2-46 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[July, 
reports of live stock. After a brisk business, we note a 
falling off in demand and inquiry for all grades. Road¬ 
sters and trotters are getting to be out of the regular 
market, being animals of luxury, rather than of necessity 
in the present times. Foreign shipments for the week 
ending June 10th, amounted to 151 head, chiefly car- 
horses, for the London “tram-road” (car-routes). A 
number of good carriage-horses were shipped to England. 
Arrangements are being made to receive an importation 
of a number of pure bred French horses for Western 
breeders, which are looked for daily. Prices may be 
quoted as follows; light draft horses, poor, $60 @$100 
head ; coarse, heavy horses, $90 @ $175; fair trotting 
roadsters, $200 @ $.300 $ head; stylish carriage-horses 
are unsalable just now, and no quotations can be given. 
Prices of Feed. 
Bran, per ton.$18.00@$20.00 
Middlings, per ton. 19.00@ 21.00 
Ground Feed, per ton. 15.00® 21.00 
Rinseed-oil-cake. western, per ton. 44.00® 47.00 
Cotton-seed-cake, per ton. 25.50® 40.00 
Chandler’s Scraps, per It. 3@ 4 
Prices of Fertilizers. 
No. 1. Peruv. Guano 10 p. ct. ammonia, standard, 7? ton..$56.50 
do. do. Lobos, do. do. do. 47.50 
do. do. guaranteed, 19 ton, cargo H 56.00 
do. do. rectified, per ton, 9.70 p. c.. 69.00 
do. do. do. do. 3.40 p. c. 51.00 
Soluble Pacific Guano, tfl ton. . . 45.00 
Excelsior Fertilizer Works, Fine Ground Raw Bone,.. .55.00 
Mapes' Complete Manure (Ville formula) p. 1.000 lbs 26.14 
do. do. do. Grain ami Grass, ?! 1,000 lbs. 25.00 
do. Fruit and Vine Manure, do. 17.50 
do. Bone, strictly pure, meal .per ton. 42.00 
do. do. do. extra fine_ do. 40.00 
do. do. do. fine. do. 38.00 
do. do. do. medium. do. 36.00 
do. do. do. dissolved. do. 42.00 
Btockbridge Corn Manure, per acre. 20.00 
” Potato do do 10.00 
Tobacco 
do 
do 
50.00 
Rvc 
do 
do 
10.00 
Wheat 
do 
do 
15.00 
Bowker’s Hill and Drill Fertilizer, per ton. 45.00 
G.vpsmn, Nova Scotia, ground, perton. 8.00 
Nitrate of Potash (95 per cent.), per lb. 9 @9>$c. 
Sulphate ot Potash (potash 44 per cent) per lb— 3'4@i c. 
do. do. (potash 271^ per cent) per lb.. \%®2 c. 
German Potash Salts (potash 12 to 15 p. c. p. ton.$15.00@18.00 
Muriate of Potash (potash 50 per cent), per lb— 2 @2J4c. 
Nitrate of Soda, per lb. 4 c.@4>ic. 
Sulphate of Ammonia (25 percent.), per lb. 4'-«c.@5 c. 
Dried Biood (ammonia 14 per cent) per ton.$45.00®50.00 
o 
containing a great variety of Items, including many 
good Hints and Suggestions which we throw into smaller 
type and condensed form , for want of room elsewhere. 
lit justice to tlie majority of our sub¬ 
scribers, who iiave been renders formany. 
years, articles and illustrations can sel¬ 
dom be repeated, when those wlio desire 
information on a particular subject can 
so cheaply obtain one or more of the baelt 
slumbers containing; what is wanted, 
Back numbers of IBie American A«-ri- 
cuiturist, containing articles referred to 
in the “Basket 5 ’ or elsewhere, can al¬ 
ways be supplied and sent post-paid for 
15 cts. each, or $1,6if per volume. 
Veterinary ShlisesiSioja has a strong 
friend and worker in the American Veterinary College, 
New York. Its fourth annual report shows the Institu¬ 
tion to be in a healthy condition. The live stock inter¬ 
ests suffer enormous losses from lack of properly educated 
veterinarians, one of whom should be located in every 
county of America. There ought to be a score of such 
institutions as this, with a hundred students each, where 
now there is one. The American Veterinary College now 
stands on a footing comparing favorably with European 
institutions, and we wish it all success. A free scholar¬ 
ship is offered to each State Agricultural Society. For 
particulars address A. Liautnrd, 141 W. 54th St., N. Y. 
TTlae ¥7. S. Egitomologicsil Com¬ 
mission. —When the last Congress authorized a Com¬ 
mission to investigate the ravages of the Western 
Locust, It was ridiculed by many papers, but the appoint¬ 
ment. of such men as C. V. Riley, of Mo., Cyrus Thomas, 
of Ill., and A. S. Packard, Jr., of Mass., indicated that the 
(Commission meant business, and if any good could result 
from an investigation, the right men were set at. it. Oc¬ 
casional Bulletins have been issued, giving to the public 
such facts as it was important to make known at once, 
and now the final Report of the Commission is in press. 
This, from the synopsis of its contents, which we have re¬ 
ceived, promises to fully justify the appointment of the 
Commission ; and its value to the locust-ravaged States, 
and indirectly to the whole country, will far outweigh its 
cost. As the Government printing office sends out so 
many publications that no one wants, we trust that, now 
a really useful work is in hand, a liberal supply may be 
printed and distributed. When the Report itself comes 
to hand wo may have more to say about it; suffice it at 
present, to state, that the labors of the Commission show 
that the Locust is not an evil against which we are 
powerless. In this, as in other cases, a full knowledge 
of our enemy, its mode of life, and, so to speak, its strategy 
in warfare, suggest the tactics to be employed in com¬ 
bating it. The mere knowledge of tiie fact that hut little 
is to he feared from the locusts after their first year in a 
new locality, there being abundant natural causes to pre¬ 
vent their increase, is worth all the Commission has 
cosl. The principal means for their destruction to be 
employed by farmers, aside from the encouragement of 
natural agencies, are : tiie destruction of the eggs, which 
may be done by harrowing, plowing, and especially by 
irrigating; tiie driving (which is quite practicable) and 
burning, or crushing, orotherwise destroying young and 
wingless insects. Whatever destructive methods are em¬ 
ployed must he directed towards the insect, either in the 
eggs or its larva; or wingless condition, for when full- 
fledged hut little can he done towards their destruction, 
though it is possible, to some extent, to drive them away 
from a particular field or locality. These matters, and 
many others, are discussed in detail in the Report, which 
is amply illustrated by engravings. The Report, so com¬ 
plete and exhaustive, is a credit, both to the Commission 
and to the Government which authorized it, 
“ r I'Jae Native Flowers and Ferns 
of the UJlilted States,” by Thomas Meehan. Bos¬ 
ton : L. Prang & Co.—Tiie house of Prang & Co., so 
widely and favorably known for the excellence of their 
chromo-lithographs, has undertaken to publish a work 
with the above title. As a rule, we do not notice works 
“ published by subscription only,” and not put in the 
general book trade, and only depart from our custom in 
the present case in view of the enterprise shown in the 
undertaking, and to express our wishes, for its success. 
The work starts witli a first series of 21 parts, each part 
to contain four chromo-lithographs, with descriptive text, 
and all to form two volumes. Should this first series 
meet witli success, we understand that, it is intended to 
continue it with others. No systematic arrangement is 
followed, cacli part already issued containing flowering- 
plants of different families, and ferns. A work which 
will give portraits of our native plants has long been 
needed, and though several attempts have been made in 
this direction during the last half century, they have all, 
from one cause or another, come to a premature end. 
The present work lias elements of popularity : its en¬ 
gravings, being colored, are showy and attractive, and 
the text gives only a brief scientific description of the 
plant, but is mainly devoted to such popular talk as the 
subject suggests. The first two numbers, as might be ex¬ 
pected in a new enterprise, show to the critical botanist 
defects which will be avoided in future issues, and, on 
the whole, offer promise of not only an ornamental, hut 
useful series of portraits of our native plants. 
r JT!*e IVew York Iloi’ticiilinti’ul So¬ 
ciety held its regular monthly meeting, at their rooms, 
on Tuesday, June 4th. The semi-annual exhibition being 
so near at hand, hut little was shown except a few very 
fine strawberries and roses. Any disappointment on 
this account, was offset by the lecture on the “ Sum¬ 
mer Management of Large Fruits,” by Mr. P. T. Quin, 
of Newark, N. J. The lecture, given without notes, 
occupied half an hour, and was replete with valuable in- I 
formation, clearly and tersely given. Among the points 
forcibly illustrated by Mr. Quin, was the necessity for 
thinning fruit, the need of cultivating the orchard, and 
the folly of planting dwarf trees (in which, by the way, 
ho encountered strong opposition); he denounced dwarfs 
without qualification, urging that standards only should 
he planted in the orchard. The tree peddlers, the men 
with the wonderful pictures, lie classed as the most un¬ 
mitigated humbugs—asserting that they had done more 
to discourage fruit-planting, than all other causes com¬ 
bined, as they not only supplied miserable trees when 
they did send them at all, but they were utterly indiffer¬ 
ent to the correctness as to variety of those sent. 
8s if tlse Si'cetl, or the Breed?—“H. 
C. B.,” Lake County, Ind. It is not the feed that makes 
the difference in cows as to dairy qualities; although 
feed, of course, is needed alike by ail. But what would 
make one cow fat, goes in another to make milk, and in 
a third to cream and butter. Tiie same food that would 
make a good dairy cow yield 20 quarts of milk, and more 
than a pound of butter per day, would make a Shorthorn 
or Hereford fat for the butcher; and some cows will re¬ 
quire much more food titan others, to produce the same 
results. There are breeds, as the Dutch, and tiie Ayr¬ 
shire, tiiat have been for scores of years bred for the milk 
or cheese dairy, while the Jersey has been bred for a but¬ 
ter cow. Some native cows may he as good as any pure¬ 
bred, but out of 100 natives there may not he one such 
cow ; while in 100 pure-bred cows there will probably he 
more than half of them equal or superior to the best na¬ 
tive. A long course of breeding for a special purpose 
cannot fail to he more effective than haphazard breeding. 
IF H. M. B., of Waterbury, Ct., had looked on 
page 233 of the June number, he would have seen the re¬ 
ply to his question about “soot.” Please look the pages 
through when desiring information, and you may save 
both yourself and the Editors much time. 
Fstiniating; tiie Weight oF Ani¬ 
mals, etc.— “ C. & C. A.,” Del Norte, Col. There are 
no certain rules for estimating the weight of animals or 
hay; these depend wholly upon the character of the 
things estimated, and which can only be judged of by 
an expert. A Texan steer could not be measured by the 
same rules as a Shorthorn or a first-class grade; nor could 
an ordinary hog he judged by the standard of a Poland- 
China or a Berkshire. So with hay; the rules are as 
various as the kinds of hay, its condition and the amount 
of pressure to which it has been subjected. The rules 
for hay in general use are as follows, for a ton: 
Timothy a year in mow or stack. 500 cubic foet. 
Timothy from the bottom of stack. 400 “ “ 
Timothy newly stacked. 700 “ “ 
Clover stacked for some months. 700 “ “ 
Clover, new. 900 “ “ 
Timothy and clover, old stacked. 600 “ “ 
Timothy and clover, new. 800 “ “ 
Common meadow-lia v, old. 800 “ “ 
Common meadow-hay, new.1,000 “ “ 
These are approximations only, and would, at the best, 
only mislead a person who was not acquainted with the 
quality and proper condition of the hay. For cattle, the 
rules are just as arbitrary and uncertain, or more so, as 
the fineness of bone, “feel" of hide, amount of offal, 
age, and condition, are all items of consideration. 
'fl'lae Time For CsaiSiing’ Wheat.—It 
is a fact first observed and made known by an English 
farmer and agricultural writer, Mr. John Hannam—re¬ 
cently deceased—and widely confirmed by many ex¬ 
periments during several years past, that the later stages 
of the ripening process diminish the proportion of flour 
and nutritive value of the wheat. The time to secure 
the best grain is when the kernel is still soft enough to 
be crushed, but is comparatively free from moisture, 
and breaks into meal between the thumb-nails. 
Bean Weevils.—“N. L.,” Bellevue, S. C. 
The history of this insect is, in brief, this: The weevil 
deposits its eggs in or on the beans when they are very 
young, and on the vine. The “worms,” or maggots, 
feed on the bean, and when full-grown go into the 
dormant pupa state ; they change to perfect beetles—for 
such the weevils are—about planting time. They appear 
to he more troublesome in the Southern than in the 
Northern States, but are increasing everywhere. Mr. 
White, in liis excellent “ Gardening for the South,” ad¬ 
vises to store seed beans in glass or earthen jars, closely 
corked, into each of which is poured a teaspoonful of 
spirits of turpentine. This, of course, affords no help 
for beans intended for food, as by the time the beans are 
ripe the weevil is usually full-grown and in the pupa 
state. If a whole neighborhood would burn their 
“ buggy ” beans, and procure a fresh stock of seed quite 
free from insects, they would be likely to escape the pest 
for a while, but so long as the insect is planted, so long 
may a crop be expected—and this kind of crop rarely fails. 
Soil A naly sis.— “ H. L. B.,” London, Can¬ 
ada. There is no “ simple method of determining the 
proportionate constituents of soils.” Chemical analysis 
can only be learned by long study and careful training; 
and only practised with accuracy by one constantly at 
work in the laboratory. To become a skilled chemist, 
one must have a thorough education at some good agri¬ 
cultural college, or scientific school. 
Malting; Manure.—“A. A. R.” When 
manure is “ fire-fanged,” or overheated, the most valuable 
portion—the nitrogen—is driven off, although the mineral 
elements remain. To prevent overheating, it is not re¬ 
quired to continually fork over the manure, hut simply 
to compact tiie surface of the heap, and to cover it with a 
thin layer of ear’ll. Unleached ashes may be mixed with 
bone-meal, if care is taken to cover the mixture with 
plaster, or earth; and the action of the ashes will act 
upon the bones to reduce them to plant-food ; lint unless 
the earth or plaster is used, there will he a great waste of 
nitrogen from the bones. 
PoisoninsoFSliecp by Wild Pars- 
nip.—“E. A.,” Gervais, Oregon, writes that he lost 
several sheep from poisoning by eating wild parsnips 
which grew in the pasture. The symptoms were dulness, 
ears drooping, eyes dull, often lying down, staggering 
gait, and avoiding the rest of the flock; death ensuing 
the second day. Others were saved by giving them a 
tablespoonful of saleratus dissolved in half a pint of 
warm water.—In nearly all cases of sheep poisoning, 
