654 Transactions of the American Institute. 



some infants have thin skulls, or on the virtue of sorrel as a cure for 

 cancer. We hear nothing of chilblains, of the noxious effects of tea, 

 or the curse that follows the eating of flesh. The letters are strictly 

 agricultural ; thej pertain to rural affairs only, and are eminently 

 proper to read in a farmers' club. We are glad of farm statistics 

 whenever we can get them. 



Mr. F. D. Curtis. — In Saratoga county, the other day, a superin- 

 tendent of a cheese factory told me that in the dairies represented at 

 his establishment, the average product had been ninety dollars per 

 cow, for the season. 



Mr. John Crane. — I keep from twelve to thirteen cows, and mj 

 daughter, who is m}-- clerk, informed me on New Years' day, that 

 beside all we have consumed in the family, the income in money from 

 milk has been, for the year 1869, $1,426, besides the value of three 

 or four calves sold. 



Market Abuses and their Remedy. 

 Mr. J. B. Lyman, Chairman of the Committee on Markets, pre- 

 sented the following report of progress : Your committee, in an 

 endeavor to discharge the duty assigned to them of suggesting relief 

 from certain wrongs and abuses in the disposing of farm produce in 

 this metropolis, report that the subject is one of great embarrassment 

 as well as of great importance. We find that the country supports 

 a large army of brokers, go-betweens, agents or middle-men, who 

 make sometimes a precarious living, and sometimes excessive gains 

 by handling produce. In the matter of apples, as an instance, thou- 

 sands of barrels come to the city and sell for two dollars and seventy - 

 five cents and three dollars, or three dollars and fifty cents. They 

 are repacked, and, after rejecting a few of the smaller ones, the most 

 of what remains are sold at five dollars. We cannot but deem it an 

 injustice that a few hundred men should make half as much, and 

 sometimes fully as much, by selling the apple crop that comes to New 

 York, as the thousands of anxious, hard-working farmers, who plant 

 the trees, tend the orchards, pick the fruit, and send it to market. 

 So in the article of butter. The uj)-town consumer pays from ten to 

 fifteen cents, and oftfen twent}^ cents, more than the butter brings at 

 first hands. There are those who think these are matters of trade, 

 and must be regulated by the laws of supply and demand. To 

 show the fallacy of this position, we submit an instance from 

 the practice of a neighboring city. This butter I bought from the 



