328 
AMSEIOAN AGBICtrLTTJ BIST. 
^nteruait 
New- York, Wednesday, July 26, 1854. 
Our Paper. —Our readers will find the usual 
amount of interesting and instructive matter in 
this week’s paper. On the first page is some 
information in reference to the New-Rochelle 
Blackberry ; and also how a small plot of ground 
may be profitably appropriated to a variety of 
fruits and vegetables. On the second page is 
an article, that may be of use to those in danger 
of being taken in by New-York lot and land 
speculators. This is followed by a variety of 
useful articles, on the age and treatment of 
horses, a beautiful poem by Park Benjamin, 
preparing seed wheat, the game fowl, and sev¬ 
eral items of agricultural intelligence. In the 
Horticultural Department are several articles in¬ 
teresting to others, as well as to Horticulturists. 
On this and the following pages, we direct at¬ 
tention to Prices of Wheat and Corn, Writing 
for the Agriculturist , Editorial Correspondence, 
Market Reports, &c. 
Our XIII. Volume commences aftei 'five num¬ 
bers more, and we have bright prospects of a 
large addition to our present number of readers. 
We also have confidence to believe that all our 
present readers are so well satisfied and pleased 
with our paper, that they will each make some 
effort to extend its circulation among their 
neighbors. We wish also to form a previous 
acquaintance with others who will assist in 
spreading a knowledge of the paper, and we 
therefore make the following 
PROPOSITION: 
Luring the next two weeks, every ‘person send¬ 
ing in a subscription to begin with the next vol¬ 
ume, shall receive the remaining numbers of this 
volume free —to be directed either to themselves, 
or to any friend whose address they may give. 
For terms, see last page, and notice that in 
a year there are two complete volumes, each 
having 416 large pages with a full index. 
PRICES OF WHEAT AND CORN, 
At the office of the Van Rensselaer manor, at 
Albany, for a long time past there have been 
large amounts of rents payable in wheat, or a 
cash equivolent. Hunt’s Merchant’s Magazine 
gives the price of wheat at this office, on each 
first of January, during the past sixty-two years; 
and as both parties have been interested in the 
price, we suppose this is one of the most relia- 
records in this country. We find from this re¬ 
cord, that the price of wheat has been $1 per 
bushel in each of the following years, viz., 1794, 
1809, 1820, 1825, 1827, 1830, 1834,1835, 1841, 
and 1852.—At $2 per bushel in 1796,1805, and 
1844.—•Over $2 in 1813, 1817, and 1837, being 
$2 25 in each of these years.—At $1 75 to 
$1 87£in 1801, 1811, 1814, 1816, 1818, 1819, 
1829, 1839, 1843, and 1854.—At $1 50 to 
$1 62£ in 1797, 1800, 1802, 1810, 1836, and 
1838.—At $1 25 to $1 48| in 1795,1798,1804, 
1806, 1807,1823, 1824,1831, 1832, 1833, 1842, 
and 1848.—At $1 12£ to $1 18-f in 1799,1803, 
1808, 1822, 1840, 1846,1847,1849, 1850,1851, 
and 1853.—At 75c. in 1798.—At 77c. in 1821.-— 
At 87£c. in 1826.—At 93fc. in 1845. 
From this it will be seen that during the 
whole period, the average price has been $1 394 
per bushel; that it has been less than $1 but 
four times, and over $2 only three times. 
During the last twenty years the price aver¬ 
aged $1 36£; and during the last ten years the 
average price has been only $1 20. 
There is an anxious inquiry on the part of 
the farmers now, to ascertain what will be the 
probable price of wheat and Indian corn, after 
the harvest of the country is fully completed. 
There are so many contingencies to be taken 
into consideration in naming future prices, it is 
impossible for the best informed and most saga¬ 
cious, to give any thing more definite on this 
point than a shrewd guess. Some assert that 
Red and Mixed wheat will come down in this 
market, in the course of the ensuing winter, 
from 105 to 125 cents per bushel, while the 
liner kinds of White wheat, will not range above 
130 to 135 cents. Corn they think may not 
average over 65 to 70 cents per bushel. Others 
again are so sanguine as to believe, that Red 
and Mixed wheat will not be less than 165 to 
185 cents, and the best White Genesee, 190 to 
200 cents, and Indian corn, 73 to 78 cents per 
bushel. Our opinion is, that both wheat, corn, 
and nearly every other kind of grain and pro¬ 
duce, are higher at this present moment than 
they can possibly be again after harvest, for at 
least one year to come; and that those who de¬ 
sire to sell at all, should do so at the best prices 
they can obtain as soon as their grain and vege¬ 
tables are ready for market; and these they 
will do well to push into market with all possi¬ 
ble dispatch. 
We gave it as our carefully and deliberately 
considered opinion last week, at page 312 of the 
American Agriculturist, that the crop of wheat 
in the United States and Canada, is more than 
an average—in fact, much the largest ever 
grown on this continent. With the exception 
of France—and it may yet be the same with 
that country before harvest is over—the Wheat 
crop throughout Europe, in Egypt, in Algeria, 
and other countries bordering on the Mediter¬ 
ranean, will be very large, and the prices must 
consequently come down rapidly there—in fact 
they had already fallen considerably by our last 
advices from Europe. 
The Baltic Sea will be kept open undoubtedly 
by the superior naval forces of France and Great 
Britain, so that wheat will be exported from the 
German graneries as usual. 
The only thing now that can have an effect 
upon keeping up prices is the war in Europe, 
and the difficulty of exporting Wheat from 
Odessa. Hitherto when in want, Great Britain 
and France have drawn largely from that port; 
but whether any nation will be permitted to do 
so the coming season, will depend entirely upon 
the views of the belligerent parties. We think, 
however, with the great abundance elsewhere, 
that the exports or non-exports from Odessa 
this year, will make very little difference with 
the price of wheat and Indian corn in this coun¬ 
try ; and that this consideration should have lit¬ 
tle weight with our farmers in the disposition of 
their produce. 
As appearances vary, we shall make it a point 
to keep the growers of wheat and other pro¬ 
ducts particularly advised on all these matters ; 
in the mean while we desire to be furnished 
with such reliable information, as may have a 
bearing on this at all times interesting topic to 
the farmer. 
A WORD ABOUT WRITING FOR THE AGRI¬ 
CULTURIST. 
EVERY SUBSCRIBER PLEASE READ. 
We are very glad to receive letters from our 
subscribers on all subjects connected with farm¬ 
ing. We like to have these letters as well writ¬ 
ten as may be, for it lightens one of the most 
laborious parts of an editor’s life, viz., that of 
correcting and preparing a poorly-written man¬ 
uscript for the printer. But we well know that 
working men have little practice in writing, and 
we do not expect they will send finished com¬ 
munications. We prefer they would not at¬ 
tempt this, for should they, the labor would be 
more than they would be willing to undertake 
frequently, and they would not write as often as 
would be for their own advantage, as well as 
that of their fellow-farmers. 
We shall be far from making public any im¬ 
perfections found in any letter. We have not 
the least inclination to make sport of or ridicule 
any correspondence because it lacks grammati¬ 
cal style or rhetorical beauty. We like to have 
farmers sit down and scribble upon paper, just 
how they do this and how they do that—write 
it down just as they talk it to a neighbor. How 
often farmers get together and talk over their 
method of plowing and sowing, of raising and 
feeding stock, &c., and how much is learned by 
these conversations. Now it is quite easy to 
put these conversations down upon paper, and 
when printed, thousands read them and are 
benefited. No man can go upon another’s farm 
and spend an hour or two without getting some 
new idea, or having some profitable train of 
thought set in motion. So, no one will read 
one of these plain, homespun descriptions of an¬ 
other’s practice without being benefited. We re¬ 
fer our readers to our “Farm Notes” with 
which we wish we could fill two or three pages 
in every number, and we would do so could we 
get away from the office labors. Now we have 
scarcely a reader who could not send us a few 
notes of what he is doing profitaoly, and what 
his neighbors are doing. We said doing profit¬ 
ably, but it is just as important to know also 
what methods prove unprofitable. A good 
chart is one that points out rocks and quick¬ 
sands to be avoided by others. 
Now we propose to all our readers to help us 
make up a large chapter of “farm notes” every 
week. It is easier to do this than you imagine. 
You have each something that you could tell a 
neighbor, and it is quite as easy to write it down 
and thus tell us, and we can tell a host of others. 
When you talk, you are subject to be criticised 
or laughed at, but what you write is between 
ourselves. Do not try to fix up a letter, for ten 
chances to one, it will not be as good as if you 
made no such attempt, but told a plain simple 
story in as few words as possible. 
We do not care for magniloquent descriptions 
of the beauties of farming, splendid scenery, &c., 
&c. Give us the matters of fact, and these in 
the plainest and most easily understood style. 
When you have any thing to tell, begin at the 
subject at once, and stop when done. A flour¬ 
ish to begin with about “your excellent paper,” 
and the reasons for writing, &c., and a long 
closing up is entirely unnecessary, and worse 
than useless. 
