328 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST., 
The Back Volumes or the American Agriculturist, 
neatly bound, can now be supplied from the commence¬ 
ment. These of themselves constitute a beautiful and 
valuable Farmer’s Library, embracing a compendium 
of all the important agricultural articles that have ap- 
peareed during the last thirteen years. First ten volumes, 
new edition, furnished bound for $10. 
Bound volumes XI, XII and XIII (new series), $1 50 per 
volume ; unbound, $1 per volume. The whole thirteen 
volumes furnished bound for $14 50. 
^merkait 
Mew-York, Thursday, August 2. 
This paper is never sent where it is 
not considered paid for—and is in all cases 
stopped ivhen the subscription runs out. 
THE WEATHER. 
The weather in this vicinity has been so 
extraordinary for nearly three weeks, and 
its effect upon the harvest is so great, we 
think it a subject worthy of particular com¬ 
ment. The wind has ruled mostly from 
south-west, to south and south-east, delug¬ 
ing us with copious showers in five to six 
days out of the seven, followed generally by 
clear fiery rays of the sun, or a close, muggy, 
hazy atmosphere. . The consequence is, that 
much of the grain that has been cut and 
shocked for the past fortnight has commenced 
growing; and that which has remained 
standing has been more or less injured by 
rust, and beaten down and destroyed. Grass 
has rotted or turnedjdark and molded in the 
cock or swath. 
Now, cold wet weather, equally injurious to 
the grain and hay crops, is not at all uncom¬ 
mon in Europe ; and if our farmers under¬ 
stood securing their crops here in a wet sea¬ 
son as well as they o th n , e loss would 
ensue, even if the weather of the past fort¬ 
night continued till the end of the harvest. 
By putting up our hay carefully into cocks 
of about 300 lbs. to 400 lbs. each, they have 
stood in the open fields exposed to copious 
rains for a whole fortnight, with little injury. 
If we had placed hay caps of cheap water¬ 
proof cotton cloth over them, there would 
have been no damage of any consequence. 
We have guarded our rye, wheat, barley, and 
oats from material injury, by carefully shock¬ 
ing them. 
Such things demand a little study and 
painstaking on the part of the farmers, in 
times like these, when grain and hay are so 
precious and command such high prices. 
New-Rochelle Blackberry. —We see, by 
a notice in our advertising columns, that 
Messrs. Geo. Seymour & Co., of South Nor¬ 
walk, invite those interested to visit their 
grounds and see for themselves how the 
above fruit grows, how it bears, &c. We 
shall endeavor to be among the respondents 
to this general invitation at some time dur¬ 
ing the early part of the month. 
The New-York Horticultural Society 
hold their next regular meeting on Monday 
evening, August 6th, at Clinton Hall, when 
the subject of a Fall Exhibition will be taken 
into consideration. A full attendance of the 
members is desired. 
WESTWARD HO! 
There is a country where men are not an 
incumbrance, but where humanity is even at 
a premium. In many parts of the western 
regions good hands are now commanding 
rates of wages for harvest-work as high as 
two and a half dollars per day. Farmers 
say that it is easier to borrow a thousand 
dollars than to hire a good hand. Is there 
not some way that the men loitering about 
our eastern cities, loafing about the streets, 
and lounging about the grog-shops, can be 
induced to go and work for these wages 1 
The “ two dollars a day and roast beef” of 
which we heard so much in ’40, was not as 
good pay as this. 
If another inducement were needed to call 
to the west the surplus population that are 
living from hand to mouth here in city ftlth, 
and sweltering in pollution, it is the bloom¬ 
ing families that spring •up, as if by magic, 
around prairie farms. Napoleon told Madam 
De Stael that she was the greatest woman 
that had raised most children. By the an¬ 
cient Roman law, the father of three chil¬ 
dren was exempt from taxation. But not¬ 
withstanding the inferences that may be 
drawn from Mr. Barnum’s baby-show, we 
still remain of the old faith, that it is impos¬ 
sible to raise a fine family in the city. The 
oldest French families run out in two or 
three generations, when transplanted to 
Paris. 
There are many men in this city that com¬ 
menced business years ago, with prospects 
of early independence, who now toil for 
their daily bread. At every turn of life they 
have found, that as the habits changed, their 
necessities became greater ; so that, some¬ 
how, they were as far as ever from compe¬ 
tency. Others have seen their children fall 
around them, “like leaves in wintry weath¬ 
er.” Others look around them in vain for 
the children that should have sprung up 
“ like olive plants around their board,” to 
cheer their declining years and honor their 
gray hairs. All of them feel that the penal¬ 
ty of city life has been visited on them, and 
that their name and generation must, at no 
distant day perish from the earth. 
In the words of the plantation melody— 
They wish that they were young again, 
They’d lead a different life; 
They’d save their money and buy a farm ; 
Take Dinah for a wife. 
With inducements like these, why should 
Young America remain sucking his thumbs, 
in cities and villages ? Let him shoulder 
his rifle, and put Mary and the baby, and the 
ax and the hoe, into the cart, and turn his 
face towards the setting sun ; and, twenty 
years hence, if we should chance that way, 
we will call on him, and find him a jolly 
prairie farmer; the proprietor of a small 
village of barns and outhouses. The baby 
that was, will be a stout, broad-shouldered 
man. __* 
Blackberry Wine. —The following is said 
to be an excellent recipe for the manufacture 
of a superior wine from blackberries : Meas¬ 
ure your berries and bruise them; to every 
gallon add one quart of boiling water; let 
the mixture stand 24 hours, stirring occa¬ 
sionally ; then strain off the liquor into a 
cask ; to every gallon adding two pounds of 
sugar; cork tight, and let stand till the fol¬ 
lowing October. 
THE OHIO STATE FAIR. 
We have received from Dr. Sprague, Sec¬ 
retary, a list of the premiums and regula¬ 
tions, with the names of the awarding com¬ 
mittees of the Sixth Annual Fair of the Ohio 
State Board of Agriculture, to be held at the 
City of Columbus, on the 18th, 19th, 20th 
and 21st days of September. The ground 
selected is the same as that upon which the 
State Fair was held in 1851, upon the farm 
of M. L. Sullivant, Esq., in the town of 
Franklinton, about one mile from High-st., 
Columbus. The pamphlet is accompanied 
by a large lithographic engraving, giving us 
a representation of what the fair is to be. 
Painters have been for a long time in the 
habit of illustrating history by pictures, and 
of using such liberties in these embellish¬ 
ments as rendered them quite apochryphal. 
Whatever objections may be urged against 
that kind of amusement, none of them cer¬ 
tainly can apply to illustrations by antici¬ 
pation ; and we hail their advent as an era 
in the fine arts. By a glance at the exhibi¬ 
tion before us, we notice that the attend¬ 
ance seems to be unusually good this fall, 
which we suppose is due to the fact that the 
railroads leading to the City of Columbus 
did put down their fare to half price, as we 
see that the most of them promise to do in 
the accompanying pamphlet; and that they 
did carry stock and articles for exhibition 
free, as they say they will in this announce¬ 
ment. We see some very fine cattle on pa¬ 
rade in the rings, but we are unable from an 
inspection of the print to say who took the 
premiums. 
Yerily this is a fast age. Our Ohio friends 
are not satisfied with simply being up with 
the times, but with true western spirit ,% > 
ahead of them. 
Red (Italian) Cherry-Currants. —We have 
just been shown a specimen of these magnifi¬ 
cent currants, grown by A. G. Cay wood, of 
Modena, Ulster Co. On a small cutting of 
main stalk, a little over a foot long (one year 
and a half old), we weighed nearly 2 lbs. of 
fruit, the berries all from i an inch to H of an 
inch diameter, and of fine flavor. Mr. C. 
says his bushes grow 5 to 6 feet, and the 
fruit hangs very uiform and dense all along. 
He has not given any extra cultivation, in¬ 
deed his currants have been rather neglect¬ 
ed this season, from want of time. They 
grow, for the most part, under peach trees. 
Mr. C. is a successful cultivator of seed¬ 
lings, and exhibits a praiseworthy desire to 
introduce the best varieties of various fruit, 
by careful experiment and unwearied atten¬ 
tion. He has produced the “ Great Bigar- 
rean cherry li- inch in diameter—(see Hor¬ 
ticulturist, Feb. 1852) ; also the New Ro¬ 
chelle blackberry and the White blackberry 
in great perfection. We understand his 
Concord grapes, 2 lbs. to the bunch, (which 
ripen about the 8th of September,) are very 
superior. He also grows the Diana grapes, 
