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Agriculture is the most Healthy and Honorable, as it is the most Natural and Useful pursuit of Mau. 



VOL. XL 



ROCHESTER. N. Y. — JULY, 1850. 



NO. 7. 



WHEAT OULTURE. 



SrR IIuMPiniEV Davy says : " The exportation of 

 grain from a. country which receives nothing in 

 exchange tliat can be turned into manure, must 

 exhaust the soil in the long ruii ;" and this illustri- 

 ous chemist expresses the opinion that the present 

 sterility of various parts of northern Africa and Asia 

 Minor, as well as Sicily, is to be ascribed to exces- 

 sive cropping without manuring the land. In an 

 instructive chapter on "Rotation of Crops," Bous- 

 si.NGACLT remarks : " When a succession of crops is 

 grovi'n upon fertile land without renewal of manure, 

 the produce gradually diminishes ; and after a cer- 

 tain period, if it be grain, the quantity wliich at the 

 outset was eight or nine times the amount of the 

 seed, will be reduced to three times or even to twice 

 the seed. Thus crops impair the soil, and ultimately 

 exhaust it." In another place, this writer informs 

 us tiiat he saw fields whicli had borne good crops of 

 wheat every year for two centuries, on the table lands 

 of Peru, wliich were doubtless fertilized with guano. 

 An interesting letter from Wm. G. Morehbad, late 

 U. S. Consul at Valparaiso, recently published in the 

 Philadelpiiia North American, furnishes important 

 information as to the cheapness of wheat in Chili, 

 which is about to be sent in the shape of flour, to 

 California and the Sandwich Islands, in great quan- 

 tities. Mr. M. states that the first shipment of flour 

 to California will take place within a few weeks, and 

 thereafter regularly, commencing with 2.5,000 bbls, 

 a month, and adds — 



■'The harvest that has just been secured (I am 

 informed,) has well rewarded the husbandman, the 

 crop being very large. The price of wheat is there- 

 fore comparatively low, 26 toSl^ cents per bushel in 

 the interior, on delivery at the mills. I obtained from 

 a gentleman of high character, who is perfectly con- 

 versant with the subject, the following information ; 

 At Conception and vicinity, there are ten first rate 

 flour mills, the machinery for which was obtained in 

 the United States, and, with the exception of two, 

 are owned and managed by Americans and English- 

 men. The average monthly product of these mi' ,8 is 

 about 30,000 bSls. of superfine flour for export, w'lich, 

 in quality, is regarded as being equal to the best flour 

 manufactured in the United States. Between Con 

 ception and Santiao'o there arc two good mills, which 

 manufacture for export some 4000 to 5000 bbls. per 

 month : and at the capital, Santiago, there are five 

 or six establishments of considerable extent, engaged 



in manufacturing for export, which together produce 

 from 18,000 to 20,000 bbls. monthly ; besides which 

 there are a large number of small mills engaged in 

 manufacturing for home consumption. Thus it ap- 

 pears that there are produced monthly in Chili some 

 50,000 to 65,000 barrels of superfine flour for export, 

 all of which must find markets in the Pacific — -the 

 principal being California. 



"The great fluctuations llTat have so frequently 

 occurred in that market during the past year, the 

 price of flour varying from less than the cost of 

 placing it there to $30, $40, and even $50 per bbl., 

 have induced the millers to enter into the arrange- 

 ment alluded to above, by which they (the millers) 

 bind themselves to supply this company the entire 

 product of their mills, at the price of ©4,44 per bbl. 

 delivered in the warehouse, for shipment. The com- 

 pany have a large and commodious warehouse at San 

 Francisco, at which they are bound to keep a regular 

 and constant sup;)ly of flour, adequate at all times tii 

 meet the demand, and to dispose of the same at a 

 moderate profit — thus securing to the citizens of 

 California a supply of the slafl^ of life at a low price. 

 "The consumption of that market is estimated by 

 the:-e gentlemen to be not less than 25,000 bbls, per 

 month at present, calculating an increase of say 

 5000 bbls. per month. I consider it important that 

 the above facts should be generally known through- 

 out the United States of America, that persons who 

 may be n'onced (by the recent extravagant price of 

 flour) to ship to California, can do so understand- 

 ingly." 



The Nicaragua treaty between England and the 

 United States having for its object the construction 

 of a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific, will 

 secure the speedy construction of that long talked of 

 and magnificent work, and bring the guanoed wheat 

 fields of Chili and Peru several thousand miles nearer 

 the ports of Mobile, Savannah, and Charleston, which 

 import both northern flour from New York and west- 

 ern from New Orleans, We learn from the Journal 

 of Commerce, that three ships laden with Egyptian 

 wheat are on their way from Cairo to this country — 

 the owners of this grain expecting to pay 20 cents a 

 bushel duty on its admission. Wheat has been 

 cheaper in England within the last six months than 

 in one hundred and fifty years ; and fair harvests this 

 autumn in Europe, will reduce the market value of 

 breadstuff's to a still lower figure. 



Wheat growers that have a surplus to sell will 

 doubtless act wisely to place their crop in market as 



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