1877 .] 
AMERICAN AGtRIOXJXjTIJEIIST. 
85 
blockade, with its delays and losses, helped the market 
up % a cent. The arrival of the delayed trains with the 
weight of a lot of poor stock, forced to sale, dragged 
prices down again, and the advantage was more tlirn lost. 
A principal feature of the monthly business was the ship¬ 
ment of more than 6,000 head to Europe. It is very clear 
that the extension of this business tends to take away all 
our best stock, skinning our markets of what we need. 
It is equally clear that the margins for profit depend up¬ 
on low prices here, and high prices in England, and also 
that the trade can not change these conditions and still 
exist. To take over 1,000 head of the best cattle weekly 
from our supplies, is a serious loss. The effect is seen in 
the return of the rates for extra stock to 13 cents. On the 
whole the market has been dull, closing with a little life, 
and a slight advance. The unusually large stock of prime 
cattle selling at 11c., and extra at 11 % to 12c. for 59 fts. $ 
cwt. estimated, helped the average. Good natives brought 
9%@10‘/2C., for 56@57 fts., and Texans estimated at 55 
lbs. $ cwt., were dull at 8%@9c. $ lb. 
The prices for the past five weeks were as follows: 
WEEK ending Range. 
J,an. 15. 89(®12 c. 
Jan. 32. 8X@12)6c. 
Jan. 29.7>4@13 c. 
Feb. 5. 7)6® 12 c. 
Feb. 12. 8M@12>5C. 
Large Sales. 
9 @U)4c 
9KO10J4C 
9 ®'.0KC 
c 
Aver 
1096c 
10J6C 
Cows.— On various favorable accounts the market has 
improved slowly but steadily, and there is a fair Inquiry 
for good milkers, at $60 to $65 $1 head, and $70 is readily 
paid for choice. Common cows are quoted at $40 to 
$45_ Calves. —Good veals have been in fair demand, 
with firmer prices. Prime sold at 9@9>£c. $ ft-, extra at 
10c., and fair to good at 8@9c. <p lb. live weight. Prime 
hog dressed are quoted at 12@13c. $ lb — Slieep.— 
The trade in sheep has dragged miserably since the re¬ 
ceipt of 33,000 and over in one week,. Stock has been 
sold for less than cost in Chicago, and many lots have 
been carried over from week to week unsold. Very fat 
sheep closed at 79£@796c. <p 5)., live weight; fair at 6c, 
and poor at 4%@5J4c. $ lb. Swine.— The warm 
weather has taken the stiffness out of the hog market, and 
prices have weakened considerably. Western dressed 
have come in in bad order, bringing only 79£c. $ lb. City 
dressed sold for 8 @ 8 J 4 c., and live brought 6X®6Js,c. $ ft. 
Prices of Feed. 
Bran, per ton.$18.00@$20.00 
Middlings, per ton. 19.00® 21.00 
Ground Feed, per ton. 15.00@ 21.00 
Llnseed-oil-cake. western, per ton. 44.00® 47.00 
Cotton-seed-cake, per ton.. 25.50® 40.00 
Chandler’s Scraps, per lb. 8@ 4 
Prices of Fertilizers. 
No.l.Peruv.GtianolO p.ct. ammonia, standard, $ ton..$56.50 
do. do. guaranteed, $ ton, cargo A 56.00 
do do. rectified, per ton, 10 p. c.. 68.50 
Mapes’ Complete Manure (Ville formula) p. 1,000 lbs 26.14 
“ Potato do do do do 25.97 
“ Turnip do do do do 19.36 
“ Fine Bone, strictly pure .per ton 40.00 
“ Dissolved Bone, 15 per cent. do 40.00 
Quinnipiac Fertilizer Co’s. Phosphate, per ton.. 40.00 
“ “ Dry ground Fish Guano, ton 45.00 
“ “ Pine Island Guano, per ton. 45.00 
Stockbridge Corn Manure, (Boston) per acre... 22.00 
“ Potato do do do 12.00 
“ Tobacco do do do 60.00 
Bowker’s Hill and Drill Fertilizer, per ton. 45.00 
Fish Guano (crude in barrels), per ton. 18.00 
Bone Flour, per ton. 45.00 
Rawbones Ground (pure), per ton. 33.00® 40.00 
German Potash Salts. (25@35 per cent), per ton. 22.00@ 25.00 
Gypsum, Nova Scotia, ground, per ton. 8.00 
Nitrate of Potash (95 per cent.), per lb. 82fc.@ 9^c. 
Sulphate of Potash (80 per cent) per lb. 3!4c ,@ 4 c. 
Chloride of Potass,(muriate of potash, 80p.c.), lb 2J(c.® 3Kc. 
Nitrate of Soda, per lb. . . 4)4c.® 49fc. 
Sulphate of Ammonia (25 per cent.), per lb_ 5 c.@ 5)*c. 
Dried Blood or Dried Meat per unit of ammonia.$3.00® $ 4.00 
Fish Culture Profitable.— In the Re¬ 
port, Jan. 1,1877, of the Connecticut Fish Commissioners, 
(Messrs. Hudson, Pike, and Bill), we read: “ There are 
few enterprises enjoying public attention at the present 
time that promise more profitable results than the multi¬ 
plying of food fishes in fresh water ponds_It is the be¬ 
lief of all who have studied the subject, that fresh water 
fishes of all kinds can be multiplied almost indefinitely, 
and so cultivated as to be improved not only in quantity 
but in quality, and made to be the cheapest of cheap food. 
This fact should be repeated over and over again, until 
every one who has a patch of water on his premises large 
enough for tadpoles and shiners, can make it yield an 
i abundance of wholesome fish food, at not half the trouble 
i and expense with which he cultivates a like patch of 
ground. The food thus produced is too much neglected 
by the farming community; Staffords elements of nour¬ 
ishment necessary to a healthy condition of the body, for 
which no cheaper available substitute can be found.”— 
The Report describes 256 ponds of 5 to 2,000 acres each, 
aggregates 31,604 acres in Conn, alone.—“ These contain 
a considerable number and variety of food-fishes—al¬ 
though probably not a thousandth part of what this may 
be made to produce at a little expense of time and money. 
Besides these (256) large ponds, there are a greater num¬ 
ber of ponds of less than 5 acres each, that are in like 
manner capable of development.”—We would.like to see 
a similar report of the capabilities of other States, The 
subject is one of great interest and importance to every 
State. Those not abounding in lakes and ponds, have 
rivers which may be easily stocked with food-fishes, 
doubtless at a great profit. 
MARCH 
Is a first-rate month, in which to secure 
some of the 
Good Things Offered 
Ena oair Ettlaastrated. IPrewaisim List. 
If yore Saave not received tlais, send 
to tSae JPaiSalisliei-s and ge6 oaae, tree. 
Spring Work 
Is coming on, and multitudes will want 
tlie aid of this Journal. Gather a few 
names ofSucn, and receive some valuable 
article free. Hundreds of people always 
do this In March, and you may as well 
be one of them. 
containing a great variety of Items, including many 
good Hints and Suggestions which we throw into smaller 
type and condensed form, for want of room elsewhere. 
iSF” jjr.BS.— * 1 File Postage Law.— The 
present postal law requires pre-payment of 
postage by the publishers. Each subscriber 
must therefore remit, in addition to the old rates, 
ten cents for prepayment of yearly post¬ 
age by the Publishers, at New York. Every 
subscriber, whether coming singly, or in clubs at club 
rates, will be particular to send to this office postage 
as above, with his subscription. Subscribers in British 
America will continue to send postage as heretofore, 
for pre-payment here. 
Rei lifting: Uloney : — Clieclts on 
New Vork City Banks or Bankers ate best 
for large sums ; make payable to the order of Orange 
Judd Company. Post-Office Money Orders 
for $50 or less, are cheap and safe also. When these are not 
obtainable, register letters, affixing stamps for post¬ 
age and registry; put in the money and seal the letter in 
the presence of the postmaster, and take his receipt for it. 
Money sent in the above three methods is safe against loss. 
Bonud Copies of Volume Tliirty- 
flve are now ready. Price, $2, at our office; or $2.50 
each, if sent by mail. Any of the last twenty volumes 
(16 to 35) will also be forwarded at same price. Sets of 
numbers sent to onr office will be neatly bound in onr 
regular style, at75 cents pervol. (50 cents extra, if return¬ 
ed by mail.) Missing numbers supplied at 12 cents each. 
CLUBS—Increasing' : Advantages: 
Lower terms are given to clubs of four or more sub¬ 
scribers, partly because it costs less to mail in packages, 
with only name slips on each paper ; and partly to en¬ 
courage getting up large lists. We do not object to a 
person’s adding names to his club from other post-offices, 
because such additions usually become centers of other 
clubs_A Club can at any time be increased by the ad¬ 
dition of other names, if these start with the same date 
as the others... .Any one having sent a small club atone 
price, may raise the clnb to a large figure, and lower rate 
for all. Thus: one having sent 4 names at $5.20, may 
send 6 names more for $6.80, making $12 for the whole 
10, including postage. And so for other club rates. . 
The Terras are: Single subscriptions $1.60 each ; two 
names $1.50 each ; three names $1.40 each ; ten to nine¬ 
teen names $1.20 each; twenty names and upwards $1.10 
each. Postage always pre-paid by the Publishers. 
Premium clubs may be gathered at any number of post- 
offices, if all are sent in by the same person. 
Every German Cultivator and 
Laborer on the Farm, or in tbe Garden, 
OUGHT to have the German edition of the American 
Agriculturist. It contains not only the Engravings, and 
all the essential reading matter of the American edition, 
but an additional Special German Department, edited by 
the Hon. Frederick Munch, of Missouri, a skillful and 
successful cultivator and excellent writer. No other 
German Agricultural or Horticultural Journal in America 
has been so long issued ; no other one contains so much 
useful information, or a tithe of its engravings. The 
Germans are a reading, thinking people, and know how 
to make good use of what they read. Many Americans 
supply it to their German laborers and gardeners, and all 
would find it pay to do so.—Nothing else can compete 
with it in cheapness of price for the same amount oj 
material, engravings, etc., because the expense of collect¬ 
ing and making these is largely borne by the American 
edition, and no separate office or machinery is required 
beyond a couple of German editors and the printers. 
Its terms are the same as the American edition, i ingly 
and in clubs; and clubs can be composed of subscribers 
for either edition in whole, or in part.—Please call 
the attention of your German neighbors to this paper. 
It will do much to help new comers to a knowledge of 
the system and modes of culture used in this country. 
Amuse Torn- BOYS, and Yourself. 
—One of the best ways of keeping your boys, (and your¬ 
self), out of evil associations, is to provide pleasant 
entertainment at Home. C. M. Crandall has just brought 
out one of the best things for this, that we have ever 
seen,' or thoroughly tried. We have seen a whole family, 
including Father, Mother, Daughters, and Boys, partici¬ 
pating in and thoroughly enjoying this new amusement. 
In one sense it is a “ moral reformer ’’—for Boys. With 
this at home, they will not be found playing marbles and 
spoiling their clothes in the street. A cannon that will 
shoot without powder, and at the same time he a good 
home substitute for games that grown men indulge in at 
public resorts, is certainly an acquisition. As one will last 
half a dozen years or so, the cost may be put down at 50 
cents ayear, or 1 cent a week—cheap indeed for so attrac¬ 
tive a home amusement. For particulars, see page 116. 
A Valuable New Potato — Soiree 
Seed Free. —The introduction of the “Early Rose” 
Potato was worth millions to the country, and most of 
those who paid $3 to $5 a pound for the first seed, found 
great profit in it.—This year a new and very promising 
variety is offered, the “Superior.” Though there is 
but a very limited supply, the price is put at $1 a pound. 
Those who get even half a pound will with care have 
a good start, as a single pound produced 675 lbs. during 
the past season. We have secured a small quantity 
for the benefit of our readers, and would gladly present 
each of them with a little, hut as this is impossible, we 
make the following proposal: Any present subscriber 
who will, after March 1st, send one new subscriber to 
the American Agriculturist for 1877, at $1.60, will be pre¬ 
sented with two of the “ Superior” Potatoes, weighing 
li lb. each, post-paid. Any present subscriber sending 
two new subscribers, as above, at $1.60 each, will be pre¬ 
sented with three half-pound parcels, (or 1 % lb.) With 
care in dividing the eyes, and cultivation, 1 y t lb. may 
he multiplied to 1,000 lbs., or fifteen bushels, or even 
more, the first season, which will furnish a good start 
for next year, as but few who will have them any way. 
(One man produced 1,70796 lbs. from 1 lb. of the “ Alpha ” 
last season, and another 1,9S2 lbs. from 1 lb. of the 
“Ruby.”) The above offer is well worthy of attention. 
Business Reviving in Earnest.— 
Marked evidences of this are visible everywhere. The 
country is down to hard pan prices, with the exception 
of house servants’ wages and a few other things, and any 
change must now he for the better. The country is really 
growing richer as a whole; the economy practiced re¬ 
duces the expenses below the earnings. If a man earns 
50 cents a day, and spends 45, he is improving his con¬ 
dition by 10 per cent of his earnings.—As to revival of 
business, among many indications our advertising col¬ 
umns are one. They are more crowded than at any time 
before, since the panic of 1873.—In March and April the 
editors usually yield more space to the business columns 
than at other seasons, hut our readers will hardly regret 
this, for in the advertising pages they will find much of 
interest. This is the time to look out in advance for 
Spring Serds, Plants, Implements, etc., etc., and it will 
pay every one to go carefully through all these pages, 
and see what is offered, by whom, and at what prices, 
and forward eariycrders, orsend forcirculars, catalogues, 
etc. Nowhere was there ever brought together a better 
class of advertisers as a whole. Our rules are perhaps 
