m:'- 



1864. 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



203 



ists seem to consider indispensable to taste and 

 recommend some insect or other. Darwin assures 

 us that the caterpiller of the hawmoth is delicious ; 

 Kirby and Spencer think the ant good eating, and 

 push their entomological zeal so far as to distin- 

 guish between them the flavor of the abdomen and 

 the thorax ; and Reamir recommends the caterpillar 

 of the plastic grama as a delicious dish. 



How much we eat, and upon how much we might 

 live, are curious matters of speculation, and in an 

 article on the snbject in an English Review, we 

 find the following suggestive facts: 



The accounts which travelers give of the quan- 

 tity of food which can be consumed are extraor- 

 dinary. Sir John Ross estimates that an Ei?qui- 

 maux will eat perhaps twenty pounds of flesh and 

 oil daily. Compare this with Valentin's six pounds, 

 or with Canaro's twelve ounces of solids and four- 

 teen ounces of wine. Captain Parry tried, as a 

 matter of curiosity, how much an Esquimaux lad, 

 who was scarcely full grown, would consume, if 

 left to himself, weighed the following articles 

 before being given. He was twenty hours getting 

 through them, and certainly did not consider tlie 

 quantity extraordinary: — Sea-horse flesh, hard 

 froze, four pounds four ounces; do. do. boiled, 

 four pounds four ounces ; bread and bread dust, 

 one pitund and twelve ounces. To this must be 

 added one and a quarter pints of rich gravy-soup, 

 three wine glasses of raw spirits, one tumblerful of 

 strong grog, one gallon of water. 



Captain Cochrane, in his "Journey through 

 Russia and Siberian Tartary," relates that the 

 Admiral Saritcheft' was informed that one of the 

 Yakutis ate, in four and twenty hours, the hind 

 quarters of a large ox, twenty pounds of fat, and a 

 proportionate quantity of melted butter for his 

 drink. To test the truth of the statement, the 

 Admiral gave him a thick porridge of rice, boiled 

 down with three pounds of butter, weighing 

 together twenty-eight pounds, and although the 

 glutton had already breakfasted, he sat down to it 

 with great eagerness and consumed the whole 

 without stiring from the spot. Captain Cochrane 

 also states that he has seen three Yakutis devour 

 a reindeer at a meal, and a calf weighing about 

 two hundred pounds is not too much for a meal 

 for five of these gluttons. 



Some caterpillars daily eat double their weight 

 in food; a cow eats forty-six pounds daily, and a 

 mouse eats eight times as much, in proportion to 

 its own weight, as is eaten by a man. But when 

 such facts nre cited, we must bear in mind the 

 enormous diff rence in the nature of the food thus 

 weighed, their relative amounts of water, and the 

 indigestible material The same caution is requi- 

 site in speaking of a man's diet. 



Oxen and Horses. 



The enormous waste of horse-life by our armies, 

 both Xorth and South, affords material for serious 

 consideration to stock raisers, -and farmers gen- 

 erally. According to Gen. Halleck's official report, 

 our cavalry average a new set of horses every two 

 months ! We do not know what proportion of 

 them are entirely used up, but from what we can 

 learn, we presume that at least one half of them 

 are killed or die outright, while the other half are 



mostly permanently disabled for such service. Of 

 the latter, perhaps one half may with ordinary care, 

 be able to do an average amount of farm work for 

 some years to come. But few of them, however, 

 will ever find their way back to Jfew England, or 

 the West, from which they were taken ; so that, 

 for all practical purposes, we may safely calculate 

 that none of the thousand horses taken from our 

 farms for the army, will ever return. — Their labor 

 is entirely lost to our farmers. 



Prices of all kinds of stock and produce must 

 rule high for a long time to come, but this enor- 

 mous consumption of horses must inevitably exert 

 a double pre>sure in regard to them, and we desire 

 to call the attention of our farmers to the important 

 points connected with the subject. 



This scarcity of horses, and consequent high 

 prices, will stimulate the breeding of horses for 

 some years to come, and our farmers may be cer- 

 tain that colts will pay better than ever before. 

 As manual labor will also be high, it will generally 

 be for the interest of farmers to raise those things 

 which require the least of it; and in this view, 

 the raising of coits has some decided advantages. 

 Each one however, must be his own judge as to 

 whether colt-raising may be profitable under his 

 circumstances. 



The second point to which we wish to call atten- 

 tion, is in relation to the employment of oxen, in 

 place of horses upon our farms. — There are but few 

 farms on which oxen may not be kept with decided 

 profit. A yoke of oxen can be bought for the 

 price of a good horse, can be kept almost or quite 

 as cheap ; will do nearly double the work on a farm ; 

 and if carefully used and well fed, will sell, after 

 the crops are all in, for a profit over their cost. 

 There are but few farmers who could not easily 

 realize a profit of thirty or fifty dollars a year by 

 purchasing oxen in the early part of the winter, 

 and selling again the next fall, or early winter. 

 By generous feeding, and careful usage, they will 

 give a net profit on their growth, besides doing 

 work enough to pay for all they eat. We know 

 farmers do realize a profit of fifty to one hundred 

 dollars a year, by adopting a similar course to that 

 we have recommended. 



Our object at this time is merely to call atten- 

 tion to these two points, which seem to us to be 

 deserving of the serious attention of our farmers 

 generally. The question of the comparative cost 

 of horse and ox labor, is one of greater importance 

 than is generally supposed, and at another time we 

 may consider it at greater length. Meanwhile, we 

 should be pleased to hear from our farmer readers 

 upon this subject. — Ilass. Plowman. 



Illinois Chicory ix the N". Y. Markets. — The 

 market is firm, but has been quiet since our last. 

 5,000 lbs. handsome American Root brought lie 

 cash. We have been permitted to examine a sam- 

 ple of the American Chicory, above alluded to. It 

 is much clearer than the foreign, being entirely 

 free from mould, and was raised in Cook county, 

 Illinois, by Messrs. Floto & Co. The soil of that . 

 section is said to be admirably adapted to its cul- 

 tivation, and Messrs. F. & Co. have conclusively 

 demonstrated, during the last four years, that it 

 can be produced on our Western prairie lands in 

 unlimited quantities. — N. Y. Shipping List. 



