1864] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
143 
So he borrows teams enough, if he can, to 
break 5 or 10 acres for corn as deep as he can, 
and then continues his shallow breaking for 
wheat with his own team. Our correspondent 
gives his last year’s experience, as follows: 
“ I moved to a raw prairie farm last spring, 
and with a team of three small horses and a 
12-inch Moline plow, broke eighty acres be- 
. tween the 6th of May and the 1st of July, 
and planted and cultivated twelve acres of corn 
besides, on old ground, (for it won’t do to de¬ 
pend on sod corn). I sowed wheat on the new 
ground last September without replowing, and 
it looks well now, March 8th. The best time to 
break prairie, is from the middle of May to the 
first of July, though it will do from the first of 
May to the middle of July. If it is broken be¬ 
fore the first of May, it won’t kill all the grass, 
and if broken after the middle of July, the grass 
will be killed dead enough, but it will not rot 
enough that summer to be in good condition 
the next spring. The breaking should be 
done as shallow as the plow will run, because 
one of the main objects in breaking is speed, for 
a man wants to get as much done as possible 
while the season lasts;—another reason is, that 
sod which is broken thin, will dry out and die 
quicker, and consequently rot sooner, than when 
it is broken deep.” 
Fences for Prairie Lands. —At a recent 
meeting of the Topeka (Kansas) Farmers’ Club, 
the subject of fences for the prairie was dis¬ 
cussed, at which there appeared to be a pre¬ 
ponderance of opinion in favor of live hedges 
of Osage Orange, or other suitable plants. The 
White Willow was well spoken of, although it 
was stated that great impositions are being 
practised by dealers selling the common willow 
instead of the genuine article. One gentleman 
advocated stone walls as a protection against 
the sweeping fires which sometimes devastate 
that region: this method, however, would be 
practicable only in favored localities, and the 
burnings will cease as the settlements advance. 
Hints from the Markets for Cultivators. 
Every farmer who sends produce to New- 
York, and who at any time visits this city, may 
spend several hours profitably in passing through 
the general markets, and the commission houses 
where farm products are received and disposed 
of to dealers. The first impression will proba¬ 
bly be of surprise at the magnitude of the busi¬ 
ness done. Ships, sloops, steamboats, barges 
and railroad cars daily deposit at the receiving 
depots the yield of thousands of acres. Wash¬ 
ington Market, the principal center of trade in 
slaughtered meats and vegetables for the daily 
consumption of the city, is inundated with a flood 
of eatables of every description, from mammoth 
oxen to mushrooms, and to the inexperienced 
it appears that such a vast accumulation can 
never find purchasers. But a few hours -will 
see the whole stock disposed of and distributed 
through retailers to the kitchens of Manhattan 
Island, Brooklyn, Jersey City, and the surround¬ 
ing suburbs. Every substance fit for food, and 
much that is unfit, will surely sell at some 
price—the best to the wealthy, the inferior to 
those who must consult their pockets before 
their palates. Upon inquiry it will be found 
that but a very small proportion of the articles 
offered, are first class , that these command the 
readiest sale, and at prices in much greater ratio 
to cost of production than can be had for pro¬ 
duce of common quality. Premium beef, cost¬ 
ing little if any more to produce than that half- 
fattened, is sought for at 25 cts. per lb. retail, 
while the poorer grades bring only 12 to 18 cts. 
Extra apples, pears, peaches, melons, etc., raised 
at perhaps 10 per cent, more of labor and ex¬ 
pense, command 50 to 100 per cent, more in 
price. Butter neatly made, well worked, and 
put up in nice packages, (the extra pains costing 
the producer not 5 per cent, more than the ill- 
looking but powerfully strong specimen from a 
neighboring dairy) will readily bring 25 to 30 
per cent, better returns; and so on through the 
whole list of table supplies. A farmer with his 
eyes open will take a hint here and improve on 
it this very year, and find that with less land 
and less capital he can make more money by at¬ 
tention to quality rather than quantity. 
Another noteworthy feature observable in the 
market is the necessity for system. Eveiy whole¬ 
saler is receiving produce from hundreds of dif¬ 
ferent parties. As the largest transactions are 
on commission, he must be prepared to render 
to each man the returns for his own particular 
lot, or his business will soon suffer. Nobody 
will be satisfied to receive an average price 
when he knows his own goods are above aver¬ 
age quality. Now how can the dealer keep such 
matters straight unless the packages sent to him 
are properly marked ? Men in the business as¬ 
sure us that almost every day boxes and barrels 
Come to hand simply directed to themselves, 
with no accompanying note of their contents, 
and no marks by which to know where they 
came from. Perhaps after waiting a few days 
to ascertain something definite, the consignment 
deteriorates in value, or there is«a decline in the 
market, and the goods are sold to the best ad¬ 
vantage possible; then perhaps a letter of di¬ 
rections comes to hand, and after that, when 
returns have been made, another note is re¬ 
ceived, filled with complaints and wholesale 
charges of dishonesty against all New York 
dealers, and the rest of mankind. Moral on this 
head: Before you are ready to open an account 
with a commission merchant, write to him for 
specific directions, just how he wishes to have 
goods forwarded, how marked, etc.; then follow 
his plan, and he may be justly held responsible 
for any neglect. We are glad to believe that 
the well established houses engaged in such 
business here, are anxious to do the fair thing ; 
let farmers do right by themselves. 
The Shape of Carriage Wheels. 
An expression in an article condensed from 
the Coach-Maker’s Magazine in our February 
number, has been construed as objecting to set¬ 
ting the spokes so that the outer side of wheels 
shall be “dishing”—whereas it was simply a 
demonstration of the fact that the rims or tires 
ought not to be “ a narrow section of a cone.” 
This has led to several communications in re¬ 
gard to the necessity of having the spokes set 
outward, and not perpendicular to the rim. Mr. 
S. Edwards Todd, writes to the American Agri¬ 
culturist, , proposing and answering the following 
question: 
“ WHY ARE CARRIAGE WHEELS MADE 8ISHING ?” 
“Many farmers and many good mechanics ask 
why carriage wheels are made dishing t Wheels 
are made dishing that they may endure the 
greatest strain under all ordinary circumstances, 
where great strength of wheels is very essential; 
and also, for the purpose of making small 
spokes endure as much strain as large and heav¬ 
ier ones would, were the wheel not made dish 
ing. If a wheel were always to bear a load on 
a track level from side to side, the strongest 
possible form that a wheel could receive, would 
be, what we term “straight”—not dishing. 
But, since carriages must bear loads along slopes 
and sideling tracks (and must make sudden 
turns,) as well as on level roads, the wheels 
must be made a little dishing. Let us suppose 
a straight wheel placed resting on one end ot 
the hub, and heavy weights resting on the rim, 
the spokes would be easily broken at the hub. 
But, if a dishing wheel of the same strength of 
timber be placed resting on the large end of the 
hub, it would obviously sustain a very much 
heavier weight without injury. Now, when a 
wheel of a carriage drops into a rut or hole, or 
when the carriage is rolling along a steep slope, 
the greatest weight, as well as the greatest 
strain, will fall upon those wheels that are in 
the lowest position. If they are made dishing, 
the spokes will stand in a bracing position , and 
those wheels will endure a great strain; and, 
unless the tire should burst—as there is a great 
strain in that direction—the wheel will sustain 
no injury, although the strain might be suffi¬ 
cient to crush a straight wheel almost instanta¬ 
neously, when in that position.” 
Experience in Making up a Club. 
Our readers are aware that we seldom publish 
letters in praise of this journal, though thou¬ 
sands are received yearly. All of them, how¬ 
ever, are appreciated, and they stimulate to con¬ 
tinued endeavor to deserve such favors. The 
following from an old correspondent “ Mrs. M. J. 
S.,” Carroll Co., Ill., contains suggestions wide¬ 
ly applicable—: “ ‘I always dread going out to 
make up my newspaper and magazine clubs,’ 
said a friend the other day. 1 People treat me’ 
he continued, ‘ as if I had come to beg of them, 
and dole out the money as if it was in charity. 
Now and then when I meet with an unusually 
tough case, where there is no paper in the house, 
and half a dozen youngsters growing up, and 
the man no reader, I feel like losing patience 
and saying to him, ‘ my heathenish friend, do you 
know that I’m come to do you a good turn, to 
set your brain half a century ahead of its present 
quarters ? The papers can live without you, but 
you can’t live without them. You exist ’tis true, 
but a reading man lives more in a month than 
you do in a year. Do you want to keep your 
children at the foot of the ladder ? to make 
them ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water 
for others? then keep reading from them and 
you’ll generally accomplish it.’ I have some¬ 
times thought that the Agriculturist was doing a 
real missionary work in offering inducements to 
such people, if only in developing their taste fox 
the beautiful in pictures and flowers. They 
can’t realize what good reading means just yet, 
but they can appreciate good strawberries amt 
pears, fine varieties of cereals and vegetables. 
Then, perhaps, they Jiave a little pet daughter 
who is fond of flowers and can be gratified at 
small expense. In the mean time, the paper in¬ 
troduced into the family, silently works itself 
into favor. The wife wants the household hints, 
the children the pictures and puzzles, and before 
the man is aware he finds himself picking up 
the paper of an evening to read some article or 
story about which all the rest of the family have 
been talking at dinner. A physician (a very 
near relation) told me that he has been up all 
night with patients in families where there 
wasn’t as much as an old Almanac to be found 
in the way of reading, in the house. Tell me, 
isn’t it a missionary work to tempt those peo¬ 
ple into reading by the offer of premiums, etc. ?” 
