AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
77 
§0p* Corner* 
[For the American Agriculturist. 
DISCOURAGING CHILDREN. 
I read your short article on “ Discourag¬ 
ing children,” (vol. 12, p. 344,) with great 
satisfaction, because the idea there presented 
for the consideration of parents, guardians, 
and teachers, is one of very great import¬ 
ance ; and, because, also, it is an idea very 
seldom elucidated by those who write upon 
the subject of education. 
It is quite probable, also, that I was pecu¬ 
liarly pleased with the article alluded to, 
because there are several persons among my 
acquaintances, who are living commentaries 
on its pertinency and truth. Allow me to 
give you a brief sketch of the experience of 
a gentleman with whom I have long been 
intimate : 
His father was a man of fine education, 
but of a very irascible temper, unfortunate¬ 
ly. He made it a matter of conscience to 
attend personally to the literary training of 
his son, until the boy was fourteen years of 
age, at which time the father died and left 
his child very much his own master. 
Being a boy who dearly loved to play and 
who hated intensely anything like confine¬ 
ment within doors, his father’s severe 
system of training induced in him a perfect 
hatred of books and study; so that he 
learned to shirk his lessons whenever he 
could, and would steal away to spend his 
time in rambling about the Avoods, fishing, 
sailing, swimming, &c., &c. Being called a 
dunce, a blockhead, brainless, good-for-no¬ 
thing, whenever he was summoned to recite 
his lessons, it was no wonder the boy be¬ 
come fully convinced that all these allega¬ 
tions were quite true, as far as books were 
concerned. Tic lost all ambition; and when 
his father died, leaving him a stout, healthy 
boy of fourteen, strange as it may appear, 
he did not know how to wrte a word, could 
not distinguish a noun from a verb, was ig¬ 
norant of the multiplication table—in short, 
all he could do was to read, but he could not 
do even that well. Now mark the change, 
and see how a false system of training may 
blind a father as to the capacity of his own 
child. That boy of fourteen, as soon as his 
father died, was put an apprentice to a me¬ 
chanical business, at which he had to work 
early and late ; and yet by the time he was 
nineteen years old, he had, unassisted, lully 
made up all the deficiencies in his English 
education, and had prepared himself for col¬ 
lege, without a teacher, besides earning 
enough at his trade to pay his expenses 
while in college ! He then entered one of 
the best colleges in the country, took a high 
stand as a scholar, especially in the depart¬ 
ment of mathematics, and graduated in due 
time with the highest honors of the institu¬ 
tion, preeminent in a class of ninety-four 
members. I have heard him refer with 
emotion to the sadness he felt on commence¬ 
ment-day when he vainly wished for the 
presence of his father, who had died nine 
years before in the full persuasion that his 
eldest son was a dunce. N. N. 
A Slight Hit.—■“ Well John,” said a boss 
to his apprentice on the day he was one and 
twenty, “ you have got a fool for a master 
now.” “Yes,” said John “ and have had for 
these ten years.” 
Profitable Honey Crop. —We learn by 
the Madison Banner, that Abner Bair, a far¬ 
mer of Jefferson County, Indiana, from one 
hundred stands of bees, since the first of 
May, has sold sixteen hundred pounds of 
honey, for which he received two hundred 
and eighty-one dollars. 
Immense Steamer. —The tonnage of the 
gigantic screw and paddle steamer now 
building at Milwall, England, is 22,000 of 
builders’ measurement, and 10,000 tonnage 
burden ; extreme length, 680 feet; extreme 
breadth, 83 feet; extreme depth, 58 feet; 
power of engines (screw paddle,) 2,600 horse. 
The hull will be entirely of iron. From her 
keel up to six feet above the water line is 
double, of cellular construction. The upper 
deck will also be strengthened, on the same 
principle, and will form a complete beam, so 
that any external injury will not affect the 
tightness or the safety of the ship. She is 
divided into ten separate water-tight depart¬ 
ments, each being sixty feet in length, en¬ 
abling her to take out 'sufficient fuel for a 
voyage to Australia and back to England 
without stopping. 
The Dahlia is a native of the marshes of 
Peru, and was named after Dahl, the famous 
Swedish Botanist. It is not more than thirty 
years since its introduction into Europe. 
CPrarie Farmer. 
Remarks. —Flour has fluctuated about 25 
cents per barrel the past week, but closes a 
little firmer than per our last. Wheat, ow¬ 
ing to the small quantity in market, is high¬ 
er. Corn and other grain, no change. 
Pork and Lard have given way some. Beef 
remains unchanged. Wool is dull again, 
and likely to remain so till the demand for 
woollen fabrics increases. 
Southern products, no change worth quot¬ 
ing. 
of 70 from Chester county, Pa., belonging to Mr. Eli Pyle. 
They were well fattened, and were surpassed by none in 
the yards. 
Messrs. Wheaton & Purchase also had an excellent 
drove, 114 in number. These, too, were from Chester 
county, and are quite creditable to the State. We might 
mention the cattle of Mr. Joseph Williams. He had in 
market three droves, about 75 in each, two of them from 
the same place, and one from Virginia—the latter, how¬ 
ever, inferior to the others. 
Good beeves are selling from 8c.®9!c. P ib. A few, 
perhaps, for 10c., though this is the top of the market. In¬ 
ferior quality, 7e.®8c. There will, undoubtedly, be a 
good many cattle left over. 
There is a further decline in the sheep market, as no¬ 
ticed by our last. 
The following are about the highest and lowest prices : 
Beeves.7!c.®10e. 
Cows and Calves.$30® $70. 
Veals. 4c.®6£c. 
Sheep. $2® $7. 
Lambs.$2® $4 50. 
Swine, corn fed. 4fc®4Jc. 
“ still fed. 4c.®4!c. 
Mr. Chamberlain reports beeves, 7]c.®10ic.; cows and 
calves, $20®$50 ; veals, 4!c.®7c. ; sheep, $2 50®$6; 
lambs $1 75® $4. 
Mr. Browning reports beeves, 6}c.ffi9!c.; cows and 
calves, $25®$55 ; veals, 3!c.®5!c. ; sheep, $2®$6 ; 
lambs §1 75®$4. 
Mr. O’Brien reports beeves, 0c.®8!c.; cows and calves, 
$20®$40. 
Washington Yards, Forty-fourth-street. 
A M. Allerton, Proprietor. 
RECEIVED DURING THE WEEK. 
IN MARKET TO-DAY. 
Beeves,. 
.... 2796 
2700 
Calves,. 
.... 319 
_ 
Sheep and lambs,_ 
.... 1432 
— 
Swine.. 
... 1669 
— 
Of these there came by the Hudson Itiver it. It., 380 ; 
Hudson River boats, 232 ; Erie R. R., 618, also 1,310 
swine ; Harlem R. R., 404. 
New-York State furnished, by cars, 400, on foot, 66 ; 
Ohio, 568 ; Kentucky, 206 ; Illinois, 304; Pennsylvania, 
818, on foot; Virginia, 71, on foot; Connecticut, 99, on 
( foot. 
The weather was rainy two days last week, 
and then it cleared off fine and warm. Grass 
and turnips are still growing quite rapidly 
around us. 
PRODUCE MARKET. 
Saturday, October 7, 1854. 
The prices given in our reports from week to week, are the 
average wholesale prices obtained by producers, and not those 
at which produce is sold from the market. The variations in 
prices refer chiefly to the quality of the articles. 
The market is pretty fair this morning, though not quite 
as brisk as last week. Potatoes are gradually on the de¬ 
cline, and the prospect is that the market will continue to 
be well supplied. Other kinds of vegetables vary but lit¬ 
tle. Tomatoes are nearly out of season, and hardly worth 
quoting. 
The supply of apples is good, and undoubtedly will be 
throughout the fall and winter. Virgaloo pears are sell¬ 
ing from $5 to $12 ip bbl. according to quality. Grapes 
have been selling the past week in large quantities and at 
good prices. Butter, eggs and cheese, remain nearly the 
same as last week. 
Vegetables. —Potatoes, Mercers, $2 75®$3 25 pbbl.; 
White, $2 50®$3 ; Sweet, Philadelphia, $3 59 ; Virginia, 
$3 25 ; Beets, $3®$3 50 ip hundred bunches; Carrots, 
$3®$3 25 ; Parsnips, $3 50 ; Marrow Squashes, $2 Pbbl.; 
Cabbages, $4®$6 50 P hundred; Pumpkins, $4®$8 p 
hundred ; Citron Melons, $1®$2 p bbl. 
Fruit.— Apples, $2 25®$2 37 p bbl. ; Pears, cooking, 
$4; eating $5®$12; Grapes, Isabella, 6c.®llc. p lb.; 
Catawba, 8c.®llc.; Cranberries, $6®$7 pbbl. 
Butter, State 21c.®23c. p lb.; Western, 17c.®18c.; 
Eggs, 19c.®20c. p doz.; Cheese, 10c.®llc. pib. 
NEW-YORK CATTLE MARKET. 
Monday, Oct. 9, 1854. 
We have rarely seen the Cattle Market so dull as it is 
to-day. The butchers laid down their own prices, to 
which the brokers mostly had to submit. Indeed we 
heard some of them talk about giving away their cattle. 
This dullness in the market may be attributed, in part, to 
the change in the weather, which to-day is quite warm, 
and in part to the large supply of pork. The number of 
cattle is not very large, nor are they, on the whole, of in¬ 
ferior quality. Some of them are about equal to any we 
have seen. Among others, we may particularize a drove 
RECEIVED DURING THE WEEK. 
Chamberlin’s. 
Browning’s. 
O’Brien’s 
Robinson-st. 
Sixth-st. 
Sixth-st. 
Beeves, . 
. 448 
642 
418 
Cows and calves,. 
. 184 
40 
126 
Veals,. 
. 145 
100 
54 
Sheep and lambs,.. 
. 8,364 
0,441 
— 
The following are the sales of sheep and lambs by 
Samuel McGraw, sheep broker, at Browning’s : 21 sheep 
and lambs, $55 ; 107 lambs and sheep, $533 ; 16 lambs and 
sheep, $60; 81 sheep, $175 55; 51 lambs and sheep, 
$168 75; 12 sheep, $37 15 ; 119 sheep and lambs, $375 37 ; 
119 lambs and sheep, $398 ; 40 lambs, $132 02 ; 173 sheep 
and lambs, $490 25 ; 116 lambs and sheep, $315 ; 114 lambs 
and sheep, $427 50. 
The following are the sales by James McCarty, also 
sheep-broker at Browning’s: 99 sheep and lambs, $287 49 ; 
273, $943 12 ; 75, $234 37 ; 46, $86 25 ; 102, $395 25 ; 293, 
115, $304; 172, $406 25; 77, $198 75; 100, $278 25; 117, 
$288 75; 89, $234 25 ; 50, $181 25; 124, $371. Total 
sheep and lambs, 1,535. 
Sales of Sheep and Lambs at Chamberlin’s, by John 
Mortimore : 
Sheep. 
Price p head. 
Price p lb. for mutton. 
100 
$3 25 
8} cts. 
87 
3 121 
84 
233 
3 62! 
9 
100 
4 08 
9 
95 
3 20 
8! 
203 
2 25 
8 
100 
2 75 
8 
185 
3 50 
8-1 
180 
2 62| 
8 
107 
4 00 
9 
140 
4 25 
81 
80 
2 50 
81 
100 
3 12! 
84- 
125 
2 62! 
8! 
47 
3 50 
8! 
Lambs. 
Price p lb. for meat. 
213 
2 12! 
10 
166 
3 12! 
10! 
125 
3 374- 
11 
97 
3 124- 
10! 
The dullness occasioned by the warm weather noticed 
in our last, has continued throughout the week, but fair 
prices were obtained considering the abundant supply 
offered, but the suiplus is not large and the market closes 
with a fair prospect, though little improvement can be 
expected until cooler weather sets in. 
Common sheep sold at $2®$4 ; extra sheep at $4 50® 
$7 ; lambs sold at $1 75®$4 ; store ewes at $2 25®$3 25, 
the latter are in demand. Mutton is selling in Washing¬ 
ton Market at 4c.®8Jc.; lambs at 7c.®12{c., as in quality. 
