AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS IN MICHIGAN AND OHIO. 
371 
winter, and the moles will not disturb the bark. If 
the muck has to be carted a great distance, a quantity 
as small as one bushel might answer. I have never 
applied anything as a manure for apple trees on 
warm land equal to muck. J. W. 
Union Dale , Duchess Co. 
AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS IN MICHIGAN 
AND OHIO.—No. 2. 
The Miami valley and country adjacent is, par 
eminence , the great pork growing country of the West 
Other sections furnish large amounts of pork, but 
none of so great an extent is so exclusively devoted 
to its production. Distilleries, too, abound along the 
whole line of the river, which, together with its 
tributary, afford large quantities of water power. 
These convert their grain into another form of 
marketable product. 
Wheat and other grains are cultivated to considera¬ 
ble extent, but they do not seem to realize the superi¬ 
ority in productiveness over other lands which is char¬ 
acteristic of their yield in corn. Grass through the 
valley seems to produce only the average crop on 
good lands elsewhere. Fruit is generally abundant, 
but is almost entirely cut off this season. After fre¬ 
quent inquiries, and looking over the entire markets 
in Cincinnati, for two mornings, I saw but a handful 
of miserable looking peaches in a journey of 500 miles 
through Ohio. Grapes ripen well, and are usually 
abundant, but this year they follow, in part, the fate of 
other fruits. Sweet potatoes, when skilfully cultivated, 
yield good returns and of fine quality; but they are 
somewhat inferior to the delicious roots which are 
produced still farther south. Melons and the minor 
fruits abound, of fine flavor, and in great profusion. 
The natural forest growth throughout the valley is 
equally beautiful and magnificent. Here is first seen, 
along this route, the graceful buckeye, which is found 
only in highly productive soils. Accqgnpanying it is 
another native of stalworth dimensions, the burr oak, 
which ever indicates choice land. These sometimes 
reach the enormous size (for them) of six feet diame¬ 
ter. Black walnut, blue ash, pigeon oak, hackberry, 
elm, sycamore, cotton wood, hickory, &c., show a 
vigorous and luxuriant growth, and frequently attain 
enormous dimensions; while attached to them and 
clambering to their very tops, with its innumerable 
branches swinging to and fro, in graceful festoons, 
reminding one of the self-multiplying trunks of the 
eastern banian, the grape vine is sometimes seen 
nearly a foot in diameter. I was informed by an old 
resident, that there are but two varieties of native 
grapes. The best of these I found of small size, grow¬ 
ing in delicate clusters and affording a pleasant taste. 
How different from the varied excellence of some of 
the native eastern vines, where I have seen a dozen 
varieties of fine natural grapes, blue, purple, red, and 
white, within the compass of half a mile, rustling in 
their unostentatious sweetness, on the banks of some 
secluded streamlet. 
As was to have been expected, so fine a farming 
country was early occupied, and is now comparatively 
densely settled. But unlike many places, where the 
indolence and inefficiency of the inhabitants is fully 
equal to their natural advantages, this is settled by an 
industrious population, possessing generally much en¬ 
terprise and intelligence, as is shown by the varied 
improvements which everywhere dot the country. 
Of Cincinnati it would be out of place to speak in 
a farmer’s journal beyond exhibiting it as an index of 
the farmers’ country. It is emphatically built up and 
sustained by agriculture; for no other commerce or 
manufactures have lent to her their powerful aid, save 
what is demanded by the wants of the surrounding 
country. A city commenced in a wilderness, less 
than half a century since, already numbering 80,000, 
and surrounded with the comforts, luxuries, and re¬ 
finement of the highest civilisation, and all accom¬ 
plished by the self-impelling influences of individual 
freemen, is infinitely beyond the achievement of the 
great Czar Peter, within the same time, in establish¬ 
ing his northern capital. With the resources of an 
empire at command, he could erect his piles of stone 
and mortar, and that too by impoverishing other 
branches of his vast dominions ; but he could not im¬ 
part to his subjects the enlightened mind, the general 
intelligence, the high moral principle, the determined 
will, the far-seeing, effective energy and enterprise 
which stamp the American freeman, and crown his 
efforts with such signal success. A railroad from 
Cincinnati, leading up the north bank of the Ohio 
some miles, through Fulton, the iron and steamboat 
manufacturing suburbs of the city, soon strikes the 
valley of the little Miami, which it follows till it 
reaches Xenia, a distance by the road of 64 miles 
This is a part of the line of the road which is to be 
completed next year to Sandusky, and which is event¬ 
ually destined to be one of the principal avenues of 
travel to the great West. 
The bottoms of the little Miami, though much 
more limited, are similar in quality and cultivation to 
those of their greater namesake. An occasional field 
of hemp, and many of tobacco, meet the eye; and 
the cultivation of the latter is somewhat extending 
of late years. The completion of the railroad, there¬ 
by connecting by a cheap and rapid communication, 
the genial climate of the South, with the great inland 
seas of the North, will open new and profitable mar¬ 
kets for their agriculture. Early fruits and vegetables, 
and such as cannot be reared in perfection in the East, 
such as apricots, peaches, grapes, sweet potatoes, &c., 
&c., will find a constantly growing and inexhaustible 
demand, and return vastly greater profits to the pro¬ 
ducer, than is realized from the ordinary staples now 
principally cultivated; and we can offer no better sug¬ 
gestion to the farmers than to prepare themselves im¬ 
mediately to supply this demand. 
Xenia, a flourishing village, is situated in a country 
not peculiarly eminent for its fertility immediately in 
its vicinity, yet sufficiently so to make a fair return to 
the agriculturist. Corn is raised to some extent, but 
wheat and grass are perhaps more largely cultivated. 
Much of the soil would seem to be well adapted to 
rye. A fine turnpike of 44 miles brings the traveller 
on to the national road 10 miles from Columbus. 
The latter part of this route passes through what is 
called “ the barrens,” which afford a soil of moderate 
fertility, yielding an occasional good crop of; corn; 
yet better adapted to wheat and grazing. The prin¬ 
cipal native growth of wood is oak. 
Two or three miles west of Columbus, the road 
enters the valley of the Sciota. This favored valley 
stretches out for miles to the east and west, on either 
side of the river, and 100 miles north and south; 
and it is claimed by its occupants, to equal in fertility 
the best parts of Kentucky, and the Miami. Here, 
