AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Jmgttrir to impair* tyt farmer, tlje planter, att& t|e <$arfrew + 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHY, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. _ WASHINGTON. 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M., 
CONDUCTING EDITOR. 
Published Weekly by Allen & Co,, No. 189 Water-st j UNDE * r1lTe^ d "orTnge e judd 0N of 
VOL, XIII. — NO. 19.] NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 17, 1855. [NEW SERIES.-NO. 71. 
jFor Ijlrospectus, ®ernt0, Uc., 
Ey SEE LAST PAGE.^ 
Every one writing to the Editors or 
Publishers of this journal will please read 
“ Special Notices ,” on last page. 
A TRIP TO THE NEW-YORK MARKETS, 
There are some entertainments in New- 
York City not set down in the “ bills,” 
which afford quite as much instruction and 
amusement, as either the theatricals or 
negro-minstrels. We allude more especial¬ 
ly to the New-York markets, to which, 
as a member of the Press, we chance to 
have a free ticket, and of which we furnish a 
weekly account. 
The New-York Washington Produce Mar¬ 
ket is the greatest place for a commingling 
of men, women and children, fish, flesh and 
fowl, horse-carts and vegetables in the known 
civilized world. If any man would like to 
see all kinds of human nature in its native, 
original state, couched under every form of 
nobility, mediocrity and meanness, made up 
of every tribe, kindred, nation and tongue, 
and brought together under the most com¬ 
pact, peculiar, and promiscuous circum¬ 
stances, he can here very easily gratify his 
curiosity. But, first, let no seeker after 
“ ripe and real” amusement, array himself 
in gay or costly apparel, lest he spend two- 
thirds of the time in rubbing off the mud 
and rebrushing his beaver ; rather let him 
assume a slouched hat, cow-hide boots and 
corduroys, wherein he can meet abuse with 
calm indifference. We speak from experi¬ 
ence. When we entered on our professional 
career, as a private citizen occupying an el¬ 
evated position, we donned a hat and coat of 
high pretensions ; but on our first trip we 
were run into by a butcher’s boy, with a 
quarter of beef, which gave us the appear¬ 
ance of a tallow chandler ; our new “ fall 
style,” for which we had recently paid $4 50, 
in current coin, was unluckily knocked 
off by coming in collision with a dead hog, 
and after running a gauntlet of some ninety- 
five pair of old Loots, at length brought up 
in the rear of a barrel of shad. We picked 
up the hat with an involuntary sigh, and be¬ 
gan smoothing it over with our pocket hand¬ 
kerchief, but alas ! it was ruined and undone ; 
it soon “ fell from its high eminence,” and 
jjts place was succeeded by another of a style 
and character which defies the abuse of all 
the boots in creation. 
Well! having first properly equipped him¬ 
self, the individual is then prepared to in¬ 
spect human nature and the eatables—to say 
nothing of the horse-carts, which amanwill 
be likely to take notice of, after having been 
run over three or four times. And, first, of 
human nature : Here are'swaggering Amer¬ 
icans, bullying Irishmen, gabbling French¬ 
men, jabbering Dutchmen, swearing cartmen, 
jolly butcher boys, ragged beggar boys, dirty 
negro boys, together with every size, shape, 
andjeomplexion of the opposite sex, which is 
possible within the conditions of human na¬ 
ture. And, second, of tne eatables : There 
are beef, pork, mutton, venison, potatoes, 
onions, squashes, cabbages,chickens, geese, 
turkeys, ducks, cranberries, apples, peaches, 
plums, clams, crabs, muscles, oysters, eels, 
trout, pike, pickerel, smelt, halibut, lobsters, 
suckers, blue-fish, black-fish, flat-fish, cat¬ 
fish, dog-fish, cod-fish, live-and-dead-fish) 
together with pea-nuts, mud-turtles, and 
bull-frog’s hind legs ; all of which are respec¬ 
tively hung up, strung up, cut up, piled up, 
boxed up, barreled up, done up, served up, 
and put up for sale to any man who is wil¬ 
ling to pay down the money and be swindled 
out of a half cent in the change. Of course 
we do not mention all the varieties, for this 
would cause a further rise in the price of 
paper; but here you can find them, each 
separate and distinct article, including every 
thing that is delightful to the eye and agree¬ 
able to the taste, and some things which are 
not so agreeable—as, for instance, spoiled 
poultry and rancid butter. And here one 
can wander through a labyrinth of provisions 
until he is almost bewildered and lost, and 
needs a string to find his way out. But he 
does find his way out at last, as we propose 
to do now, and transfer ourselves to a scene 
of live stock in the New-York Cattle Mar¬ 
ket. 
Well, here are two thousand head of 
beeves, of the various Durham, Devon, and 
“Scalliwag” breeds, all alive and poking each 
other. We enter a yard where the mud re¬ 
minds one of the alluvial deposits of the 
river Nile, or the still muddier banks of the 
fabulous Styx. Here are forty-five head of 
beef cattle, including a few nice bullocks, 
some old oxen, several stags, a dozen heif¬ 
ers, and as many farrow cows; some of 
which appear to have been corn-fed, others, 
grass-fed, a part half-fed, and most un-fed, 
unless on an allowance of corn-stalks and 
bog-hay. We plant ourselves in the midst 
and begin to take notes: “ Forty-five head 
of Kentucky cattle, sold by G. Toffey ; ‘ ordi¬ 
nary quality’—” Hero we place our hand on 
the rump of a bullock to ascertain his flesh, 
whereupon he very unkindly throws back 
his hind leg, and gives us a kick a priori, but 
we quietly rub off the mud and continue. 
“ A medium lot ; weight about six hundred 
pounds”—-just then an uneasy beast gives 
his neighbor a poke under the ribs, which 
latter bellows, gives a jump, throws the mud 
all over us, crowds us against the fence, 
and goes whisking his tale around the yard. 
We survey the beast, then ourself, then the 
beast again; but he is gone, and we have 
nothing to do but to open the gate, and pre¬ 
pare for an other “ item.” And so, having 
gone through all the yards, surveyed two 
thousand beeves, and waded through two 
acres of mud, we quietly pocket our notes, 
button our coat, and leave for the printer, 
who is only waiting to “ set up ” the items 
before the Agriculturist is put -to press, and 
on the way to our readers by the earliest 
mail. 
WASHING DISHES 
BY MINNIE MYRTLE. 
“ As if a lady who writes books and arti¬ 
cles for the papers, knew any thing about 
washing dishes !” This is what some of my 
readers will exclaim, thinking they are a 
great deal wiser than I. Well, I doubt not 
a great many of them are, yet it is very sel¬ 
dom that I find, among servants, one who 
knows how to wash dishes, and I think serv¬ 
ants would oftener understand if those who 
employ them understood how to teach 
them. 
I certainly ought to know something abou 
it, for until I began to write books,' my prin¬ 
cipal business was—to wash dishes ! I be¬ 
gan when I was so short that I had to stand 
in a little chair in order to reach as high as 
a common-sized dining-table. Like all chil¬ 
dren, I was fond of doing what grown peo¬ 
ple did, and though I presume I was a great 
hindrance, I was encouraged to think I was 
a great help. But since then, on great occa¬ 
sions, like “ High days, Holidays, Christ¬ 
mas, and Thanksgiving,” I have washed 
dishes for many hours, and can truly say I 
never tire of the labor. For some reason 
which I can not explain, it does not seem to 
have the same deleterious effect upon my 
hands that it does upon many; and if you 
think if is because I only wash glass and 
China and silver, you are mistaken, for I am 
quite as familiar with pots and kettles, and 
chopping-trays and bread-bowls, as with the 
more delicate wares. And this is the pro- 
