AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
277 
the United States. The fact is, that on the 
average prices paid for wheat, the American 
farmer has no great temptation to indulge in 
that crop. Notwithstanding all the boasts 
made of wheat culture on the prairie plains of 
Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois, they have as 
yet made no advance on the wheat culture of 
Ohio. The fact is, that the grass and corn 
which grow into cattle and hogs are the most 
profitable crops. Under •present prices , it is 
true the farmer will produce as much wheat as 
he can ; but he had no such prices till after the 
fall planting was made. The agriculture of a 
country cannot be changed in one year, or two. 
At one dollar per bushel the farmer will be glad 
to cultivate wheat; but he seldom has that 
temptation, and the great irregularity of prices 
is one of the drawbacks on that crop. 
We conclude then, even if Ohio produces 
more than an average crop, yet there will be no 
excessive surplus of grain in this country. It 
we need heavy surpluses, we must have another 
year to produce them.— Railroad Record. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
CROPS, &c., IN WASHINGTON Co., N. Y. 
* * * TriE wheat crop (fall) in our county 
in early spring bid fair to be an average one at 
least, but the later freezing and thawing and 
heavy rains injured it so much that there will 
not be half a crop, even if let alone by the wee¬ 
vil. It is now in blossom. Rye never looked 
better, and will soon be fit to harvest. Oats and 
corn generally look well, though backward on 
account of the late spring. Corn is not so much 
cut by the worm or grub as last year. The flax 
crop will be good. There is considerable grown 
here, and some mills have been put up within a 
few years, for the manufacture of the fiber. Farm¬ 
ers are preparing more than the usual breadth of 
ground for the buckwheat crop. The demand 
for seed has been so great and the quantity so 
limited, as to raise the price to $1 50 per 
bushel. Grass is not abundant. The farmers 
here hold mostly to their old meadows. The 
two past seasons of drought have nearly “ killed 
them out,” and though the weather has been 
very favorable, with the exception of two weeks 
or more of dry weather a month ago. Many a 
man’s pasture is better worth mowing than his 
meadow. * * * D. H. Reynolds. 
North Oreenwich, June 29, 1854. 
A Perverse Animal Subdued. —An itinerant 
was at a nobleman’s to exhibit feats of horse¬ 
manship, and the people had collected from far 
and near, to behold the exhibition. When the 
man had done with his own horses he turned 
and said, “Now, my lord, I am willing to ride 
any horse of yours in the same manner.” Hav¬ 
ing one remarkably stubborn, the nobleman told 
a groom to bring her out. The stranger then 
deliberately mounted, and urged her to move, 
but not one step would she stir. After a pause, 
he quietly dismounted, gave her one severe 
stroke with his whip, and again resumed the 
saddle. The mare remained immoveable, but 
the man preserved his temper, and got down 
quietly a second time, repeating the blow, but 
with no better success. After the third stroke, 
however, she was completely subdued, and 
moved forward with perfect obedience. 
It now became evident that the design of the 
horseman was to give the animal time to associ¬ 
ate the idea of her obedience with the stroke 
that followed. When this was established, she 
was willing to move. 
On the contrary, if a shower of blows had 
been dealt out, as thousands of horsemen would 
have done, the mare would have had no time to 
reflect, and both she and her rider been roused 
into fury. With good temper great savings 
might be made in the article of whips. 
Death of a Venerable Goose. —A goose 
belonging to Mr. James Rooke, of Chester 
county, died the other day, at an advanced age. 
It came into possession of Mr. R. on his wed¬ 
ding day, 33 years ago, being the property of 
his wife. It was probably near forty years old 
at the time of its death, to which age it is said, 
a goose will live. 
-» * •- 
The [beautiful lines of Mrs. Sigourney give a 
truthful, though poetical picture of Farm Life : 
Saw ye the farmer at his plow 
As you were riding by ? 
Or wearied ’neath the noon day toil, 
When the summer-suns were high ! 
And thought you that his lot was hard ? 
And did you thank your God, 
That you and yours were not condemned 
Thus like a slave to plod ? 
Come, see him at his harvest home, 
When garden, field, and tree, 
Conspire with flowing stores to fill 
His barn and granary. 
His healthfnl children gaily sport 
Amid the new-mown hay, 
Or proudly aid with vigorous arm 
His tasks as best they may. 
The Harvest Giver is his friend, 
The Maker of the soil, 
And Earth, the Mother, gives them bread 
And cheers their patient toil. 
Come join them round their wintry hearth, 
The heartfelt pleasures see, 
And you can better judge how blest 
The farmer’s life may be. 
Bees Highway Robbers. —Bees sometimes 
act the part of highway robbers; a number of 
them will waylay and attack a humble-bee 
which, like an honest trader jogging home with 
a well-filled purse, is returning with a sack full 
of honey to his nest. They seize the poor fel¬ 
low, and give him at once to understand that 
they are determined to have his hard-earned 
sweets. They do not kill him; for they are 
much too selfish to endanger their own precious 
persons; and even if they could take his life 
without losing their stings—a loss which is al¬ 
ways fatal—they would still be unable to extract 
his treasure from the deep recesses of his honey- 
bag. They, therefore, begin to bite and tease 
him after the most approved fashion, all the 
time singing in his ears, not your money, but 
“your honey or your life,” till, utterly worn 
out, he delivers up his purse, by disgorging his 
honey from its capacious receptacle. The 
graceless creatures release him at once, while 
they lick up the plunder and carry it off to 
their home.— Langstroth. 
TnE Turkish Horses. —The Turkish horses 
are admirable for speed, endurance, and activity, 
but are so light and small that under a man of 
12 stone (168 lbs.) with his accoutrements they 
are perfectly useless either in a charge or on the 
march, and to place our men on tbem would 
deprive our cavalry of one great cause of its 
excellence, the weight and muscle of the man 
and the animal. The Chasseur’s d’Afrique, 
decidedly the finest body of light cavalry in the 
service, have been sent here without their 
horses, and we shall see them this campaign 
mounted on ponies, so bitted and trained as to 
be all but worthless in the hands of a European 
cavalier, at least for many months.— Letter from 
Varna. 
A Knowing C UR ; —One- of the dog poisoners 
related to us an incident, yesterday, which oc¬ 
curred on the evening previous, near the corner 
of Sixth and Plum streets. The poisoner threw 
down a piece of meat; the dog smelt it, turned 
it over and over with his paw, and shaking his 
head walked away and left it. In a few min¬ 
utes after, a small “ bow wow” came along, and 
took it in his mouth. The large dog ran to¬ 
wards him, and barked and made a terrible fuss, 
but the little cur swallowed the meat, and in a 
few minutes he lay dead in the street. The 
large dog is of the Newfoundland species, and 
is valued by his owners at being worth $75.— 
Gin. Gaz. 
Importance of the Onion. —The onion is wor¬ 
thy of notice as an extensive article of consump¬ 
tion in this country. It is largely cultivated at 
home, and is imported, to the extent of seven or 
eight hundred tons a year, from Spain and Por¬ 
tugal. But it rises in importance when we con¬ 
sider that in these latter countries it forms one 
of the common and universal supports of life. 
It'is interesting, therefore, to know that, in ad¬ 
dition to the peculiar flavor which first recom¬ 
mends it, the onion is remarkably nutritious. 
According to my analysis, the dried onion root 
contains from twenty-five to thirty per cent, of 
gluten. It ranks, in this respect, with the nu¬ 
tritious pea and the gram of the East. It is not 
merely as a relish, therefore, that the wayfaring 
Spaniard eats his onion with his humble crust 
of bread, as he sits by the refreshing spring; it 
is because experience has long proved that, like 
the cheese of the English laborer, it helps to 
sustain his strength also, and adds, beyond 
what its bulk would suggest, to the amount of 
nourishment which his simple meal supplies.— 
Chemistry of Common Life. 
Onions for Poultry. —Scarcely too much can 
be said in praise of onions for fowls. They seem 
to be a preventive and remedy for various dis¬ 
eases to which domestic poultry is liable. Hav¬ 
ing frequently tested their excellencies, we can 
speak understanding^. For gapes and inflam¬ 
mation of the throat, eyes, and head, onions are 
almost a specific. We would recommend giving 
fowls, and especially the young chicks, as many 
as they will eat, as often as twice or three times 
a week. They should be finely chopped. A 
small addition of corn meal is an improvement. 
Disease vs. Vice. —Is your horse perfectly 
gentle, Mr. Dabster?” “Perfectly gentle, sir; 
the only fault he has got, if that be a fault, is a 
playful habit of extending his hinder hoofs now 
and then.” “By extending his hinder hoofs 
you do not mean kicking, I hope ?” “ Some 
people call it kicking,” Mr. Green, “ but it’s only 
a slight reaction of the muscles; a disease 
rather than a vice.” 
-• • •- 
Good Humor. —Good humor is a bright color 
in the web of life; but self-denial only can make 
it a fast color. A person who is the slave of 
selfishness has so many wants of his own to be 
supplied, so many interests of his own to sup¬ 
port and defend, that he has no leisure to study 
the wants and interests of others. It is impossi¬ 
ble that he should be happy himself, or make 
others around him so. 
Value of a Crown. —A country sculptor 
was ordered to engrave on a tombstone the fol¬ 
lowing words: 
“A virtuous woman is a crown to her hus¬ 
band.” 
But the stone being small, he engraved it: 
“A virtuous woman is 5s. to her husband.” 
Hanging Bells.-~A person having the mis¬ 
fortune to admit as a lodger into his house an 
individual of bad reputation named Bell, turned 
him out the other day with the remark, “that 
he would never keep a bell in his house that 
wanted hanging. 
Order.—T he mind is like a trunk—if well 
packed, it holds almost every thing; if ill packed, 
next to nothing. So true is it that “ order is 
Heaven’s first law,” 
FARM LIFE. 
