AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 813 
It rejoices us to chronicle the proceedings of 
such a convention, and we hope it will be fol¬ 
lowed by an Army-Worm Convention still far¬ 
ther south, A Wheat Fly, Rust and Mildew 
Convention, in the Northern and Eastern States. 
Some of the political papers affect to laugh at 
such Conventions, and ridicule their labors. 
We are quite free to say to them, that one such 
assembly as the Joint-Worm Convention, will 
be of more lasting benefit to Maryland and Vir¬ 
ginia, than any dozen political conventions they 
have held in the same States for many years. 
The latter are oftener conventions of moral cor¬ 
ruption than any thing else, and not unfre- 
quently deserve the execration of every honor¬ 
able man. 
LIST OF STATE AND COUNTY SHOWS. 
The W. Y. Tribune of Friday, accuses two or 
three papers of “stealing” its reports on crops, 
and yet in another column of the same paper, 
we find copied, without credit, the entire list of 
State and County shows which we have been 
carefully collecting for the Agriculturist since 
January 1st. 
It will be seen that we arrange our Shows in 
chronological order. We shall from week to 
week continue to add to the list as fast as we 
get in reports, which we have sent for, from 
different parts of the country. The Tribune , 
and other papers, will find in the American 
Agriculturist one of the most complete and 
convenient lists of shows published by any 
paper in this country. 
——« * «- 
National Magazine. — We have looked 
through the forthcoming August number, which 
is really a choice thing. Almost every page is 
adorned with a lifelike and instructive engraving. 
This magazine is published by Messrs. Carlton 
& Phillips, at $2 a year, or 18 §■ cents a number, 
and we think it must be preferred to its more 
expensive neighbors, which it equals in beauty 
and style of execution, while far excelling them 
in moral tone and character. 
*-• • -• - 
An Immense Cattle Train.— On the 17th 
inst., a train of one hundred and twenty-two 
cars passed over the Western Railroad to Brigh¬ 
ton, Mass. One hundred of these cars were 
loaded with some 1200 to 1300 cattle, and 22 
were filled with sheep and swine. This, we 
think, is the largest number of animals taken in 
a single batch by railroad. 
-— ♦ e «-- 
Sale op Trotting Horses. —A very large 
horse sale took place last week at the New-York 
Tatterstalls, corner of Thirty-ninth street and 
Sixth avenue. The establishment is owned by 
Mr. N. Clements, and the sales were conducted 
by Mr. Henry Palmer. The celebrated trotting 
horse “ Mac” was sold to Mr. Mann, of Baltimore, 
for $4100; “Tacony” was purchased by Mr. J. 
G. Bevany, of this city, for $3700; “ Frank 
Forrester” went at $2550, to Mr Mann, also; 
“Barnum”was withdrawn, as he had been pro¬ 
bably sold on the preceding day for $3900. A 
bay and a black mare, competent to 2.45 together, 
were sold at $1350. Upwards of a dozen trot¬ 
ting horses of inferior powers, or little training, 
but excellent animals notwithstanding, were 
sold at prices ranging from $200 to $550. 
There was a very large attendance during the 
sale, amounting to at least a thousand persons; 
the bidding was brisk and the competition lively. 
[editorial correspondence.] 
WISCONSIN AND ITS CROPS. 
Manitoowoc, Wisconsin, July 8, 1854. 
The only pleasant and expeditious route at 
present between Chicago and the northern ports 
on Lake Michigan, is by steamboat. Another 
year will afford a railroad connection northward¬ 
ly as far as Milwaukie, and thence it will pro¬ 
ceed gradually, according to the wants of the 
country to Sheboygan, Manitoowoc, and across 
the Fox River, through Green Bay, or some of 
the more flourishing places above it, to the iron 
and copper mines of Lake Superior. The de¬ 
mands of the mining region, and the import and 
export trade along this route, together with the 
rapidly-augmenting tide of travel, will soon call 
for the construction of this road. Equally great 
will be the demand for another railroad from 
Manitoowoc to the outlet of Lake Winnebago, 
and onward to the Mississippi; and if the last 
reports of the best railroad route over the Rocky 
Mountains be correct, this point will be about 
three degrees south of the point where we must 
ultimately look for a connection with the far off 
Pacific. It has been recently ascertained that 
at 47°, there is scarcely the vestige of snow 
throughout the winter, and this is over an easily- 
accessible railroad route; while at every point 
south of this, snow lies for several months in the 
year, and at an impassible depth. This report 
will call for a more vigilant reconnoisance of the 
passes over the backbone of North America than 
has hitherto been made, before determining so 
important a matter as the location of a road 
3,000 miles in length. 
The agricultural resources of this portion of 
Wisconsin have, as yet, been but partially de¬ 
veloped. Farther west, on the same parallel, 
and considerably to the north of it, large bodies 
of land have been brought into cultivation. 
This is owing to the more inviting prospect held 
out to the early and generally poor settlers, by 
the prairies and oak openings which lie at a 
little distance from the western shore of Lake 
Michigan, and thither thousands have gone 
within the few past years, and through the fer¬ 
tile valleys of the Fox, the Wisconsin, and the 
Wolf rivers and their tributaries, have com¬ 
menced as successful agricultural communities 
as are to be seen in the West. Wheat is their 
staple production, and this is a very much more 
certain crop than farther south, and especially in 
Central Illinois. All the other crops succeed 
equally well, and although in a latitude of nearly 
44°, Indian corn ripens well and yields abun¬ 
dantly. 
The country between Manitoowoc (which lies 
on the western shore of Lake Michigan) and 
Lake Winnebago, a distance of 35 miles, is gen¬ 
erally heavily timbered, though a few oak open¬ 
ings are to be found. This, and the fact that 
there are valuable pineries scattered over it, 
which are too valuable to waste, have deterred 
many from clearing extensively, as they have 
found their enterprise well repaid by first man¬ 
ufacturing their timber into lumber, before des¬ 
troying the remainder. The result has been, 
that with some of the finest soil in the Union, 
there are twenty six saw-mills in this vicinity, 
five or six of which are propelled by steam, all 
turning out a large amount of lumber at a 
highly satisfactory profit, yet the amount of 
soil subject to cultivation is comparatively lim¬ 
ited. 
One instance of successful farming here, de¬ 
serves especial commendation. Mr. Hiram Mc¬ 
Allister, an emigrant from Jefferson or St. 
Lawrence county, New-York, where the climate 
and productions much resemble those to be 
found here, was among the earliest emigrants. 
Instead of the more immediately profitable in¬ 
vestment in mills, he at once embarked in farm¬ 
ing. His process for clearing his lands had a 
method in it, which the ignorant and inconsid¬ 
erate seldom put into practice. He throws 
down the trees wherever they are inclined to 
fall, and allows them to lie till thoroughly dried— 
two, three, or four years, according to timber, 
soil, and seasons. The longest period he con¬ 
siders the most desirable. By this time the 
ground has become dried, and the roots well 
rotted, and when the slashing is fired, not only 
all the trunks, limbs, and leaves are burned, but 
the fire follows many of the stumps and roots 
into the ground, leaving a rich, mellow, and al¬ 
most unobstructed surface for tillage. 
His products are wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, 
corn, grass, &c. Owing to the high price labor 
now bears here, he has recently converted most 
of his cleared fields into meadows. He has the 
present season some 70 or 80 acres of timothy 
and clover, which, as a body, we have never 
seen surpassed, if equalled. He estimates the 
average of the first cutting to be two tons per 
acre, and we saw some in cocks, which could 
not fall much short of three. On a good deal 
of the ground he will cut a second crop of a ton 
per acre. Where it is much less than this, he 
prefers to allow it to remain as a manure for 
succeeding crops. In gathering, he uses the 
horse-rake, and another season will introduce 
the mowing-machine, though much of the crop 
is so heavy as to lodge badly, and he apprehends 
some difficulty from its use. His crop never 
brings him less than ten or twelve dollars per 
ton at his farm, and more frequently fifteen or 
over. 
The hay is invariably housed in barns, or 
otherwise amply protected, and is always well 
salted. This enables him to store it in a greener 
state than he could otherwise do, and it 
weighs out much more heavily. This is a con¬ 
sideration well worth the attention of men who 
raise hay for market; for while hay thus cured, 
retains its nutritive juices to a much greater ex¬ 
tent than the more thoroughly dried and the 
unsalted, not permitting them to pass off by too 
great an evaporation, or by a destructive fer¬ 
mentation, the buyer is not cheated in the 
greater weight of the product of an acre, while 
the producer is largely the gainer, over the cost 
of salting. 
To the query, if his land was not becoming 
impoverished by the continued removal of his 
hay, he replied that on the contrary it was con¬ 
stantly improving; and certainly the best grass 
that we saw, was on the field longest under 
cultivation. As a proof of the durability of the 
soil, he instanced the fact of having filled a low 
spot on his farm, from the excavation of a cel¬ 
lar six feet in depth, made on his highest 
grounds. He threw out this earth about the 
middle of June, and immediately planted Ruta 
Baga on it, many of which, without any ma¬ 
nure, reached the respectable weight of thirteen 
