep are 

 collected in large numl)crs, the heads chopped off, 

 the horns, especially the crookedest and largest, 

 saved for various purposes, the tongues cut out 

 and salted away in barrels as a great delicacy, the 

 rest of the head is then thrown into the boiler, 

 where, two or three hundred together, they are 

 well steamed, ami afterwards pressed in large 

 cheeses, in a press resembling a cider press, thus 



