58 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
From a Humorous Correspondent. 
More About the Corn Bread Exhibition. 
Mr. Editor „•— You took the liberty to print my 
letter and, pencillings , long, ears and all, in last Nov¬ 
ember's Agriculturist. That was putting it on rather 
thick—perhaps none too much so, for we were the 
NUMBER ONE. 
tallest kind of mules, to send off our money to that 
New-Hampshire “ Lottery," because it was sugar-coated 
over with “ Grand Social Banquet," “ Mechanics' 
Union,," etc. But since you have shown me up when 
I was humbugged, 1 will give you a chance to exhibit 
me when I wasn’t. You see, we've been using fine 
wheat flour for many years, as about our only food. 
Lalt rly it seemed to pack in the stomach, just as if 
NUMBER TWO. 
you should wet up a piece of bread, and make it into 
a mass of dough. When it got into the stomach, the 
gastric juice couldn't dissolve the lump readily ; and 
when it did, there were no coarse particles to stimu¬ 
late the digestive apparatus to action, such as Nature 
supplies when she makes a kernel of wheat with bran 
on it. The consequence was, we had the dyspepsia 
very badly, wife and I had—particularly me. I 
frequently had to take medicine as an internal stimu¬ 
lant, in place of coarse particles of food. The result 
was, l became so thin that I often heard the boys 
whisper.: “ There goes Smith's shadow." You can 
see how I looked, by the sketch number- one, sent 
herewith. Well, wife and I happened down to York 
n December. (The fact was, our oldest daughter, 
who is mgrried out West, had sent some of her best 
n bread to the Exhibition, and expected the premium-, 
and so we purposely happened there just at the right 
time to look after her honors.) We didn't find just 
what we expected: we found a great deal more, I tell 
you ; and I wanted to come right to your desk, Mr. 
Editor, and tell you how surprised I was; but wife 
ivouldn't let me—she said that if I made myself 
known, you would be looking after my ears, and so I 
kept shy of you. But; to cut my story short, wife got 
so interested in corn bread that she brought home lots 
of recipes,,and has. been making. corn bread and corn 
cake for every meal since. . That's only, a month, and 
what the effect is you can see by my present portrait, 
number two, also sent herewith. All this comes 
from eating bread that don't pack in one's stomach. 
Perhaps a little is due to the oil or fat in the corn. 
Yours, etc. -. 
Barnstable Co., Mass., Jan. 18, 1862. 
New-York Live Stock Trade for 1861. 
Accounts are kept at the Office of the Agriculturist, of 
all the receipts at the regular yards of live animals des¬ 
tined for slaughter,' milch cows, etc. These accounts 
are gathered at the yards themselves, and not from news¬ 
paper reports. Our Monthly Reviews are made up 
i these, and we also furnish the reports of each 1 
ket to some of our leading Daily and Weekly jour¬ 
nals. The following record from our books will be in¬ 
teresting, and useful for future reference. It gives for 
veek in the year, the receipts of the different kinds 
nals, and the weekly average price of all beef cattle 
sold. The price is in cents per pound for the estimated 
weight of the dressed carcasses: 
WEEKLY RECEIPTS FOR 1861. 
..■ ffff g • A* Milch Veal Sh r f~f, Live 
Week i_ 
Ending Cattle. 
Jan 
t. El 
Cows. Calves. 
■Lambs. 1 
Jnne 
June 18 
June 25 
July 2 
July 9 
July 16 
July 23 
July 30 
Aug. 6 
Aug. 18 
Aug. 27 
Sept. 3 
Sept. 10 
gep't. 17 
2,771 814 111 326 6,763 
Total 
of all 
urns. 
21,921 
29,903 
25,1(82 
19,506 
370 7,425 8,672 
7 X 83 861 8,437 
7 K 98 460 8,128 
8% 84 322 5,670 4,710 14,019 
8)4 95 432 5,880 6,624 16,648 
8% 119 422 6,367 8,706 18,818 
3,745 IX 147 
, 1 . . 
1% 13 1,153 8,843 6,615 
_ 8*4 81 937 6,054 7,920 
4,637 8M 77 787 6,031 10,102 
4,654 8K 127 825 6,648 6,888 19,142 
3,688 8)4 109 1,087 10,971 5,466 21,321 
3,766 8X 132 1,111 9,094 4,236 19,084 
4,845 8 110 873 10,215 6,351 22,329 
4,099 IX 88 414 11,800 7,602 24,003 
• 7X 111 765 11,162 4,268 20,556 
7^ 136 1,344 12,323 4,409 21,646 
8 87 600 11,095 2,508 17,616 
174 656 17,361 5,62( 
5,204 21,122 
129 496 14,329 4,004 
4,295 7 X 100 534 
4,091 8 151 531 
3,235 8K 12 116 
474 13,256 
91 545 13,234 
103 539 14,080 
109 922 13,465 
132 463 12,984 
97 507 13,913 
130 653 -11,412 
102 484 16,106 
100 548 10,759 
104. 704 14,370 
121 708 14,679 
"" 606 12,147 
480 10,190 
33,888 48,607 
9,862 38,209 52,785 
I860..226,747 7,154 
? LIVE ANIMALS FOR 2 YEARS. 
Calves. Sheep. Stvine. All kinds. 
83.388 527,35s 5W.5d!i 37 
40,163 514,191 819,628 1,107,882 
OY RECEIPTS FOR 2 YEARS. 
L Veals. Sheep. 
I 630 9,950 
Beeves. Prices. Cot. .. -- --.. 
_>61. .4,270 7 4-5 110 630 9,950 11,292 - 
1860 .4,360 81-5 138 772 9,888 • 6,147 21,805. 
Motes. —The second and last days of 1861 were 
general market days; the total receipts are really for 
53 weeks. The number of beef cattle for the two years 
was very nearly the same, but the average business for 
52 weeks in 1860, Is a little higher. The net price of 
beef averaged 2-10ths of a cent, or 4 mills per lb. lower 
in 1861 than in 1860. Fewer cows were required last 
year, as the better pasturage secured more milk from the 
cows kept. The number of live hogs nearly doubled, 
owing to the disturbed condition of the hog-slaughtering 
towns along the Ohio and Mississippi livers, and the 
blockade of the Mississippi, which stopped the usual ship¬ 
ping of pork down that channel. It will be seen by the 
table that for the closing weeks of the year, 18,000 to. 40,000 
live hogs were- brought to New-York, against a weekly 
average of 6,147 for all of 1860. The receipts of hogs 
have been even larger since Jan. 1. 
DERIVATION OF BEEF CATTLE. 
We have gathered, weekly? the sources of the cattle 
brought to the Forty-fourth-street Yards, at which place 
were sold 192,375 of the 226,312 beef cattle brought to this 
City in 1861. These 192,375 came direct to the market 
from the following States: 
Illinois.....80,45! 
Ohio.36,65' 
New-York.29,05! 
Iowa. 
. 1,063 
1,053 
Virginia. 
N. B.—These a 
Many cattle vi 
.. 8.189 Wisconsin. 120 
.. 4,898lChoctaw Nation. 100 
.. 3,736|Massachusetts.. 67 
.. l,117.|Texas. 50 
the points from which the cattle last 
brought Eastward and pastured 
season before coming to market, and were credited 
to the last pasture ground. This was largely the case 
with those set down for New-York State. From this 
fact, and from other sources of information, we estimate 
that the great pasturing and corn-growing State of Illi¬ 
nois furnished more than half of all the immense supplies 
of beef cattle, brought to New-York City during 1861. 
Figures in a Meat Bill—Interesting Items. 
We give in another article a summary of the live ani 
mats brought to New-York City during 1861. These fig 
ures, with some account of the cost, etc., as prepared 
originally.in the office of the Agriculturist, are being 
published throughout the country, generally without any 
credit as to their origin. We will bring together here a 
few items of interest. First as to the mode of sellifig.. 
Beef Cattle, are sold by the .head, at a price; based 
upon the weight of. the dressed carcass. This weight 
averages not far from 55 lbs. for each 100 lbs. of iive. 
weight; fine fat cattle sometimes dress 60 to 65 lbs., and 
poorer grades run below r 50 lbs. The average net price 
of all cattle sold in 1861 was about 7 cents and 8 mills per 
lb., the sales ranging from 4c. to 11c. per lb., for different 
grades, and at different seasons. 
How Other Animals are Sold.— Milch Cows, are sold 
by the head, with or without the calf.— Veal Calves , are 
sold by the pound live weight.— Sheep and Lambs are sold 
at so much a head for a lot, or the pick of a lbt, but.-the 
price is reported at the price per lb, live weight.— Live 
Hogs, are sold by the pound, live weight. 
Average Weights and Prices.— Beef Cattle: The 
average net weight (dressed.carcassj of ah the live beef 
cattle sold last year was about 730 lbs. each. Average 
price 7 cents 8 mills per lb, or $58.40. Add to this for the 
offal, as below. $11.61, and we have tile average price of 
all the cattle, large and small = $68.55 each. 
Milch Cows: Average price for 1861 about $32. 
Veal Calves : Shrinkage in killing and dressing, about 
35 lbs. in the 100 lbs. Average live weight about 120 lbs., 
average price about 4)sfc. per lb.; average per head=$5.10. 
Sheep and Lambs : Shrinkage in killing about 40 lbs. in 
100 lbs. Average live weight of sheep about 95 lbs., and 
of lambs about 70 lbs.; average of all of both kinds; 85 lbs., 
average price, 4Xc.; average price per head=$3.82>4. 
Live Hogs: Shrinkage in killing about 22 lbs. in 100 
lbs. Average live weight, 170 lbs., average price per lb. 
4)£c.; average per head=$7.65. 
Beeves’ Offal.— This includes Skin, Rough Tallow, 
Head, Tongue, Feet, Heart, Liver, Tripe, Intestines, and 
Manure, or strippings. All these articles are turned to 
account by the butcher, and are not reckoned in the car¬ 
cass value, which we have put at 730 lbs, and 7 cents 8 
mills per lb. The offal for last year averaged about as 
follows: Skin, average 87 lbs., average price about 
5Xc.=$4.78>£. (The price varied during the year from 
3j*c. to 9c. per lb.)— Rough Tallow, average 75lbs., aver¬ 
age price 7c.=$5.25.— Heads sold for about 25 cents each. 
—Tongues varied from 30c. to 56c. each, average.say 35c. 
Feet averaged about 28c., varying from 25c. to 30c.— 
Hearts averaged about 6 lbs, and sold for only about 10 
cents each.— Livers weigh about 10 lbs., and sold for an 
average of 30 cents each.— Tripe is nearly all used here, 
and is sokLai an average of about 15 cents per animal.— 
The Intestines are generally stripped and used for Bo¬ 
logna sausages, etc., at 5 cents per animal. The Manure. 
or strippings of the tripe (stomach); and intestines, is also 
