AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
51 
Oats..— — 38 45 
Wheat. 60 75 135 125 
Flour per bbl.315 380 630 650 
Hogs per 100 lbs, 
net ... 470 681J 447 500 
Potatoes, which usually range from 30 to 50 
cents per bushel, are now selling at $1 to $1 20. 
Beef cattle range from $5 60 to $7 per 100 lbs. 
nett. Sheep are selling at $2 20 to $3 per 
head. Hay $15 to $18 per ton. Wool is below 
last year’s prices, and this is about the only ar¬ 
ticle that is low. We are aware that high prices 
are not favorable to the interests of the country 
at large, unless the demand is from abroad; but 
we have presented sufficient facts, both as re¬ 
gards quantity and value, to show most conclu¬ 
sively that those who have been engaged in cul¬ 
tivating the soil, are being amply paid, and thus 
we have prosperity at the base of all our inter¬ 
ests. 
-»-«-* - 
CONNECTICUT STATE AGRICULTURAL SHOW. 
This first exhibition of the Connecticut State 
Agricultural Society, will open at New-Haven, 
on Tuesday next, (Oct. 10,) and continue until 
Friday afternoon. All possible efforts have 
been made by the indefatigable officers of the 
Society, to perfect every arrangement necessary 
to make the exhibition one worthy of the State, 
and they will doubtless succeed. The conve¬ 
nience of access from this city and State, as well 
as from New-Jersey, and the neighboring New- 
England States, will induce many visitors to at¬ 
tend from beyond the borders of Connecticut. 
The mechanics and traders of this city will find 
this Show a good opportunity to exhibit, and 
thus advertise their wares, and we hope the op¬ 
portunity will be embraced. Any persons de¬ 
siring further information can address the Cor¬ 
responding Secretary, Henry A. Dyer, Esq., at 
the New-Haven Hotel, New-Haven. 
The following are some of the arrangements 
by the Executive Committee : 
Persons desiring to exhibit are earnestly re¬ 
quested to make entries of such stock or other 
articles as they wish to enter for premiums, on 
or before Monday, the 9th. Entries may be 
made at the store of Munson & Johnson, 49 
State street, or at the business office on the 
grounds, in New-Haven, and the store of F. A. 
Brown, 182 Main street, Hartford, or by letter 
addressed Henry A. Dyer, New-Haven Hotel, 
New-Haven. 
On Tuesday, the 10th, the Judges will enter 
upon their examination. The grounds will be 
open on Tuesday to members of the Society. 
On Wednesday, 11th, the exhibition will be 
open to the public, and continue open three 
days. 
On Wednesday the trial of working-oxen will 
take place at 8 o’clock, P. M., with a loaded cart, 
on the grounds. 
Thursday morning, at 9 o’clock, will com¬ 
mence the exhibition of horses within the 
grounds; a fine half-mile track has been pre¬ 
pared, and every convenience for the proper 
display of this department has been arranged. 
On Thursday afternoon, at 2 o’clock, will 
take place the plowing-match, on the town farm 
near the enclosed grounds. 
On Friday, at 11 o’clock, A. M., will be de¬ 
livered the annual address, on the grounds. 
The reports of Judges and awards of premiums 
will be read at 2 o’clock, on the same day, at the 
same place, after which it is expected that per 
sons having any articles on exhibiton will 
take charge of the same. 
The “Mast.” —It is an extraordinary fact 
that though the dry character of the season 
has cut off the late crops there is a most aston¬ 
ishing mast. The oak trees loaded with acorns, 
and some of them, we are told will yield ten 
bushels. These acorns, we are informed by 
those who ought to know, for the purpose of 
fattening hogs, are equal to corn, particularly is 
it the case with the acorns from the white oak. 
Where our farmers live in the neighborhood of 
forests they will be able to make nearly their 
usual quantity of pork, especially if they have 
sufficient corn to feed their hogs a few weeks. 
Mast fed pork is not, however, in as high esteem 
as that which is corn fed ; but a good deal of 
the former will be brought to market the com¬ 
ing fall —Springfield (III.) Journal. 
TO FARMERS. 
It is desirable, for the public benefit, that 
some distinct and absolutely convincing infor¬ 
mation be obtained, and made generally known, 
with regard to hired agricultural laborers in 
the United States. For this purpose, replies to 
the inquiries made in this circular are requested 
from any persons willing to give them, from all 
parts of the United States. A digest of the re¬ 
plies will be prepared and made public. Ad¬ 
dress 
F. L. Olmsted, Southside, Staten Island, N. Y. 
I. Are the majority of hired agricultural la¬ 
borers in your vicinity native or foreign born ? 
(If foreign, please state of what nation.) 
II. (a) About what has been the average rate 
of wages, during the last five years, for able- 
bodied men of moderate capacity, able to plow 
and mow—-board found by employer? (b) 
When hired by the day in the summer months ? 
(c) When hired by the month in the summer 
months? (d) When hired by the day in har¬ 
vest season only ? ( e) When hired by the 
month in harvest season only? (f) When 
hired for \he whole year? 
III. What are the usual wages of raw hands, 
or recent emigrants unaccustomed to American 
implements and methods of labor, hired by the 
year, and board found by the employer? (a) 
speaking the English language? (b) not speak¬ 
ing English? 
IV. Do the majority of farmers (proprietors 
of land, the chief value of which depends upon 
its agricultural productions) employ hired la¬ 
borers at all in your part of the country? 
Y. Could more laborers find employment 
steadily and permanently at the rate of wages 
you have mentioned ? 
YI. (1.) Is it a frequent, occasional, or ex¬ 
tremely rare occurrence for men who have been 
employed as hired hands upon farms within 
your observation, to come upon the public for 
support of life, or to be dependent in any way 
upon charity ? (2.) Does this ever happen to 
men of sound body and not of intemperate ha¬ 
bits? 
VII. Is it a general occurrence within your 
knowledge that men who have been hired la¬ 
borers upon farms before they were twenty-five 
years old have become independent proprietors, 
or acquired property sufficient to be free from 
the necessity of personal labor before they were 
fif'tv. 
VIIT. Are there many instances in your part 
of the country of men who have acquired wealth 
and positions of influence and honor, who have 
been previously employed as hired agricultural 
laborers ? 
IX. Are the majority of agricultural laborers 
frugal (laying up or employing as permanent 
capital, one-half their earning-) and ambitious, 
having the purpose to own land, or otherwise 
live independently ? 
X. Do the majority of them take their meals 
at the same table with their employers? 
XI. Are they supplied with as much food as 
they wish to eat ? 
XH. (1) Do they generally have meat in any 
form once every day ? (2) Do they g-nerally 
have frrsh meat once or oftcner, each week? 
XtlT. About what is the cost, per week, ol 
laboring-men’s board? 
XIV. Are they generally decently and com¬ 
fortably clothed ? 
You will confer a favor by adding any other 
information or suggestion you think proper with 
regard io the demand and supply of labor, or 
the condition and character of laborers. 
Information of a similar character is also de¬ 
sired with regard to female domestics. 
SHEEP BREEDING. 
We cut the following from the Ohio Cultiva- 
tor, and recommend particularly attention to 
the writer’s objections to horns. Were we 
keeping Merinos or Saxons, we would soon 
breed off their horns; which we consider as ob¬ 
jectionable in these as in South-down or Long- 
wools. The horns could be easily got rid of in 
a few generations, by commencing with the 
male lambs, and searing with a red hot iron the 
first horny bulge which appears on the head. 
This is done without pain to the lamb, and pre¬ 
vents the future growth of the horn. Breed 
then from these bucks, and so continue a few 
generations, when nature will finally get tired 
of producing horns to be seared off with a red 
hot iron. 
Now is the time for flock-masters to look well 
to their ewes, selecting such as possess those 
characteristics which they desire to perpetuate, 
and rejecting those that are fit for nothing but 
the butcher. Sufficient attention is seldom 
given to this point, for though it is perfectly 
true that the male, in all animals, is of more 
importance than the female, yet for the produc¬ 
tion of perfect animals, it is absolutely necessary 
that both male and female be well bred, and, if 
not individually perfect in every point, the con¬ 
formation of the two should be such as, when 
combined, form the animal desired. Good 
breeders understand this matter well, and assort 
their flock into several lots, procuring a buck 
for each lot with those points strongly devel¬ 
oped in which the ewes are most deficient. 
But a vast proportion of farmers who keep 
more or less sheep, neglect this matter alto¬ 
gether. They often procure a buck, which, 
however useful he might be for other flock, is 
totally unfit for that which he is intended to 
serve. Again, in a large flock of ordinary 
sheep, there are often two or more kinds of 
ewes with characteristics entirely different from 
each other; hence, a buck that might be bene¬ 
ficial to the one would be altogether unsuited 
to the other, and more likely propagate imper¬ 
fections than to neutralize them ; yet how com¬ 
mon is it to let the whole flock run together, 
and have the indiscriminate use of the same 
bucks. With judicious selection any of our or¬ 
dinary heterogeneous flocks might, in a few 
years, be vastly improved without any more ex¬ 
pense than is incurred by the present heedless, 
careless, and unprofitable system of breeding. 
The present price of mutton has led many, 
in this vicinity, at leash to cross their common 
Merino sheep, with a Leicester or Southdown 
buck, for the purpose of obtaining good sized 
lambs for the butcher. We believe good mut¬ 
ton will always command a good price, higher 
than at present, and that this system of cross¬ 
ing fine-wooled with mutton sheep, will be the 
most profitable species of sheep husbandry.— 
We do not like to recommend any one to breed 
from such a cross, yet we are not sure but a lit¬ 
tle South-down blood would improve the size, 
constitution, and fattening qualities of our com¬ 
mon sheep , without materially injuring the qual¬ 
ity of wool. 
The time.to place the bucks with the ewe de¬ 
pends upon the location, the breed, and the ob¬ 
ject of the breeder. As a general thing, it is 
not desirable to have lambs before there is snme 
grass for the mother, and as ewes go from 22 to 
23 weeks, it is easy to calculate in any individ¬ 
ual case. In Western New-York, the first of 
November is considered best. At this season 
grass is scarce and innutritious, and. it is par- 
