1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
337 
these several through lines for business, and mil¬ 
lions of tons of Western produce and live stock 
have probably been carried to the seaboard at less 
than the actual cost of hauling, to say nothing of 
wear and tear of rolling stock and road-bed. This 
low freighting, while temporarily injurious to the 
stockholder, has been of very great importance to 
the farming interests of the whole country, because 
it has resulted in introducing our products to Eu¬ 
ropean markets at prices below the current rates, 
and even below cost of production there. The beef 
raised in the Mississippi Valley States has been laid 
down in London, in a fresh state, so low that it 
broke down among the masses the prejudice in fa¬ 
vor of “ English beef.” It has stimulated the in¬ 
vention of new processes of shipping fresh meat, 
and the trade thus opened will go on, supplying an 
outlet for the agricultural products of our vast 
country, now Increasing in such a rapid ratio. It 
is no wonder that under the present circumstances 
English Farmers are Troubled, 
as well as the great landholders, whose $5 to $10 
per acre rental can no longer be paid by their ten¬ 
ants. The system of agriculture all over Great 
Britain and in many other parts of Western Europe 
will necessarily be changed. Lower rents, and the 
division of lands into smaller holdings, will be the 
result, while a greatly increased emigration to this 
country will be stimulated. English tenant farmers 
are now paying about (Three Hundred and Thirty 
Million Dollars,) 
$380,000,000 Kent Every Tear, 
on the land they cultivate. This would annually 
purchase 33 million acres of our good land at $10 
per acre. It would pay for transporting an equiva¬ 
lent of 660 million bushels of wheat, at the high rate 
of half a dollar per bushel, from our western fields to 
the other side of the Atlantic, or nearly double the 
actual cost of freightage. But the English farms 
will not, of course, lie idle, and the terms of rent 
and the price of land will of necessity be reduced 
to so low a rate that the cultivators can compete 
with our cheaper products. The loss will, there¬ 
fore, in the end fall largely upon the present land 
owners, and five to ten shillings per acre is likely to 
be the rental in the near future, instead of the $5 
to $10 per acre now paid for good land. This will, 
however, be partly offset by a change to crops re¬ 
quiring more of their cheap manual labor, leaving 
wheat and meat to be supplied by American pro¬ 
ducers. 
Buying a Farm with One Crop. 
It is stated in several papers that a farmer in 
Marion County, Iowa, last year offered his farm for 
sale at $30 per acre. Failing to sell, he put in a 
large crop of wheat, which at present prices will 
bring him $31.45 per acre. This is easy to believe, 
for I have met in my travels a number of farmers 
who purchased railroad lands, and from other par¬ 
ties, at $6 to $10 per acre, and sold the first crop 
of wheat for enough to pay for the land, the break¬ 
ing, and all expenses of raising'and harvesting, 
with a surplus left. If I was out of business, with 
a cash capital of $5,000, $10,000, $30,000, or $50,- 
000, or more, I should, as the most certain and 
profitable investment of it, buy a large tract of 
good land, such as is still for sale under $10 an acre 
in Southern and Western Iowa, Eastern Nebraska, 
and Western Minnesota—-reserving enough cash 
either to stock the land with cattle and raise a good 
com arop to fatten them with, or, if in the more 
northern regions, to break the ground, get it into 
wheat, and harvest it. If the amount of cash cap¬ 
ital was too small to buy plenty of laud, I would 
pay for part of it, and’take the rest on a two to 
four years’ credit, keeping enough ready money to 
stock and work the land for a year or two. 
One Illustration. 
In going west from St. Peter, Minn., I fell in 
with Mr. E. S. Youmans, brother of Prof. E. L. 
Youmans. He is carrying on a large business in 
lumber, etc., at Winona. His son having received 
a good education, on coming of age expressed a 
preference for farming as a business. Mr. Y. bought 
three sections of land at Marshall, Minn., paying 
the R. R. Co. oyer $14,000 cash for it, I believe. 
At the time of our visit, his son had 640 acres in 
wheat, just ready for the reaper, which, at 85 cents 
per bushel, will pay all expenses of the crop, the 
cost of the land, and probably a good rate of inter¬ 
est on the cost of the other two sections. Plenty 
of similar illustrations could be given. I met them 
in Eastern Nebraska for over a hundred miles west 
of the Missouri River, along the Union Pacific R. R., 
north of the Platte, and along the Burlington and 
Missouri R. R., south of the Platte, aud elsewhere. 
The “Telegraph” Water Carrier. 
A method of bringing water from a distance, by 
means of a wire stretched between poles is termed 
the “ Telegraph Carrier.” An account of this was 
given several years ago, but some recent inquiries 
induce us to present the method employed at pres¬ 
ent. This method of carrying water may be found 
convenient when there is a spring at a considerable 
distance from the house, and at such a depth below 
it, that a pump cannot be used. Water may be 
brought by the “ Telegraph ” for a distance of sev¬ 
eral hundred feet, and up an incline of 50 or even 
100 feet if necessary. The roadway, shown in fig¬ 
ure 1, is constructed of poles set in the ground, but 
it may be attached to a post-and-rail, or even a 
board fence, if convenient,, and fence boards or 
strips may be used in place of wires. The carriage¬ 
way is supported on arms as shown at figure 2, and 
is made to carry a wheel, deeply grooved, seen at 
figure 3. The bucket is affixed to this wheel by a 
crooked arm, so bent as to throw the center of 
gravity directly under the track and wheel. A cord 
is fastened to the handle of the bucket by which it 
is let down or drawn up ; the cord may be wound 
upon a winch, shown at figure 4, after passing over 
Fig. 1.— THE ROADWAY. 
a pulley suspended from the first arm. When the 
spring is reached, the wire, or roadway, is carried 
down to a stake at the edge of the water; this causes 
the bucket to tip as it strikes the water and be¬ 
come filled, when it may be drawn up by the winch. 
Feeding Calves and Yearlings. 
The spring calves that have been weaned and 
turned to grass, will begin to suffer from short ra¬ 
tions, unless some extra food he provided for them. 
It is poor management to permit calves to fall off 
in condition, or even to stop growing at this season. 
The pastures are usually dry, and the herbage innu- 
tritious, and there is danger not only of a falling 
off in condition, but the contraction of disease 
from disordered digestion, consequent upon the 
filling of the stomach with indigestible matter. 
The most forward calves are the most subject to 
this danger, and become the first victims to neglect. 
This is the chief cause of “ Black-leg ” or “ Black 
Quarter,” (carbuncular erysipelas), which carries 
off many calves in the fall and spring. If some 
green fodder cannot be spared for the calves, some 
supplementary food may be provided for them. A 
mixture of wheat middlings and linseed meal, and 
cotton-seed meal, in equal parts, may be given in 
small quantities twice a day, beginning with two 
Fig. 2.— A POST WITH ABM. 
ounces at a meal, aud increasing up to twice as 
much. This quantity may be given with benefit 
to a three to six months’ old calf, and twice as 
much to a yearling. An ample supply of fresh 
water is necessary, and occasional small doses of 
salt, will usually promote a healthful digestion. 
Roots and “Yarbs”.—In the Mountains 
of North Carolina. 
BY PROP. ASA GRAY. 
[The following extracts from a letter from Prof. 
Gray to the Editor, will give some idea of a little 
known region, and a peculiar local industry. Ed.] 
As Agriculture embraces all practical herbaceous 
matters, I will call your attention to a branch of it 
—a small branch, you will say—which I had no idea 
of. It is the Root and Herb business as carried on 
in the mountain districts of Carolina. Cur glorious 
botanical journey—which only wanted ^ 
your companionship to make it perfect— iff L 
took us to the headquarters of the busi- 1NF| 
ness, and through the regions where most | 
of the collecting is done, and we had at 
times the company of the two men who 1 
largely control it,—Hyams, of the firm of 
Wallace Brothers, of Statesville, and €■ »._ J fr 
Cowles, of Gap Creek, whose father or- ftrrjfS 
ganlzed and developed the business in the ifiTiB 
first place. Being ourselves members of j,. g 
the herb-confraternity, we were received 
with enthusiasm, and shown all the operations. 
“ Sang," i, e, Ginseng, the original foundation of 
the trade, has been collected ever since the earliest 
settlement of the country, and is by this time pretty 
well rooted out from the more accessible districts; 
but it is still brought in, and brings 75 or 80 cents 
a pound. When I was first in these mountains, 
between 35 and 40 years ago, this, and Angelico- root 
were the only things which were gathered for mar¬ 
ket. Now, the price-list which you will find posted 
at almost every road-side 
store, enumerates over two 
hundred articles. Some of 
them are cultivated things, 
such as Summer Savory, 
Southern-wood,Peony-flow¬ 
ers, Watermelon-seed, and 
leaves of the Poppy and 
Garden Lettuce. But most 
are of wild herbs, or the 
bark or berries of trees, or 
in some cases blossoms. 
Elder-flowers, for instance, 
are a prime article. The 
collecting is done by wom¬ 
en and children—it could 
be done only by cheap labor 
— and the articles, when Fig. 4.— the winch. 
dried, taken to the country store, usually to the 
nearest County Seat, and exchanged for “ store 
goods,” very little money passing. Almost every 
day we would meet women on horseback, with a 
bundle of the more bulky herbs on the off side, 
