306 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
matter, unless in cheese designed for some 
unusually fastidious market. . 
COMPARISONS DRAWN FROM CENSUS RETURNS 
NOT ALWAYS CORRECT. 
To the hhlitor of the American Agriculturist: 
On page 211, of June 14, you have statis¬ 
tics from the National Intelligencer, relative 
to the “ value of farms in different States,” 
which strikes me as showing a comparison, 
though in truth a difference, yet not a very 
fair inference of the condition of the citi¬ 
zens of the different States. These com¬ 
parisons are dependent upon so many con¬ 
tingencies, that they do not give satisfac¬ 
tion. 
Allow me to state a case: Vermont stands 
second, showing that each inhabitant owns 
in cash value $201. Suppose in Louisiana 
there be a casli value “ of her farms,” as 
giving only $100 ; thus the citizens of Ver¬ 
mont. would be worth double as much. Land 
in Vermont may be valued at an average of 
$50 per acre, and in Louisiana at $5. Mr. 
A. owns a farm in Vermont of 100 acres, 
worth $5,000, from which, with industry, 
economy, &c., he takes off $500. Mr. B., 
in Louisiana, owns 500 acres, worth $2,500 
only, cash value, as per the late census; 
yethe sells 100 bales of cotton, worth $3,000, 
or 100 hogsheads of-sugar, worth $5,000. 
The first article is carried to Massachusetts, 
and adds to her value on land, and the pro¬ 
ceeds to the Louisianian is laid out in land 
at $1.25, or less or more. 
Again, these comparisons are unjust in 
another phase. The census shows, for in¬ 
stance, the hay crop as a part of the profit 
of—say Connecticut or Ohio. The hay crop 
in Mississippi is set down as nothing, be¬ 
cause the planters make but very little, they 
feeding on corn-blades, shucks (husks of 
corn), millet, &c. ; yet Pennsylvania lias 
near two million tuns—is all sold, or is that 
her crop 1 
Mississippi has 170,007 horses, mules and 
asses; 83,485 working oxen; with a corn 
crop of 22,440,552 bushels—71 bushels per 
head ; with nearly 310,000 slaves to be fed— 
from what 1 1,582,734 hogs to be fed—from 
what 1 Does it. not appear very evident 
to any man, that such statements are not re¬ 
liable for comparing one country with an¬ 
other 1 
Why, Sir, the corn crop of Mississippi in 
1850, would not be enough by one-third, at 
the lowest possible limit. Feeding 253,000 
work animals would require about 25,000,- 
000 bushels. The hogs, at only two bushels 
each, would require 3,000,000 more ; 309,878 
at 15 bushels each, would require 5,000,000 
more. This added up gives [33,000,000, 
showing a demand for 11,000,000 more than 
were made. Mind you, here is no waste, 
nothing for whites, nothing for poultry, rats, 
dogs, &c. Why, Sir, the corn necessities 
alone would involve a drain of nearer $10,- 
000,000 than less than $5,000,000, while our 
export article was only worth some $15,000,- 
000 . 
Yet again. 10,500,000 acres are put down 
at a cash value of near $55,000,000—not $5 
per acre. Vermont, with 4,000,006 acres, at 
$63,000,000. Horses, mules and oxen, in 
Vermont, $109,852; farm implements and 
machinery, $2,740,000; while Mississippi, 
with 253,000 work animals, with all her cot¬ 
ton gins, &c., has only $5,973,000! Why, 
Sir, estimating a gin, mill, press, gearing and 
horse, at $1,000 each—one to every 50 ne¬ 
groes—there will be $6,000,000 required 
alone, nothing said of saw-mills, plows, 
wagons, and the forty thousand et ceteras. 
Any school boy can figure up there are 
errors, and that comparisons between the 
South and the North are not a fair criterion. 
Others may say, these are statistics. So 
they are ; but some of the South do not 
render in the reports as many do of the 
North, for they do not really know the data 
as correctly as should be, and they prefer to 
always under-estimate. 1 am required to 
say what is the cash value of my land. I 
own 1,200 acres. I can only judge by sales. 
We seldom sell land for cash. I then make 
a guess, at, say $8 per acre, and I pay taxes 
on the, say, $10,000. But I would not take 
$30,000. This is my homestead ; I do not 
want to sell. From this $10,000 investment 
and operatives, &c., I can sell some two or 
three hundred bales of cotton. My $10,000 
worth of property divided among my ten 
children, gives them only $1,000 each; yet 
I sell yearly $6,000 to $10,000 worth, or I 
can pay expenses and give them each $300 
each year, or 30 per cent on the capital. 
I have hunted up these statistics, from ten 
to twenty years, and have pointed out to 
former Commissioners of Patents such ap¬ 
parent errors, that it seems nothing but the 
desire alone to disparage could have pre¬ 
vented a correction. I do not think the 
worth of a man should be judged by the 
dollars and cents. I hope I shall not be thus 
estimated. Other folks may desire it—but 
for me and mine, we do not. 
A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 
FOWL RAISING AMONG THE SHAKERS. 
One of the editors of the Cincinnati Star 
in the West, lias visited our friends at Union 
Village, and gives the following items of 
their way of raising chickens : 
We were much interested in the poultry 
department of the Union Community. They 
have the choicest cocks and hens, capons, 
turkeys, ducks and geese. The hatching 
process is left to the charge of one “ brother,” 
who, with his long straight hair and broad 
brim, superintends the work with gravity and 
faithfulness, and who, generally, has good 
“ luck.” If chickens can be hatched, he will 
hatch them. As soon as they are fairly “ out 
of the shell,” they are taken from the hen 
and given into the hands of a careful “ sis¬ 
ter,” who nurses them with the tenderness 
of a mother. She places them in a room 
provided for this purpose, which is kept 
warmed to a certain temperature with stoves. 
Those near the same age are placed togeth¬ 
er. In this room were four or five small 
apartments or pens, in each of which there 
were at least 100 to 200 chickens, none of 
which could have been over ten days old. 
They all seemed strong and healthy, and 
very clean and pretty. The “ sister ” as¬ 
sured us that they do much better when 
taken from the hen, and are thus cared for 
by human attention. Moreover the hen gets 
to her work of laying more speedily than 
when permitted to run with her brood. The 
warmth of the room supplies the absence of 
brooding. 
THE EFFECT OF PROHIBITORY LAWS ON THE 
'FARMING INTEREST. 
There are few questions presenting them¬ 
selves to the farming community at pres¬ 
ent, of more importance than this—what is 
going to be the effect of prohibitory liquor 
laws on the price of produce 1 We see one 
State after another falling into the ranks of 
prohibition, regardless of the clamor of po¬ 
liticians who are denouncing these laws as 
unjust, and oppressive. Of course this great 
question can be settled only by a fair trial of 
the operation of the prohibitory law. I 
think a conclusion different from that of noisy 
politicians can be reached in. this matter. 
One thing farmers may take very calmly— 
they need not be alarmed at the prophecies 
of those politicians who predict disaster and 
ruin to the farming interest, and therefore 
ruin to the country, from the operation of 
prohibition in the liquor traffic. The world 
will move on without the aid of their wis¬ 
dom and power. But let us come to a di¬ 
rect examination of the question. 
On page 182 of the Compendium of the 
United States for 1850, we find the total 
amount of corn distilled that year in the 
United States, to be 11,067,761 bushels; 
but on page 174, the whole amount produced 
was 592,071,104—showing that the amount 
distilled in the United States, was to the 
amount produced as 1 to 531 bushels. Hence 
while distilleries consume one bushel, 531 
bushels are consumed in other ways. Until 
I saw these figures, I supposed distillers 
consumed a much larger proportion of the 
corn crop. 
Now suppose that all the distilleries in the 
land should close up their business at once, 
the amount of corn that would be thrown 
back into the hands of farmers would be only 
one to every 53i bushels—less than 2 bush¬ 
els on a hundred, or 20 on a thousand. If 
this corn could not find a market, it would 
only be a loss of 1-53 part of the farmer’s 
crop. The average price of a bushel of corn 
throughout the country, as it comes from the 
hands of the producer, can not be over 40 
cents. In this case the loss to the farmer 
would be only about f of a cent per bushel, 
even admitting that there would be no mar¬ 
ket for it. 
We allow the corn is not consumed and 
wasted in making whiskey. The slops of 
the distillery are used for fattening beef and 
pork. It is said that the same corn, after 
making whiskey, produces half as much 
pork as it would have done without being 
distilled. Now if you suppose all the dis¬ 
tilleries to be stopped, there will then be a 
demand at least for half the corn to fatten 
the number of hogs that have heretofore 
been fattened at the distilleries. If this sup¬ 
position is granted, the loss of corn, instead 
of being 1-53 part, will be 1-106 part, or 
about ‘s' of a cent on a bushel, even if the rest 
can find no market. 
But every bushel of corn distilled yields 
about 3£ gallons of whiskey. . W’hat becomes 
of this liquor! It first passes into the hands 
of the Avholesale dealer—then into the retail¬ 
er’s hands, who distributes it through the 
alleys and streets of our cities ; and through 
all the towns, villages and neighborhoods in 
our land. This firey liquid flows in all di¬ 
rections, stinging like a serpent and biting 
like an adder—paralysing the arm of indus¬ 
try, entailing unnumbered sorrows, abject 
poverty and wretchedness on multitudes of 
noble women and innocent children. If 
now distilleries should stop, and the traffic 
in liquor should cease, can any one for a 
moment conclude that the corn which would 
