1882.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
75 
the original grant there has been sold by the several 
companies 948,438.95 acres, a large proportion sold 
to actual settlers purchasing farms ranging from 
40 acres to 320. A large majority of the settlers 
are from the Northern and Eastern States, and they 
have brought with them their industrious and 
thrifty habits. The sales for 1881 amounted to 
71,883.24 acres, at an average of $3.43 per acre. Per¬ 
haps the best proof of the value of the country for 
farming and stock-raising will be a statement of 
products that were shipped during last year over 
the road from the various stations. Of wheat 
there were 24,750,398 bushels, and 449,747 bushels 
of corn, and 336,654 bushels of other grain. There 
were also shipped 8,262 car loads of stock. From 
the Iron region there were produced 23,532,657 lbs. 
of pig iron, and 157,562 tons of iron ore, and from 
the Lead district 20,593,571 lbs. of pig lead and 
46,612,890 lbs of zinc ore. The Granby lead mines 
owned by the Company, produce annually 1,225,966 
lbs. of lead, and 21,323,986 lbs. of zinc ore, and 
yield as royalty to the Company $18,056.60 per year. 
For further information address W. H. Coffin, 
Land Commissioner, St. Louis, Mo.; or William H. 
Eaton, Assistant Land Commissioner, St. Louis, 
Mo. We procured much valuable information in 
conversation with these gentlemen, regarding all 
this South-western country. 
St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and South¬ 
ern Lands. 
There are comparatively few acres of land be¬ 
longing to this Company left in Missouri. In 
Arkansas, however, the Grant comprises 786,551 
acres. The average price per acre is $3.50. There 
were sold during 1881 about 50,800 acres. Mr. 
Thomas Essex, the Land Commissioner at Little 
Rock, Arkansas, will furnish whatever information 
may be desired by those who would like to migrate 
to Arkansas. Referring to Arkansas as a desirable 
State for farmers and planters, a recent writer says : 
“ The average per acre of cotton produced is only 
exceeded by Louisiana, and that only by one per 
cent—but per inhabitant, we grow more cotton than 
any State in the Union. Our fruit and root crops 
would make a comparison equally as great in our 
favor; and as for raising stock of all kinds for 
profit, no Northern State is our superior. The 
timbers of Arkansas, as to variety, quality, and 
quantity, are unsurpassed on the continent, a com¬ 
bination of advantages which makes ours the most 
promising State in the Union.” 
Resources of the South-west. 
The South-western Immigration Company, -which 
furnishes information free regarding the South¬ 
west, generally, has an exhibition room at 243 
Broadway, N. T. Soils, stones, timber, and ores are 
shown, by the side of cotton, sugar, tobacco, cereals 
of all kinds, and a vast number of fruits and vege¬ 
tables—all making an exhibition well worth the ex¬ 
amination of any one interested in the prosperity of 
the country, while to those who. are looking south¬ 
ward for future homes, it tells more than a long 
dissertation on the products of the country. The 
Eastern Manager of the Company, Mr. J. N. Victor, 
is always ready to give visitors any required in¬ 
formation. This Company is different from others, 
in the fact that it has no lands for sale. It is simply 
a Bureau of Information, maintained by several rail¬ 
road companies combined. Its sole object is to pro¬ 
mote immigration, by making known the resources 
not only of Texas, but Arkansas and Louisiana. 
Artificial Fertilizers.— These may be used at a 
great profit or at a loss, so much depends upon the crop 
and the locality where it is raised. The trade in these is 
now upon a very different basis from what it was a few 
years ago. The day has gone by when a secret compound, 
with a high-sounding name, can be sold through a display 
of advertising. A maker of fertilizers can not hope for 
success unless his articles are just what he represents 
them to be. He must be willing to sell his fertilizers by 
analysis, or ho can not, in some States, sell them at all. 
The chemist is a good friend to the maker of good fertil¬ 
izers. But if he shows that a fertilizer, upon a fair valua¬ 
tion of its constituents, is wortli only about half the 
price asked, he is a good friend of the farmer. Farmers 
have, of late years, learned more about fertilizers. They 
know that the leading articles that they can best buy in 
this form are, Nitrogen, Potash, and Phosphoric Acid. 
These have an accepted commercial value; an analysis 
shows about the quanti¬ 
ties of each in a fer¬ 
tilizer, and a simple cal¬ 
culation will tell whether 
or not the article is 
worth the price asked 
for it. The analyses 
made during the past 
few years, under the di¬ 
rection of the New York 
State Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, and those by the 
Connecticut and New 
Jersey Experiment Sta¬ 
tions, have done much 
to place the sale of fertilizers upon a proper basis, and 
to protect the farmers of those States in their purchases. 
When the farmer can feel sure that he gets his money's 
worth in a fertilizer, more certainly than in a ton of city 
manure, his prejudices against artificial manures will 
disappear. Among the makers of fertilizers the “Mapes 
Formula and Peruvian Guano Company ” early took the 
ground that the proper way to build up a reputation 
was to court analysis of their fertilizers. We have re¬ 
cently been shown the returns of some 30 analyses made 
at different Experiment Stations ; the samples were in 
part sent by farmers, and in part were taken by repre¬ 
sentatives of the Stations from stocks on sale. In no 
case did the percentage of the valuable constituents fall 
short of the amount claimed. The valuation at the Sta¬ 
tions, as calculated from the analysis, averaged for the 
whole, $1 .15 per ton higher than the selling price. Some 
samples were worth rather more, and some a little less, 
but the average is as above stated. It. is but proper to 
say that the results obtained by the tobacco growers in 
Connecticut, the growers of asparagus, cauliflowers and 
other “truck ” on Long Island, and the potato and wheat 
farmers of New Jersey, all show that the plants find in 
the fertilizers the value indicated by the chemists. 
Corn and Potatoes In Rhode Island. -A 
most active and useful Agricultural Society is that of 
Washington Co., R. I. Ic offered premiums for the best 
crops of Indian Corn and Potatoes raised upon an acre 
in 1881, and the report of the awards is just published. 
The prize for the best acre of corn was awarded to G. 
T. Collins of Westerly. The crop of 9oV 5 bushels of 
shelled corn, and the accompanying fodder, were valued 
at $107.20. Cost of production $08.25. Net profit to the 
acre $38.95. Other premiums showed a gain per acre of 
$27.50, $24, and $20.75 respectively. The first prize for 
potatoes was also taken by Mr. Collins. His crop was 200 
bushels of large and 41 bushels of small potatoes, the 
total value was $176.40; being produced at a cost of $42.70 
it gave a profit upon one acre of $133.70. The variety 
was Late Rose. Other growers returned a profit per 
acre of $106.32, and $88,04, the variety in these two 
cases being Early Rose. The useful feature in these re¬ 
ports is, the detailed account of the methods of prepar¬ 
ing the land, and of cultivating the crops, as they show 
what may be done by every farmer. “ Farming is played 
out in New England” say the croakers, but where corn 
and potatoes may be made to return a profit of over $100 
to the acre, those who are wise will adopt the better 
methods of cultivation. 
Burr or Buhi'-stone Mills.— There are some 
natural products which serve for certain uses far better 
than any substitute thus far devised. Cork is one of 
these products ; the Teasel is another. No substance 
can replace cork in all the uses to which it is put in the 
laboratory, and no artificial contrivance can do the work 
of the teasel in raising the nap upon cloth. In another 
direction, the conversion of grain into flour, has for 
centuries been accomplished by grinding between two 
surfaces of a peculiar stone known as “ Burr,” or “ Buhr- 
stone,” and no material has been found to accomplish 
the grinding so satisfactorily. This stone is a kind of 
quartz rock naturally so filled with cells that these 
spaces or openings occupy about the same area 
THE OGALLALLA. NEBRASKA, CATTLE DRIVE. 
as the solid rock. The best stones of this kind are found 
in France at a quarry near Paris, where entire mill-stones 
are quarried, though commonly a stone is made up of 
several pieces fitted together, and secured by means of 
an iron hoop. Burr-stones are found in other countries- 
in this country they have long been quarried in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, Ohio, and New York, and later in South Carolina. 
These, while they are used in mills, are regarded as in¬ 
ferior to those from the French quarry. With the great 
improvements in farm machinery various mills have been 
provided for farm use. These have been made of iron 
or steel, and though they answer to prepare grain for 
domestic animals, they cut rather than grind and do not 
convert the grain into flour as do stone mills. The mill 
with large slow moving stones, besides not being port¬ 
able, costs too much at the outset, and requires too great 
a power to be available for farm use. These difficulties 
were overcome many years ago by the late Edward Har¬ 
rison, New Haven, Conn. He used the Burr stones, but 
instead of the ponderous slow moving ones, used small 
stones driven at high speed, and made a great improve¬ 
ment in placing the grinding surfaces vertically instead 
of horizontally. These mills are made of various sizes, 
to run by horse or steam power; they may be supplied 
with bolters and all the needed appliances of a complete 
flouring mill and allow of a milling establishment to be 
set up with a moderate outlay. 
New Foreign P. O. Money Orders.— Austra¬ 
lia, including New South Wales, and New Zealand, by 
the new arrangement, beginning Jan. 1, can now send 
remittances direct to the United States, and vice versa, 
through any of the Money Order Post-Offices in each 
Country. This will prove a great convenience, as there 
is a large trade between these antipodal countries and 
our own. The American Agriculturist has long had an 
extraordinary large circulation in New Zealand, as well 
as in various parts of Australia. Their seasons are just 
the opposite to ours, their Jan. 1, being our July 1. A 
New Zealand citizen recently remarked to us; “ We get 
your paper four to five months in advance of your own 
countrymen; your July number reaches us in February.” 
—The Pound Sterling is equal to about $4.84 United 
States Gold or Currency. One dollar is a little over 
4s. ljd., and $1.50 equals 6s. 2ici. — Extra postage on the 
Amencan Agriculturist 9J d. 
Economy ii» Sugar Making. -Carelessness 
in tapping trees and “catching” the sap are generally 
the rule in the sugar bush. Post's Eureka Sag) Spout, or 
something of the kind should be employed. They cost 
but a trifle, and add not a little to 3-our supply of sugar. 
Moving Soft Maple Trees.— “ C. M. S.,” asks 
if, in view of the severe drouth of last summer, it wilt 
be Bafe to move Soft Maple trees after the ground be¬ 
comes frozen ? We infer from this that it is proposed to 
remove the trees with frozen balls of earth arouud their 
‘roots, an expensive operation under any circumstances, 
and with so manageable a tree as this Maple, quite un¬ 
necessary. We should move the trees in early spring, 
cutting the tops back very severely. The nearer the tree 
comes to a bare pole, the sooner will it form a new and 
satisfactory head. 
The Arnold Arboretum.—An item of Boston 
news is going the rounds of the papers to the effect that 
the City Council of Boston has purchased the Arnold 
Arboretum. It would be an unfortunate thing were this 
true, which it is not. The Arboretum at Jamaica Plain 
is so situated that the city of Boston, by adding a small 
tract of land, benefits the Arboretum somewhat, while 
the city in turn, gets the use, for park purposes, of a 
vastly larger area of beautifully diversified grounds, 
which will in time be the finest of the many parks in 
and around Boston. The arrangement in no respect in¬ 
terferes with the purposes of the Arboretum, so admir¬ 
ably planned by its Director, Prof. Sargent. 
Sowing Onions Broadcast.— A correspondent 
writes that he proposes to break up a piece of prairie, 
harrow it well, aud sow it to onions, broadcast, leaving 
the crop to take care of itself. He asks what kind of 
seed to sow, and how much to the acre, as if this were 
a common method of cultivation. If there is a crop that 
ordinarily requires the closest care in the way of weed¬ 
ing, one the success of whicli largely depends upon 
thorough weeding just at the right time, it is the onion. 
While we do not think that this loose hap-hazard culture 
will pay, not having known of an attempt of the kind, 
we cannot say that some sort of a crop may not result 
from the treatment. As this method of growing onions 
is quite new to us, we would ask if any of our far west¬ 
ern readers have ever tried or known of the trial of 
onion seeds in this manner. The -weeds that interfere 
with onions in the older States are mainly from Europe, 
and it may be that on a newly broken prairie, the absence 
of these allows onions to grow. Let us know about this. 
