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% Iffurnal far llje larm, '^3SS^M^^^^ %^ <i)'ix\i-^ an^ \\t |insik. 



Vol, X— No. 3. ALB ANY, N. Y., JULY 16. 18 57. Whole No. 237. 



Published by Luther Tuoker & Son, 



RDITOilS AND PROPRIETORS. 



AsrooiATK Ed., J. J. THOMAS, Ukicui SrnisoB, N. Y. 



AGENTS IN NEW-YORK- 

 0. M. Saitoh &. Co., As. Book Publlnliorfl, 140FuUon-St. 



TsRMS.— To City Suhaorlbera, whoso papors are deliver- 

 ed by onrriors, $2.50 per year. 



To M:ill Siibscriliors, $2.00 » year if paid In advance, or 

 $2.60 if not paid in advance. 



Tlio poatago on tlile paper is but 0>^ cents per quarter, 

 payable in advance, to any part of the United States, ex- 

 cept the county of Albany, whore it goes free. 



THE CULTIVATOR.— Tl\i8 standard monthly Agrl. 

 cultural and Horticultural Journal— the fifth volume of 

 the third series of which commences with the year 1857— 

 Is now made up from the pages of this paper, and publish- 

 ed at the low price of Fiftt Crnts a year. 



Contents of thia Number. 



The Farm. 



Notes About the 'West j 41 



kow mnoh Clover Seed will yon Roqntre neirt Bprhijr, 42 

 Chemical Composition of Wheat Flour, 42 



Entomoloiiy — Inquiry about Grastjlioppcrs— Answer by 



Dr. As 



42 



Beep and Shallow Plowing, by P., 43 



Notes for the Week, 48 



Inquiries and Answers 48 



Trial of Reapers, Mowers, &.C., at Chestertown, Eas- 

 tern Shore of Maryland, by tljo Maryland State Ag. 



Society, by E. L. R., 46 



Trial of Reapers and Mowers in Ohio, 45 



Th« <9razl«r. 



Mr. Sotham's Reply to C. M. Clay 44 



Horticultural UeparliuenC. 



Notes about Fruits 40 



Dwarf and Standard Mixed, 46 



On Transplanting Trees, by T. S. C, 40 



Tho Chicharra— a New Variety of Pea, by Jaubs A. 



Fbdkn, 46 



Oallfornla Orcharding, 47 



The Florbl. 



Tho Cineraria or Cape Aster, by E. S 47 



The Kllehen (Sarden. 



Tho Hubbard Squash, by ,Ias. J. H. GnBOouv, 47 



Domestic Ecouumy. 



Elderberry Wine and Syrup, 47 



The Fireside. 



Letters from India— II...... 48 



The Microscope and American Mlcroeoopea, by S. W. 



JonNSON j9u 48 



Tho Norse Folk— How Manufactures are carried on in 

 Sweden— Two of tiie Trees of Scandinavia— A Model 



Farm— Stables— a Good Dog— Wages, 60, 61 



Rural Life, by C. N. Bembnt, 61 



Lbirukb IIodr ; 



Kntie Glover, by Crrss, 66 



A Provident Reynard 66 



Met at Every Turn, 66 



Science and Art. 



Phoaphoresence of Insects 66 



Philosophy in Court, 66 



Illuslratluns. 



Traveling Carriage of India, 49 



Earthen Vessel for Balliing, 49 



Kews, Market*, dee. 



Record of the Times, 62 



Farm Produce Markuts, 63 



Notes about the West. 



OAOO, 1 



OKOWTU AND PROSITCTS — 

 RAILIIOAD FACILITIBS— tub ILLINOIS CENTRAL COMPANY 

 — TIIK STATR and tub FAR WEST MADE TRIBUTARY. 



To realize the force of tho line, 

 "Westward the star of tho empire takes its way," 

 as applied to our country, one must do something more 

 than roll over " the groat west" in the rail-cars. Ob- 

 servation in this way however extensive, is confined to 

 a very narrow space, and that generally of the least 

 productive and most forbidding character ; and tho in- 

 fonualion to be gathered in casual conversation with 

 fellow-travellers and at the slopping places in tho prin- 

 cipal towns, is of altogether too meagre and unreliable 

 a kind, to enable one to form any correct opinion of 

 the agricultural capacities of Prairie Land. In spend- 

 ing some tiiuo at several of the chief towns, or cities 

 as they arc there uniformly called, in Illinois and Wis- 

 consin, I had good opportunities of learning tho prices of 

 "city lots," and tho perfect wildnoss with which the 

 fever of speculation rages in many of them. A"d ^'pH 

 I gone no further I should have returned l<. : 

 lika many olhece, in the full oonvictioD th < 

 people were verging on insanity upon tho 

 "corner lots" and the value of mother eiu i 

 "square foot," — as indeed they really seem 'i. \"- n 

 some places — Chicago and Milwaukee for iustancc. It 

 is well known that in tho former, land two or three 

 miles out of town, itself littlo better than a swamp, 

 with no streets or improvements — except those on the 

 maps, is held at higher prices tlian in the upper part 

 of the city of New-York. So in Milwaukee, although 

 rates for out-lots by no means compare with tliose at 

 Chicago, yet one might suppose from tho sum a-skod 

 for 24 feet by 120, that land was one of the very Boar- 

 cest things to he found in that vicinity. 



Well informed as I was in relation to the growth and 

 rapid extension of Chicago, as well as in regard to its 

 commercial statistics, I must nevertheless confess to 

 great surprise at the high prices to which real estate 

 has been forced by tho mania for speculation so preva- 

 lent for somo time past. Tho extreme point must now 

 have been nearly reached j and, although prices may 

 not exceed what at some future period will become 

 actual values, many of the vast "fortunes" supposed 

 to have been accumulated during their present advance- 

 ment, must pass away like the shadows of the morning 

 before that day arrives. Tho market for speculation 

 ore long will cease, and the demand will then he lim- 

 ited to tho areas successively needed for purposes of 

 improvement — tosupply tho requirements of thogrowing 

 commerce and population of the city. Tho necessities 

 of speculators can but compel thom, so soon as this 

 change shall occur, to sacrifices that will inevitably re- 

 duce, for a time at least, tho valuation of most, if not 

 all that large territory lying away from compact 

 business localities, and now bartered and deeded at 

 figures on which its owners are considered millionaires. 



But, on tho other hand, tho prospects of Chicago — 

 although she may experience times of depression and 

 re-action, — from her position as tho entro-pol and out- 

 lot of the incalculable riches developing with such 

 wonderful rapidity in tho vast tributary regions of tho 

 prairies, can hardly fail to justify oven the highest ex- 



pectations, nor should wo bo surprised to see her rank 

 at no very distant time, as the second city of tub 

 KKruBLic. To say that she is already the largest grain 

 exporting mart of the world, is only to mention the 

 beginning of that immense trade which must result 

 from the further and better cultivation of the lands of 

 Illinois ana the far west. As yet, but tho first steps as 

 it were, havo been taken in opening up this almost 

 boundless extent of fertile soil to a productive popula- 

 tion, the fruits of whoso agricultural and mechanical 

 labor is all of it to find a market and outlet, and whose 

 vast consumption is in turn to bo supplied through the 

 warehouses, by the vessels, and over the railroads of 

 Chicago. 



The ease and cheapness with which tho \irairic8 are 

 brought under cultivation, and the facilities both for 

 marketing their products and procuring supplies for the 

 new settler, over the perfect network of rails with 

 which the State is laid, are such as to render the pros- 

 pective increase in the yield of Indian corn and other 

 ~rrMTV ■<n'l in tl," " miir„iri><>t„r» " "f l-xef and pork, 

 ipidity, ox- 



tion and wealth of Illinois, would now havo been near- 

 ly or quite double what they are. The credit given by 

 owner-i, and the comparatively moderate prices at 

 which many are willing to sell — from S5 to 815 per 

 acre — nevertheless offer sufficient inducements to those 

 who prefer to pay for railroad privileges rather than go 

 beyond thom to buy cheaper, and are leading to a won- 

 derfully rapid filling up of the unbroken lands both of this 

 State and of Wisconsin. The immense advertising on the 

 part of the Illinois Central R. R. Company, and the 

 favorable terms on which its territory is offered, have 

 manifested i far-seeing sagacity and a spirit of enter- 

 prise unusual in a corporation, and have been more 

 effective in attracting public attention to the whole 

 State, than perhaps any other single cause that has 

 operated towards its present prosperity. Not only has 

 this company availed itself of tho circulation of nearly 

 every paper of repute, by liberal advertisements, but 

 its handbills in diverse languages have been sown 

 broadcast wherever a railroad could carry them, with 

 an energy and profuseness, now yielding a harvest, both 

 to the stockholders and the State, almost inestimable in 

 extent. 



. It is not only in Illinois that every acre brought 

 under tho plow must aid in swelling tho revenue of 

 Chicago merchants and shippers, but the long trains of 

 emigrants constantly pressing on for the still unsold 

 government lands of Iowa and Minnesota, will all of 

 them in a greater or less degree contribute to its en- 

 largement and join in multiplying its business and 

 riches. It must be their head market and chief depot 

 of supplies, and every inch of railroad graded, and 

 every furrow of new earth opened in those States, must 

 add their production and traffic to the increasing streams 

 that now center here. With all this to look forward to, 

 it is difficult to condemn the extravagant expectations 

 in which so many have indulged, and if wo are to ex- 

 pect a revulsion, it is one which can only in the end 



