AMEftiOAJN AG BIO 0 LTlTBIST. 
887 
heartily. Th6 alliance of the countries appears 
complete. How long it will-last, who can ima- 
gine ? A variety of sensible and pleasant things 
were said at this dinner, but you will not want 
details. 
I have been much gratified at the exhibition 
of the Royal Agricultural Society for 1854. It 
has been in every way commensurate with the 
dignity of the country and the Society, as well 
as quite up to the progress of the go-ahead age. 
I am more than ever assured, that for its years, 
America has attained a position in the agricul¬ 
tural world, far in advance of that occupied by 
any other country ; and I am more proud than 
ever of that genius and enterprise which has 
placed my countrymen so high in the ranks of 
social and intellectual being, that even the citi¬ 
zens of Old England are compelled to look to 
them for not a few of their most important ap¬ 
pliances for the skilful culture of the soil. 
lo me, the study of agriculture has ever been 
interesting and profitable, and were the world 
to give more heed to fields of wheat, than fields 
of battle, nations would undoubtedly know far 
greater prosperity. But the modern and too 
general desire to gather dollars at the expense 
01 j udgment, the auri sacris /amis, (insatiable 
thirst for gold,) must be rooted from the farm¬ 
er’s theory, before he can either satisfy himself 
or really improve his pecuniary condition from 
his pursuit. They should study first to farm 
well and make gain a secondary consideration, 
__ 1 he crops are excellent throughout England. 
Hay making at its height. 
Richard 0. McCormick, Jr, 
- ®-©-8 - 
AGRICULTURE IN IOWA. 
The following interesting letter is from Prof. 
Geo, C. Whitlock, who recently resigned the 
professor’s chair in the Genesee College and 
Gen. Wes. Seminary, at Lima, Livingston Co., N. 
A where he has for 15 or more years, labored 
so successfully in the department of Natural 
bcience. It was the privilege of the writer to 
spend some years under his tuition, and as 
assistant manipulator in his laboratory and lec¬ 
ture experiments. Prof. Whitlock has a grow¬ 
ing family of boys, and we believe he has gone 
upon a farm at the west where he may disci¬ 
pline them in the wholesome exercises of farm 
life, while he himself will instruct them in the 
sciences most useful in that pursuit. We doubt 
not he will exert an influence upon the farming 
interests of Iowa, and we congratulate the farm¬ 
ers of that new state upon having among them 
at the outset, one so capable of aiding to develop 
their agricultural resources. The letter was ad¬ 
dressed to Rev. Chas. Adams, and was by him 
furnished to the Lima Weekly Visitor It 
gives a very flattering account of the soil, cli¬ 
mate, healthfulness &c., of that new farming re¬ 
gion, and will doubtless lead others to seek the 
goodly land. 
Mt. Pleasant, Henry Co., / 
Iowa, July 20, 1854. ) 
Since my last, I have been on a journey to 
Albia, in Monroe Co., about 75 miles west. 
On our return, we took a route a little more 
northerly of about 100 miles; so I have seen 
much land, and I must say, that for fertility and 
beauty, I have never seen any thing that can at 
all compare with Southern Iowa; it is in this 
respect as much before Western New-York, 
New-York surpasses the Eastern 
broken, barren lands. Just think of vast plains, 
or better, for the most part, of low, wide spread 
waves, curving in lines of indescribable grace, 
just enough to drain the soil, covered with an 
abundance of grass, of a deep green, surpassing 
the painter’s tint, and surrounded, at a distance 
of from one or two to ten or twelve miles, wher 
you are in the centre, by a belt of large and 
beautiful forest. Just think of a surface so 
smooth, by nature, that you may ride in your 
buggy, driving your horse through the unbroken 
grass upon a trot. Consider a soil as uniformly 
fine as if it had been formed by the last of a 
great number of irrigations ; for so it actually 
has been, being the subsidence from a compara¬ 
tively quiet sea, the rock, and coarser drift hav¬ 
ing been left behind in more northern parts, as 
in W. New-York. Add to this condition the 
rich mold of the prairie grass for uncounted 
ages past. Think of riding nearly two hundred 
miles without seeing a stone as large as a bird’s 
egg, except in a very few places where water or 
art have exposed them or placed them. Think 
of a plow running in a field week after week 
without touching a stone, turning the ground 
like a mellow ash-heap, or like sifted sand, or 
better, which is the fact, water-washed and 
vegetable mold, materials so fine and light that 
it will almost float in water, and you will have 
some little idea of the surface of this remarka¬ 
ble country. The soil contains so much clay in 
its composition—not such clay as you have been 
accustomed to see in New-England; but washed 
comminuated, pulverized, mixed, invisible clay-- 
that vegetation does not suffer from drouth after 
an absence of rain for many weeks, as we have 
experienced; but even Indian corn retains its 
deep green (here very deep) and unchanged 
leaf, and stretches rapidly up toward its ten feet 
in height (this is the average altitude.) Un¬ 
cover the soil by the small fraction of an inch, 
when you would think the whole must be like 
a heap of dry ashes, and you will find the soil 
as moist as ever; this must necessarily be so 
from what I have said, and the additional fact 
that this fine, capilary earth is from two to four 
feet deep. I have spent much time, rather oc¬ 
cupied a good deal of space, that you might 
have as definite ideas on this important point as 
I might be able to give. You will judge of the 
lightness and firmness of the soil, by the fact 
that a small stream, with a moderate descent, 
and existing only in time of rain, digs for itself 
a ravine from two to four feet deep. 
Of the atmosphere, I think I need not say 
any thing in addition to my former communica¬ 
tion. I do not know how it could be purer or 
more pleasant; it seems to me very much like 
that of Vermont, almost always in motion. The 
water is almost universally good; it could not be 
better. But here is a drawback it may be.—so 
much very warm weather as we have had is apt 
to overcome the system, producing fever and 
diarrhoea. The fevers are, however, usually 
slight. A physician, who has practiced con¬ 
stantly for several years, told me he had not lost 
a case by this disease, and a diarrhoea may com¬ 
monly be soon checked. I think the climate, 
in summer, in this respect, resembles that of 
Vermont. I am told that it has been warmer 
than usual, (my thermometer has been as high 
as ninety deg. in the shade,) and uncommonly 
dry; but there is not much sickness, and I have 
never seen so fine crops, except it may be of 
Winter wheat. Spring wheat is a sure and 
abundant crop ; winter wheat is not thought re¬ 
liable, owing to the uncovered and wind, exposed 
condition, it dries up and perishes during the 
Winter, though all agree that it is quite sure, 
on recently-turned sod; and were it not for the 
difficulty mentioned, the farmers here from the 
the best wheat countries say that Iowa would 
be unequalled in this respect. I have conversed 
with very many men from Ohio, and some from 
Virginia, Indiana, and Illinois, and all (every 
one) unhesitatingly prefer this State. The 
farmers do not seem to pay much regard to 
winter wheat, they raise all other things so 
readily and abundantly. Corn, which is good 
for all things, yields 50 bushels per acre, on an 
average, without touching a hce to it, I hav6 
never seen in any country so fine cattle ; and as 
for hogs, ah me! you would have need enough 
for your “ Thanksgiving-day Sermon,” or rather, 
it would be entirely useless, for the streets are 
every where full of them, fat and dirty, and 
lordly as you could desire; it is perfectly horrible 
to me; here is one of tile objections to Iowa, and 
some of the people I suspect to be a little like 
the kind they live upon; there tire, however, I 
believe, many fine men here. I cannot say that 
you would like this country, in this respect, so 
well as you would New-England, or New-York; 
but I am, so far, tolerably well content. You 
may judge of my purpose when I inform you 
that I have entered three 80 acre lots, about five 
or six miles south of Albia and 20 miles north 
from Fairfield, which is 24 miles west from Mt. 
Pleasant, and that I have thus buried all my 
money, trusting Providence for a living. Had I 
more money, I should buy more land. A rail¬ 
road is confidently expected to pass through 
Albia, and one is already commenced which I 
think passes within a mile of my lot; a railroad 
is in progress to pass through this place, and 
on westward to the Des Moines, and it is this 
that is expected lo go through Albia, The 
government land is mostly taken up, and the 
remainder will be soon entered ; there is, how- 
ever, some yet that is worth entering. I reckon 
mine worth at least one thousand dollars more 
than the government price, which I gave for it. 
There is second-hand land of excellent quality, 
that can be obtained for from three to five dol¬ 
lars per acre; land fenced and improved is worth 
about ten dollars; with house &c., fifteen or 
twenty. Yours ever, 
Geo. C. Whitlock, 
CORN AND H0SS. 
A correspondent of the Cincinnati Price 
Current makes a calculation on the deficiency 
of the corn crop of the present season, and ar¬ 
rives at the conclusion that the inadequate sup¬ 
ply of food wi!l_ cause an advance in price of 
hog product. It is admitted, however, that 
there will be a large increase in the number of 
hogs, over the excess of last year. Say, then, 
that the corn crop is less and the hog crop 
greater than that of 1858; the fact is well 
known that there was a fair surplus of old corn, 
and an ample crop of oats this season, so thar 
feed for fattening, up to the usual killing sea¬ 
son, will not be wanting. Is it not, then, the 
policy of hog raisers to fatten and sell off their 
stock this fall? And, consequently, will not. 
this tend to glut the market with hog product, 
rather than to cause a diminution from the sup¬ 
ply of last year? It so strikes us; for surely 
the stock raisers will endeavor to get it off their 
hands, instead of feeding through the winter, 
with every prospect of advancing prices of 
corn as the old surplus of grain is consumed. 
Say then, that corn may bring even double the 
price of last season till the killin g season ar¬ 
rives—the farmer must chose between selling 
his hogs then, at less, perhaps, than the cost of 
feeding them, and keeping them through next, 
year, at the risk of a greater loss. What every 
wise farmer will do under these circumstances, 
can scarcely be doubted. He will sell all he 
can spare this fall—there will consequently be 
more than enough to meet the demand both for 
home and foreign consumption; and what must 
follow? Supply and demand will, as always, 
regulate the price of hog product, and it is 
quite as safe to calculate on lower as on higher 
figures than those of last year. At all events, 
operators will be very unsafe in taking the view 
of the Price Current’s correspondent without 
very close examination of pros and cons. And 
here we would ask, is it safe to assume that the 
supply of corn and other grain will not be fully 
adequate to the demand for the present year ? 
As remarked before, it is known and admitted 
that there was a surplus of corn from last year; 
the crop this year is short, but taking the coun¬ 
try through, will it not probably be enough tq 
