244 
•AMERICAN AGR)ICUET;URIST|. 
cutter, which will last for five years. We 
ought to hear no more of the extravagance 
of high farming. Your real spendthrift far¬ 
mer is the man—penny wise and pound 
foolish—who gives whole turnips to his tegs. 
So says Mr. Pusey’s Paper “ On the Pro¬ 
gress of Agricultural Knowledge during the 
last eight years.” R. A. S. Journal, 1850, 
page, 430. 
A PICTURE—NOT UNCOMMON. 
Up in the orchard, 
Down in the lane— 
Hunted all over, 
Hunted in vain 
For the asses which wandered— 
The oxen, I mean ; 
(Was thinking of Saul 
And the men of Beth-shean;) 
Wish they’d “ got mired,” 
Or that they had broke 
Their necks when they twisted 
Them out of the yoke. 
They always loved clover 
Far more than their yokes, 
First time they broke over 
Should’ve put on their pokes. 
All comes of improving 
The lessons we’d taught them. 
Late to think of it now. 
In vain having sought them. 
Hopples and fetters 
For the unruly “ critters ” 
That will not stay put; 
But Saul he found one thing, 
And we have found something— 
Beetles, wedges, and glut, 
Just where they left them 
When last splitting rails, 
W T hen they snatched up their guns 
And put after the quails. 
Hogs in the garden, 
Cows in the corn— 
Bumble-bees building 
Their nests in the barn ; 
Hang the “ low fences,” 
Teaching cattle to jump ! 
Gates off their hinges— 
Leaky old pump ! 
Candles too slender 
To see by—the bats 
That come through the window 
For lack of more hats. 
“ Taters ” few in a hill, 
And dwarfish at that, 
And half of them wasted 
’Tween the “ girl ” and the rat; 
Owing to planting 
Wrong time of the “moon,” 
To late with them last year, 
This yrnar too soon. 
Children in tatters, 
Don’t know how to spell; 
Wife in tears always, 
There’s nothing goes well. 
Swine with their yokes on— 
Kine with their pokes on— 
Quite a sight d’ye see 1 
Raw-boned and long-necked— 
But what could you expect 
From such farmers as we 1 
Or, what would you give, 
The secret to know 
Tis writ on the face 
Of the rum-cask below. 
Journal of Commerce.] Peter. 
The editor of the Bedford Inquirer re¬ 
quests his agricultural subscribers who con¬ 
tracted, two years ago, to pay four bushels 
of wheat for their annual subscription to his 
paper, to “ bring on the grain.” Wheat was 
then selling at fifty cents a bushel. Now that 
it has risen to two dollars per bushel, they 
are slow about coming forward. Eight dol¬ 
lars a year for a single subscription to a 
weekly paper, seems a pretty high figure— 
yet “ a bargain is a bargain.” 
THE DIGGING FORK. 
The following testimony to the value of this 
implement we clip from the Rockingham 
(Va.) Register. It is well worthy of perusal. 
Mr. Ruffner will please accept our thanks for 
the kindly notice of the American Agricultur¬ 
ist incidentally introduced. 
An experience of one season in the use of 
this implement, impresses me so much as to 
its being an improvement on the common 
spade, that I am disposed to recommend it. 
for trial to all who have farms or gardens. It 
strikes me as promising more forthe strained 
backs of delvers than all the lotions of the 
apothecary. Every body knows that “spad¬ 
ing” is about the most laborious of all the 
methods of loosening and pulverizing the 
soil, and this is perhaps one reason .why far¬ 
mers work their fields better than they do 
their gardens. 
Seeing one or two notices of this digging 
fork or spade-fork, last Spring, in the Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist , (a most admirable paper, 
by the way,) I sent for one, and used it all the 
summer and fall with great satisfaction. An 
Irishman who commonly worked my garden, 
had early been so disgusted with the com¬ 
mon American spade, that he had imported 
an Irish spade, which is a long, narrow, fish¬ 
tailed piece of steel, very efficient in hard 
ground, and which the owner was in the 
habit of extolling as beyond rivalry. When 
I got the fork, he regarded it with a look of 
contempt, and took it in hand with some re¬ 
luctance. But in less than one day Tommy 
had actually acknowledged the defeat, and 
the Irish spade has scarcely been touched 
from that day to this. 
In England, where tools are much more 
nicely adapted to the various operations of 
husbandry than in this country, they use at 
least eight different sizes of these digging 
forks, with from three to eight prongs, and 
apply them to a great variety of uses. The 
right of invention is claimed in both New and 
Old England. The fork brought on for me 
by Mr. Bruffey, is made of a solid piece of 
elastic steel, with four flattened prongs, and 
a handle about as long as that of a common 
spade, resembling in general appearance, one 
style of the dung-fork. The first thing that 
strikes you about it is its lightness, being (I 
should think) not more than three-fourths the 
weight of the spade. But in using it, you see 
that it does its work with so much ease that 
it need never give way in ordinary service. 
And it is an important consideration, that the 
laborer in a day’s work will turn over the 
same amount of soil, while in the difference 
between the implements, he lifts several tons 
less iveight than when using the spade. In¬ 
deed, I doubt not, he would with the same 
exertion almost double the result ofhis days 
work, going over more ground and pulveriz¬ 
ing it far better. Another advantage in the 
fork, is in its avoiding many of the stones, 
chips, roots and other impediments in the 
soil, which would often arrest the spade en¬ 
tirely ; and when aprong encounters a stone, 
it will usually spring around it and throw it 
out to the surface. In digging ground foul 
with weeds, the fork is very useful in sifting 
out the weeds, so that they will not take root 
again. It is, too, the most admirable of all 
implements for digging garden roots. I can 
believe a statement I saw in the American 
Agriculturist, of an English laborer, who dug 
an acre of potatoes in seven days with the 
fork, scattering the potatoes out on one side 
of the row, while he dexterously threw the 
vines on the other side, leaving his two little 
children to gather after him, he not putting 
his hand to them at all. I had a pretty large 
potato patch this year, and I observed the 
digging fork was the only tool called into 
requisition when they were to be dug. This 
kind of fork is used in England also, for 
throwing up their finely rotted manure, and 
for digging ditches. In very loose soils the 
fork might not in all cases answer, but it 
would suit our valley soils admirably ; and 
I should think the high numbers, which are 
the strongest, would serve forground which 
now has to be dug with the mattock. 
Messrs. Editors, if you have ever under¬ 
taken to dig in your gardens with the com¬ 
mon spade, you will not consider this com - 
munication too long for its subject. 
WM. H. RUFFNER. 
CORN AND CATTLE TRADE OF CHICAGO, ILL. 
I send you a report of Chicago and its 
trade for 1853, which will be found well 
worth your perusal. Some extracts from it 
would be as useful as entertaining. The 
town is situated on the south-west extremi¬ 
ty of Lake Michigan, on a river that divides, 
one branch running north and the other south, 
giving nine miles of ship room as smooth as 
any dock. The river is crossed by several 
swivel-bridges, to allow the shipping to pass, 
and the city has advertised for contracts for 
a tunnel. The river and its branches average 
300 to 500 feet wide. Though 1,600 miles 
from the ocean, ships can load here, and go 
direct to Europe via the St. Lawrence. The 
quantity of produce of 1853, 1854, and the 
present crop, will be— 
1852-’3. 1853-M. 1854-’5 Prices this 
Bbls. Bbls. Estimated day. 
Bbls. 
Flour.134,000 160,000 180,000 $6 60 to $8 00 
Qrs. Qrs. Qrs. 
Wheat.210,875 270,000 300,000 1 15 #>60fc. 
Corn .336.125 500,000 650,000 50 “ 
Oats.234,375 200,000 250,000 29 32ft. 
Rye. 10,750 15,000 20,000 80 ^ bush. 
Barley. 24,000 30,000 35,000 1 00 “ 
This will give for shipment, on the open¬ 
ing of the navigation, nearly 1,400,000 qrs.; 
but as the Middle and Eastern States had not 
within one-third of an average of corn, and 
scarcely of wheat, a good deal of this may be 
required on this side. The corn crops in the 
States of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michi¬ 
gan, and northern parts of Indiana, of which 
this is the chief market, are about an average. 
The supplies are coming so rapidly to market 
(by rail and canal) that the stores are full, 
and all the ships in harbor, about 56, char¬ 
tered at high rates for Buffalo and Oswego. 
Last year 64,500 barrels of beef were 
packed ; this year the quantity will be about 
7,000 tierces and 55,000 barrels, of excellent 
quality, especially that made up for the Gov¬ 
ernment contract; the cattle of which would 
average 701bs. per quarter. The packer of 
this bought 1,400 head from Mr. Funk, and 
700 from his brother. These gentlemen 
farm 17,000 and 10,000 acres of prairie land, 
and are preparing for next year 2,000 and 
1,000 head of cattle. This is the largest 
beef market in the United States. 52,819 
hogs were packed last season; this year 
they expect to put up 70,000. 
The present prices of mess beef are $12 
50, and mess pork $12 50 per barrel ; tal¬ 
low, 12c.; green hides, 4 to 5c.; lard, 94- to 
10c.; butter, 12 to 14c. per lb. 
Three-quarters of the shipments at present 
go to New-York via Buffalo and the Erie 
railway; the remainder to Boston via Oswe¬ 
go and Ogdensburg ; but next year, if there 
was accommodation of propellers and sail¬ 
ing vessels, the chief part of the goods to 
and from Europe would take the river St. 
Lawrence, its natural route, as being cheaper 
and more rapid. This is the terminus of 10 
trunk and 6 branch lines, finished, running 
2,000 miles ; next year, 4,000 are to be fin¬ 
ished. Present population, 76,000. From 
4,000 to 5,000 pass through daily to the 
West. W. K. 
Chicago, Illinois, Nov. 11, 1854. [Mark Lane Ex. 
