'tt 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JIXY 10, 1839- 





(From the Buffalo AdveEtiser and Journal.) 



FLOUR SPECULATORS AND THE BANKS. 



" Well, the flour speculators will have to sweat, 

 any way," was a remark we heard in the street 

 yesterday, and the sRyinor, though rather vulgar in 

 its phraseology, embodies an idea that is pretty 

 generally entertained. Flour is goinj down, a 

 great deal of last year's crop of wheat is yet in 

 the hands of the producers, and the growing crop 

 looks exceedingly well. A still greater decline 

 must therefore be expected, and as our Unknown 

 friend said, "the flour speculators will have to 

 sweat." There is no class of business m^n for 

 whose suflerings and losses less commiseration 

 will be felt by the public at large. Speculators 

 upon the necessaries of life, have in all agts and 

 countries been denounced, and now, when there is 

 a prospect that they, who have fattened and waxed 

 rich, when their neighbors and fellow-citizens Mere 

 sunk in the deepest embarrassment, are aboutj to 

 suffer in their turn, there is a feeling of general 

 exultation. How far this feeling is correct, Iwe 

 will not now stop to examine. Popular feelijigs 

 and opinions, most nsuallj', are made up of ertial 

 parts of truth and error, and those we have allujed 

 to do not probably form an exception to the rule. 



For son.e years back there have been conR'Ssid- 

 ly short crops ; the price of flour accordingly rcfee 

 in a corresponding proportion. The rise was le- 

 gitimate, and no one had any reason to complaiu 

 of it. But coupled with the short crops and the 

 enhanced price of flour, was a spirit of speculatioi 

 which had overspread the land. It was universal 

 There was a general distaste for the pursuit o' 

 steady industry and its slow gains, and many ot 

 the more cautious business men, who had been af- 

 fected by it, and who doubred the ultimate profits 

 to be made from land speculations, went into the 

 manufacture of flour. Few in our country have 

 capital of their own, sufficient to carry on the busi- 

 ness. The Banks are therefore resorted to, and 

 for the last five years the means of thjse institu- 

 tions, particularly in the western part cf this State, 

 and northern and central Ohio, have been almost 

 monopolized by the millers. The Banks have 

 been severely censured for u-ranting co a few men 

 of a single class, large facilities and accommoda- 

 tions, while the mechanic, merchant and fiirmer in 

 their immediate neighborhood, and for whose bene- 

 fit they supposed the banks were ceated could not 

 get a dollar. But the banks, like individuals, will 

 generally do what is most for thiir interest; and 

 in ordinary times t!ie banks can riake more money 

 by lending to the millers than ary other class. 

 The business, as a general thing, is pretty safe. 

 The millers give the notes of tie banks an exten- 

 sive circulation in regions of country where they 

 are not likely to return immediately — they get 

 quick returns on their investments, and by sending 

 their flour to New York are able to place funds 

 precisely where the banks wiint them. If large 

 immediate profits are their object, they can't do 

 better than lend to the millers ; but like all who 

 are greedy and avaricious, they are liable at tmies 

 to overreach themselves, and the great losses they 

 are forced occasionally to sustain, render it ques- 

 tionable whether in the long run they would not 

 find it more to their interest to confine their busi- 

 ness to the regular legitimate channel. 



But we intended, when we commenced, simply 



prices, as we have above said, is downward, and 

 some of the banks are getting rather fidgetty about 

 the security of their large loans, and beginning to 

 press for payment. Every miller who is unques- 

 tionably solvent and able to meet his engagements, 

 will soon be required to pay up at wliaiever sacri- 

 fice he may be obliged to make. Like the season 

 of 1832, so well remembered by many in Western 

 New York, it is not unlikely that some, who by a 

 little delay could make their arrangements and 

 ride out the storm in safety, will now go by tiie 

 board, or be severely crippled, by their anxiety to 

 meet all their engagements honorably. — The mil- 

 ler who is deeply and almost hopelessly in, is about 

 the only one who is perfectly safe. 



The banks are forced to sustain him on the prin- 

 ciple of self-preservation, and this is one of the 

 greatest evils of the connection between banks 

 and millers. Milling is like learning in one re- 

 spect — a man must drink " deep or taste not," 

 if he proposes to carry on the business by the aid 

 of bank accommodations; and tiiere are now in 

 western N. York, men of undoubted wealth who owe 

 their good fortune in a great measure to the fact 

 that they were so deeply embarrassed in 1833. 



It may be asked what will be the effect of this 

 state of tilings upon the community .' We answer 

 good. Flour must fall, and by so much will the 

 community be benefited. But in addition to this 

 reduction in price of one of the most important 

 necessaries of life, some of the banks will narrow- 

 ly escape burning their fingers, and taught by the 

 lesson a salutary caution, and by the payments of 

 the millers having more means at command, they 

 will be able and willincr to give greater facilities 

 and accommodations to the public generally. ■ 



The Danger of Betting. — Some weeks since, 

 a clerk of a market near our city, looked into the 

 butter tub of a market man, and thought he discov- 

 ered a small deficiency in the size of lumps. Where- 

 upon he brought forth his balances, with an air of 

 justice, and proceeded to weigh the whole by par- 

 cels. EvOL'y lump was short of weight. So tliat 

 tliiriy pounds of butter (less the illegal deficiency 

 in each lump) was confiscated. 



A week ortwo afterwards, the clerk, in the faith- 

 ful discharge of his duty, stopped at a butter tub, 

 and tried a pound in his scaler — it was correct ; he 

 tried another and another. At length the owner 

 said — " You need not trouble yourself-^you will 

 find all of my butter correct." The clerk looked 

 up, and discovered his old friend of the light lumps. 

 "Perhaps I shall," said he — "biit if I am not mis- 

 taken, I took thirty pounds from you a week since." 



'• It was not from me." 



"It was — I know you." 



" 1 will bet five dollars you never took thirty 

 pounds of butter from me, at any one time." 



" Done." 



The money was staked — and the clerk told Iiis 

 story. It looked blue for the countryman. 



"I admit the loss of thirty lumps of butter," said 

 he, "but to have been thirty pounds, there must 

 have been a pound in each lump." " Now, either 

 tlie clerk did me injustice by confiscating my but- 

 ter for unlawful weight, and I may claim back of 

 him thirty pounds, at 2.') cents per pound, which is 

 Sf7 50 ; or he did not take thirty pounds, and I may 

 claim my bet of five dollars. The clerk gave up 

 the bet. 



and horticulthral register. 

 Boston, Wednesday, July 10, 1839. 



COM-VIENCEMENT OF A NEW VOLUME OF 



THE N. E. FARMER. 

 It would seem ungrateful to commence a new volume 

 of the New Englanii Farmpr, without offering our ac- 

 knovvledgemnts to our subscribers and correspondents 

 for the aid, indulgence, and kindness, which we have 

 leceived from them. We trust their kindness will 

 prove a stimulus to greater exertions lo render the pa- 

 per wortliy of the increasing patronage which it re- 

 ceive*. 



The New England Farmer has now been five years 

 in its teens. We well remember when it first saw the 

 light, and when the child was born the goodies and the 

 gossips every where predicted that It would never live 

 10 grow up ; but its devoted and lamented editor, who 

 acted in the double capacity of midwife and nurse, soon 

 imparted a vigor anil activity to its constitution, which 

 have lirouglu it thus far forward ; and leaves little room 

 to doubt that it will attain the usual longevity of such a 

 periodical. Its firmness and invariable good health are 

 doubtless in iheTnain attributable to the skill and care 

 Iready referrtd to ; for its protector was careful never 

 to admit into it.^ stomach any thing, which might disor- 

 der its digestion ; and though always ready to prescribe all 



rts of recipes and nostrums for others, was like most oth- 

 er wise physicians, altogether averse to using his own 

 medicines in his own family, and careful to supply only 

 the inost simple and substantial food. While we have the 

 honor in any measure of its guardianship, or are in any 

 case called upon to prescribe tor it, we shall in this mat. 

 ter, though wiih unequal steps, attempt to follow in the 

 path of our revered predecessor. 



To drop all figure however, it is nnr desire and pur- 

 pose to make the N. E. Farmer, as far as possible, a ve- 

 hicle of uselol information .and instruction to our brother 

 firmers; to stimulate them to new efforts and enterprises, 

 for till) benefit of their great art ; and to contribute, in the 

 humble form in which we are permitted to labor, to swell 

 the impulse by which this most important of all purely 

 secuhir pursuits is now urged onward in the convictions 

 of far-seeing minds and the affections of public-spirited 

 hearts. We are happy in the Ijclief that our labors have 

 done something towards increasing the public interest 

 in this sidjject; and however imperfect the judgnent 

 and ability with which they have been rendered, we 



1 at least the invaluable consciousness of honest 



purposes, and unflagging zeal. 



The preparation of a weekly ."beet of the size of the 

 N. P.. Farmer, exctuditig in a great measure advertise 

 ments, and restricted in the choice of subjects, is no 

 easy ta.-^k. ll would be an infinitely easier undertaking, if 

 more varie.ty, or miscellaneous matter were allowed, and 

 perhaps quite as useful ; but we hold to constitutional 

 |iledges,and as the Farninri.-i understood to be exclusively 

 agricultural, e.xceptmg the last page, we shall not break 

 the bond, though we are inclined to the belief that most of 

 our readers would prefer a liberal interpretation of jt. 

 There is indeed among our constant readers, but not a- 

 mong our .«ubscribers, once in a while asnarler, whom we 

 despair of always pleasing. Such persons the dinner never 

 suits ; there are too many or too few dishes ; there is too 

 little or too much seasoning ; they want boiled when we 

 have nothing but roast, or they want a ragout or a frica- 

 see when we have nothing but a plain joint. They 

 complain that we do not give them meli>ns in January 



