1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



507 



who have gum shellac dissolved will do woU to 

 brush the gnawed places over with that before 

 banking up. Many valuable trees may be saved 

 by this process — but perhaps not all. If gnawed 

 places are found in the winter, or early spring, 

 they should be kept covered with snow, or wrapt 

 up at once to prevent their becoming dry and hard. 

 Very much will depend u])on this. If girdled en- 

 tirely around the tree, scions must -be inserted in 

 order to keep up the circulation. We have some 

 interesting facts to communicate on this subject. 



MINNESOTA, 



We have before us a well-printed pamphlet of 

 126 pages, with the following title : — "MINNESO- 

 TA : Its Progress and Capabilities. Being the 

 Second Annual Report of the Commissioner of 

 Statistics for the years 1860 and 1861. And con- 

 taining an abstract of the U. S. Census." The 

 mechanical execution of the work reflects credit 

 upon Mr. Wjl. R. Marshall, the State printer 

 at St. Paul. 



In a speech made by Mr. Seward, at St. Paul, 

 a year or two since, he said, — "Here is the place, 

 the central place, where the Agriculture of the 

 richest region of North America must pour out its 

 tributes to the whole world." We have been 

 greatly interested in looking over the pages of 

 this work, and as much surprised as pleased at 

 the wonderful resources and developments of this 

 new world. Mr. J. A. Wheelock, the Commis- 

 sioner of Statistics, has embodied such a budget 

 of facts and intelligent observations upon them as 

 is seldom met with.- The country seems to be 

 rich in all the elements essential to a rapid growth 

 in population and almost unbounded wealth — in 

 minerals, timber of various kinds, in the cereal 

 grains, in rich native grasses, in abundant water 

 privileges and communications M'ith the rest of 

 the world, and in a climate highly favorable to 

 health and the production of the great staples for 

 sustaining human and animal life. 



The following facts are collated from the official 

 statistics of Minnesota : 



Rapid as has been the growth of the new West- 

 ern States, Minnesota has surpassed them all in 

 the rapidity of its progress. Its population in 

 1850 was 5,330; in 1860, 172,022. Its agricul- 

 tural development has been even more remarkable. 



The number of acres of plowed land in 1850 was 

 1,900; in 1854, 15,000; in 1 860, 433,267— hav- 

 ing increased nearly thirty fold in six years. 



The number of bushels of wheat produced in 

 1850 was 1,401 ; in 1854, 7,000; in 1860, 5,001,- 

 432 bushels, being nearly thirty bushels to each 

 inhabitant, or four times as much as the whole 

 wheat crop of New England in 1850. 



The whole amount of grain and potatoes pro- 

 duced in Minnesota in 1850 was 71,709 bushels; 

 in 1860 it was 14,093,517 bushels — mostly in the 

 small grains. What a progress for ten years ! 



This rapid agricultural growth has been achieved 

 chiefly since the collapse of land speculation in 

 1857. In 1858 Minnesota imported bread and 

 provisions. In 1861 she exported 3,000,000 bush- 

 els of wheat alone. 



Minnesota is probably the best wheat State in 

 the Union, with the exception of California, and 

 perhaps Wisconsin. The statistics of her wheat 

 crop show an average yield in 1860 of twenty-two 

 bushels per acre, and in 1859 of nineteen busliels 

 —these results being from fifty to tliree hundred 

 ])er cent, greater than that of the principal wheat 

 States, with the exceptions noted. In 1859, for 

 example, the average yield of Iowa was four and 

 one-third bushels per acre ; of Ohio, seven and 

 one-third bushels. Illinois, according to a high 

 local authority, produces from year to year not 

 more than eight bushels per acre, and fifteen bush- 

 els is considered an unusually large average for 

 the best wheat States. The comparative exemp- 

 tion of Minnesota from the disease and insects 

 which ravage the wheat crops of other States, 

 gives it a great advantage in the cultivation of 

 this most valuable staple. 



Minnesota is often supposed to be too far north 

 for coi'n. This is a great mistake, founded on the 

 popular fallacy that the latitude governs climate. 

 But climates grow warmer towards the west coasts 

 of continents, and although its winters are cold, 

 the summers of Minnesota are as warm as those 

 of Southern Ohio. It may surprise some readers 

 to know that the mean summer heat of St. Paul is 

 precisely that of Philadelphia, five degrees further 

 south, and that it is considerably warmer during 

 the whole growing season than Chicago, three de- 

 grees further South. The products of the soil 

 confirm the indications of the Army Meteorologi- 

 cal Register. The average yield of corn in 1860 

 was thirty-five and two-thirds bushels per acre, 

 and in 1859 — a bad year — twenty-six bushels. By 

 comparison, in the latter year, Iowa produced but 

 twenty-three and one-half bushels per acre, and 

 Ohio, the Queen of the corn States, but twenty- 

 nine bushels. In Illinois — of which corn is the 

 chief staple — Mr. Lincoln, now President of the 

 United States, in the course of an agricultural ad- 

 dress in 1859, stated that the "average crop from 

 year to year does not exceed twenty bushels per 

 acre." 



Hens Eating Eggs. — A writer in the London 

 Field says that hens eating their eggs is often ow- 

 ing to the form of the nest, and sug<^ests that the 

 proper form is that of a plate, shallow, that she 

 may not have to jump down on the eggs, and flat 

 on the bottom, so that when she treads on them, 

 they will roll aside, and let her feet slip easily be- 

 tween them. She can then pass her bill among 

 them, as she tucks them under her, and shuffle 

 them together with her wings without hurting 

 them. If, on the contrary, the nest is made in the 

 form of a basin, the eggs press against each oth- 

 er, and are liable to be crushed by her efi'orts-to 

 push her feet between them, or to alter their posi- 

 tion with her beak or wings. When an egg is 

 broken, most hens will eat it, and, as hatching 

 time approaches, the eggs become more brittle ; 

 and in a deep or badly-form.ed nest, the chicks are 

 very apt to be crushed and killed between the oth- 

 er egss. bv the movements of the hen. 



