EDITOR'S TABLE. 



159 



Prospects fob tue Season. — That good prices will 

 obtained for agricultural products of every description, 

 now apparent to all ; and were it not that we are the 

 ost extravagant people on earth, there would be nothing 

 prevent uur becttniing wealtliy and independent. We 

 e rich in the elements of wealth, but wealth and the 

 ans of wealth, however abundantly possessed by indi- 

 luals or nations, will be of little avail to spendthrifts, as 

 videnced by the records of the custom house, in the ex- 

 iva^ance of foreign silk and gewgaws. "We must be 

 Qtent, having earned our money, not to spend it for arti- 

 s of luxury, or for those things which can equally as 

 :U be made at home as abroad. 



But it seems in vain to show the right while fashion says 

 standard shall be, not one's own comfort, but the ap- 

 araace one can make in other people's eyes ; and in our 

 n city, even, while money the past winter and spring has 

 in worth from two and a half to three per cent, a month, 

 ! butterflies of fashion have ornamented themselves as 

 Mdily and in as costly a manner as though gold could be 

 fl for the asking, and a thousand dollar bridal parapher- 

 lia is not too extravagant, so that all rivals may be 



d. 



We do not anticipate that the quantity of wheat in the 

 tes proper can be materially increased, except by means 

 better and more careful cultivation. The skinning pro- 

 s has been so long practiced, that years will be required 

 restore many of our farms to their former fertility. 

 e lands on which wheat can be grown with a certain 

 >spect of an average crop, (the Canadas excepted,) have 

 iriy all been put under cultivation. The war on the 

 iropean continent, while it withdraws millions of able- 

 flied men from the cultivation of the soil, thus turning 

 iducers into consumers, enhances the price of grains. 

 ;ause the fruits of war are waste in every form and in 

 ry thing, and more particularly waste of labor, money, 

 i life, the three essential elements of national wealth, 

 able writer in the London Farmers^ Magazine, says : 

 t is now evident that throughout "Western Europe, at 

 ist, consumption has overtaken production. The two 

 ases which have operated in England to increase the 

 asuraption of food and to decrease its production are, 

 «t, increase of population, which, as there is only a given 

 antity of tillable land, causes the disproportion to be 

 ,'ger every year ; second, with increase of population 

 ;re has been a corresponding increase in the consump- 

 animal food, as well as vegetable, requiring a larger 

 pply of cattle, both for the butcher and the dairy, and 

 Qsequently a larger breadth of grazing and arable land 

 • the production of green crops to rear and feed them. 

 ■' The same considerations," he further states, " apply to 

 ance, with this addition : the large absorption of land 

 the cultivation of the Silesian beet root, to supply the 

 anufacturers of sugar. 



• The same causes are operating in Prussia, Austria, 

 elgium, Holland, Bavaria, and most of the minor Ger- 



man St;ites. In only Holland and Belgium is agriculture 

 flourishing, and even they are grazing more than agricul- 

 tural countries, and are themselves large purchasers of 

 grain from the Baltic ports." 



Such being the facts, there is every inducement then 

 lield out to American farmers to devote every available 

 field to the growth of some crop that will feed both man and 

 beast ; but while doing that, remember the land must be 

 fed, if it is to feed you, a proper rotation of crops must be 

 practiced, and, above all, a rigid economy in the saving 

 and application of manures. 



In many sections where winter wheat cannot be success- 

 ully grown, we are confident that spring wheat will be 

 found a very profitable crop ; and according to some an- 

 alyses that we have seen, it is represented as being richer 

 in the elements of nutrition than winter wheat, though 

 much depends, we should think, upon the soil and the va- 

 riety grown, and also the variety with which it is compared. 

 Fair crops of spring wheat of the Scotch or Fife variety 

 have been obtained in this vicinity, when sown as late as 

 the 15th of May ; and a Canadian correspondent of the 

 Country Gentleman (a periodical, by the way, tr*e to its 

 name, and worthy a place by every fireside) states that 

 good crops have been grown when sown as late as the 25th 

 of May, and that a better yield was obtained when sowing 

 was delayed until the ground had become warmed by the 

 sun and air, than when sown as early as is customary. 



In former numbers we kave shown the value of root 

 crops as a substitute for hay and grains in stock feeding, 

 and we trust that no one of our readers will neglect their 

 growth and cultivation. 



Of Indian corn, our truly native grain, we will say but 

 little, only to urge its extensive cultivation ; and especially 

 do we recommend the devoting of a portion of your tilla- 

 ble land to its cultivation as a forage crop. Sown in drills 

 nine inches apart, and cut when just about to ear, several 

 tons of the very best of forage for stock, and especially 

 for milch cows, may be had per acre at hut comparatively 

 small expense. Try it and see if it is not so. 



For some years past, though the rot seems to be passing 

 away, the yield of potatoes per acre has been gradually 

 diminishing. Theory shows that it requires a soil rich in 

 alkalies and phosphates, and practice tells as that on 

 freshly tilled virgin soils, one rarely fails of having good, 

 sound tubers, and a good yield. Guano has been found an 

 excellent manure for them, increasing the yield per acre 

 to a degree generally much exceeding its cost. A friend, 

 who was induced to make the experiment of mixing lime, 

 ashes and plaster, for the purpose, to use his own words, 

 " of seeing if the papers did tell the truth or not," informs 

 us, that whether it was owing to the use of such a com- 

 pound or not, (about a small handful being applied to it 

 in each hill at the time of planting.) his crop of potatoes 

 last fall was better than he had had for many years pre- 

 vious. 



Some four years since, having occasion to grade a lot, 

 the soil was removed to the depth of about two and a half 

 feet, and 100 bushels of ashes (being at the rate of 500 

 bushels to the acre) were then spread evenly over the sur- 

 face, and plowed in as deeply as could he done wUh a stout 



