60 
CAKE OF YOUNG STOCK, ETC. 
Of fruit, we have not yet extensive collections, 
but we are rapidly advancing with our orchards, 
which contain some of the choicest specimens of 
all kinds, as might have been seen from the 
samples recently sent to your Fruit Conventions 
in Buffalo and Syracuse. But I must leave this 
branch of our horticulture to some of our more 
exclusively professional pomologists, who are 
abundantly able to do justice to the subject. 
Near Mount Joliet, Ills., J. D. S. 
Nov. 29th, 1849. 
►•-. : 
AMOUNTS OF SUNDRY ARTICLES OF MER- 
CHANDISE 
Imported into the United States during the year 
ending December 1st, 1849. 
Woolen fabrics, $11,566,082 
Cotton do 9,634,467 
Silk do 15,090,811 
Flax do 4,889,551 
Miscellaneous 3,794,418 
Total, $44,975,329 
So much for dry goods. We then have 1 12,010 
tons of iron, costing $4,155,480, besides hardware, 
and numerous other articles, such as sugar, coffee, 
tea, brandy, gin,wines, spices, toys, et id omne genus. 
Now, as there is a large proportion of the raw 
material entering into each of the above fabrics, 
our agriculturists can readily understand that 
their own interests would be largely promoted, 
by the establishment of additional manufactures 
in this country, to consume their surplus pro- 
ducts of wool, cotton, flax, and hemp, and to 
stimulate the production of silk and other arti- 
cles. Besides consuming the raw materials that 
enter into foreign goods, and which are now, 
(excepting the cotton,) exclusively furnished 
abroad, this change would be beneficial in two 
ways — first, by diverting labor from the present 
overloaded agricultural classes ; and, second, by 
giving an additional demand for all the other 
products which these laborers would require 
while thus engaged. All the iron, copper, lead, 
and zinc ores and coal consumed in their manu- 
facture, would, of course, be clear gain to us, as 
a nation, as they would otherwise slumber un- 
heeded, for ages to come, as they have for ages 
{tast, when the country was inhabited only by 
ndians. 
Salt, Mixed with Lime and Magnesia, as 
Manure. — Will some of our readers, in the neigh- 
borhood of the New- York, Kanawha, or other sa- 
lines, inform us whether the substances, (bitterns,) 
above-named, are ever used for agricultural pur- 
poses, on what soils and crops, how applied, and 
with what success? The two latter are fre- 
quently detected, sometimes in large quantities, 
in evaporating salt water from springs, and are 
only an incumbrance about the furnaces. We 
think their application cannot fail to be attended 
with great advantages as fertilisers, for almost 
every soil — and certainly to the extent they are 
required as food for crops. 
CARE OF YOUNG STOCK. 
The first winter is the most trying time for 
young animals, and farmers should pay extra 
care to their health and comfort. They ought 
to have the open air as much as possible ; and it 
is well to let them have convenient shelter during 
the storms, except in very stormy weather, when 
they ought to be put into close warm stables. 
They ought not to be confined in yards with 
older cattle, for fear of goring them, and they 
have not such a good chance for their food. 
They should be fed regularly, and have a chance 
to the water. 
In addition to hay, lambs and calves ought to 
be fed daily with a small portion of roots, except 
in extremely cold weather. As for colts, they 
ought to be fed daily with ground feed, mixed 
with clover heads or chaff, which I think is pre- 
ferable to oats or any other whole feed. They 
ought never to stand on a board floor, as it causes 
ringbone. 
When I was a boy, I lived in Orange county, 
learning a trade ; my employer used to keep four 
horses ; he had two stalls in the barn, one with 
a plank floor and the other a ground floor. In 
the winter, when horses were not much used, 
those that stood on the plank floor were much 
stiffer in their limbs or joints when they came 
out of the stable, than those that stood on the 
ground floor. Since I have been a farmer, living 
on Long Island these last twenty years, I used 
the ground floor for my horses and colts ; and I 
like it better than plank floor, except the 
saving of the manure and the urine which is 
wasted. I went to sea after I served out my ap- 
prenticeship in Orange county, as the second 
war with England had just broke out, and I had 
entered the service of the navy as a midshipman, 
which service I staid in for eighteen years ; and 
after the war, I was on the South- Sea Station; 
and while on that station I had a great deal to do 
with horses, as there are plenty in South America, 
I saw a great many, and rode a vast number. 
I found them very nimble of foot, their hoofs 
hard. I was informed by the owners that they 
stood on ground floors, and that they liked it 
better than a hard one ; and that their horses' 
food was barley and barley straw ; for that was 
all that they gave them. The horses were in 
good condition. A Long-Island Subscriber. 
Gowanus, L. I., Dec. 29th, 1849. 
DRILLING GRAIN— THICK AND THIN SOWING. 
I have seen a good deal lately about Pennock's 
wheat drill, and its great superioity over broad- 
cast seeding. I am a decided advocate for the 
use and employment of all labor-saving machin- 
ery, coming within the limited means of the great 
body of farmers ; but I very much question if 
the friends of the above do not attach more im- 
portance to it than its merits really warrant. 
Mr. Charles Noble, on the cover of the Plow, 
Loom, a«d Anvil, states that from No. 1, an acre 
broad casted with two bushels of seed, he reaped 
27-J- bushels ; while from No. 2, an acre along- 
side, but of inferior quality, drilled with 1£ 
bushels of seed, he secured 35 bushels; thus 
saving 3 pecks of seed, and gaining 7| bushels 
