AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
404 
moist land to that which is dry or gravelly, 
but it will resist destruction to the last on 
either. Nothing short of tearing the roots 
out of the ground, and exposing them in a 
hot sun, will destroy them, for so tenacious 
of life is it, that as long as the slightest 
portion of moist soil adheres to a root, it 
will retain life, and grow. 
I have seen this grass completely eradi¬ 
cated on a field of eight acres by planting corn 
three years in succession, and hoeing three 
times in a season. It was however a te¬ 
dious process. A plow was first run through 
each way, twice ; then a cultivator, followed 
by the hoe. By the latter, every sod contain¬ 
ing Quack roots, was knocked in pieces, and 
every root that could be found was carefully 
exposed in the sun. At the end of two years 
the field (which had before almost defied 
cultivation) was easily tilled, produced well; 
and at the expiration of three years, scarcely 
a root could be found, and better crops I never 
saw than this field afterward produced. 
Great care should be taken where Quack 
grass has once been extirpated to prevent its 
getting in again from what remains along the 
fences. Where the fences are within the 
farm they can be moved, and the grass near 
them destroyed, but with those on highways 
this can not so well be done, and from these 
the grass is likelyto spread again. F. 1. B. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
SOCIAL CHANGES IN ENGLAND. 
INFLUENCE OF FOOD—AMOUNT CONSUMED—BENE¬ 
FICIAL EFFECT OF THE POTATO ROT, ETC. 
The comforts of the common people in 
England have been greatly increased within 
two centuries. In the reign of Henry VIII., 
society was in great disorder. Crimes 
abounded. Thieves and “ valiant beggars,” 
and “ sturdy vagabonds,” were as numer¬ 
ous as honest men. More than 2,000 such 
persons were hung every year. Life and 
property were very insecure. Farmers were 
obliged to watch their folds, their fields, and 
barns with the utmost vigilance to prevent 
depredations. Criminals were multiplied by 
the breaking up of the monasteries, where 
thousands of the poor and destitute had 
been fed by the monks, and by the convert¬ 
ing of small farms into sheep walks and 
thus turning many poor laborers out of their 
homes. 
The condition of the masses is always in¬ 
dicated by their food and dress. Harrison, 
who wrote in the reign of Elizabeth, says : 
“ The bread throughout the land is made of 
such graine as the soil yieldeth ; neverthe- 
lesse the gentilitie commonlie provide them¬ 
selves sufficient of wheat for their own 
tables, whilest their household and poore 
neighbors, in some shires, are inforced to 
contente themselves with rie or barlie ; yea, 
and in time of dearth manie with bread 
made either of bran,peason, or otes,orof all 
together, and some acorns among, of which 
scourge the poorest doe soonest taste, sitli 
they; are least able to provide themselves 
of better. I will not saie that this extremi- 
tie is oft so well to be seene in time of plen- 
tie as of dearth; but if I should, I could easi- 
lie bring my triall.” 
Substantial diet was then confined chiefly 
to persons of rank and wealth. A plowman 
wasoftencompelled to dine on “ watergruel.” 
The food of the laborers was coarse and defi¬ 
cient ; their clothing was incomparably more 
so, and their lodgings were rude, dirty and 
uncomfortable. The houses even of the 
wealthy were mostly destitute of glass win¬ 
dows and chimneys. The floors of the peas¬ 
ants’ houses were of clay, and filled with the 
accumulated filth of many years. The luxu¬ 
ry of linen was confined to the rich and high¬ 
born. Their woolen cloth was all of do¬ 
mestic manufacture. The processes of 
spinning, weaving, dyeing, and dressing 
cloths were the same which the Romans in¬ 
troduced into the island. Tea and coffee, 
and, to a great extent, sugar, were unknown. 
Beer was the universal beverage. The higher 
classes of society lived chiefly on salted 
meats. The common people seldom ate 
meat in any form. The ordinary fare of 
laboring men, then, would produce a riot in a 
work-house, now. In the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth, several new species of grasses, 
fruits, and edible roots were introduced. Po¬ 
tatoes and turnips appeared about this time. 
In earlier ages, the people fed entirely on 
bread and meat. 
As late as 1760, out of a population of 
60,00,000, in England and Wales, nearly one 
half were sustained by rye, barley, and oats. 
Now, the same class of persons are con 
sumers of wheat. In Ireland, the exclusive 
use of the potato, for the diet of the poorer 
classes, undoubtedly, retarded civilization 
and kept the population in a degraded state. 
If men have no artificial wants and are con¬ 
tent to live like brutes , and with brutes , there 
is no hope of their progress or elevation. 
The potato blight, therefore, maybe regarded 
as ablessing to Ireland, though it has wrought 
such destruction of her inhabitants. In Eng¬ 
land, the use of the potato as the principal 
article of food has been confined to a few 
districts; and in those it has tended to re¬ 
tard the social progress of the people. 
McCulloch remarks ; “ We are not of the 
number of those who regard the potato rot 
as a manifestation of divine wrath and who 
suppose that its continuance will be ruinous 
to the poor. On the contrary, we do not 
hesitate to say, that, judging of its influence, 
in time to come by that which it has hither¬ 
to exercised, we should look upon the total 
extinction of the plant as a blessing, and not 
as an evil.” The same author observes 
that the number of sheep and cattle, con¬ 
sumed by the citizens of London, has not 
increased more rapidly than the population; 
but the size of the animals is more than double ? 
In 1750, the average weight of cattle, sold in 
Smithfield market, was 370 lbs.; of sheep, 
28 lbs. Now, the average weight of beeves 
is about 8001bs.; and, of sheep, 80 lbs. Hence, 
every person consumes much more butcher’s 
meat than during the last century. The en¬ 
tire amount of food consumed in England and 
Wales, in 1846, was estimated at £180,000,- 
000 ($900,000,000) making about £9 ($45) 
to each inhabitant of 20,000,000. In Ireland, 
the expense was about half as much to each 
inhabitant. These facts show that material 
For the American Agriculturist. 
LETTER FROM THE WEST. 
(Continued from last week.) 
We are now in Madison, the capitol of this 
State. It is a very pretty town, population 
about 5,000. It 'is almost surrounded by 
lakes, there are four of them, each one of 
several miles in extent. I spent the Sab¬ 
bath there, and early on Monday morning 
took the stage for Galena, Illinois. 
The country is about like what I have been 
describing, for about forty miles, when it be¬ 
comes quite hilly for the western country. 
By looking over the map, you will see that I 
have marked my route from Fon-du-lac to 
Galena. Dodgeville is near the eastern bor¬ 
ders of the lead region. There is more or 
less mining nearly all the way from there to 
Galena ; the land is comparativly neglected. 
I have no doubt that if the miners had ex¬ 
pended the same amount of labor and money 
upon the land, they have in digging for lead, 
they would have been much better off' to-day 
than they are. But within the past year 
lead has risen enormously, and it is said 
some of the miners are now making large 
fortunes. 
Mineral Point is about the center of min¬ 
ing operations, and contains about 4 or 5,000 
inhabitants. 
Galena is miserably situated, between two 
hills on a stream rightly named Fever river. 
It is six miles from the Mississippi. Some 
of the residences upon the hills are quite 
pleasant, but the business part of the town 
is probably one of the most sickly places in 
Illinois. Its principal business is the export 
of lead and the import of produce to the 
mining regions ; population 5,000. 
The cholera, among other diseases, was rag¬ 
ing in the place when I was there, and I 
went on a steamer that was to start the next 
day for St. Pauls. 
The captain told me that he had not had a 
case of cholera this season, but I suppose he 
lied to me, for some of the passengers told 
me next morning that two had died on board 
during the night, and I saw three more taken 
off in the morning, two of them apparently 
just breathing their last. 
These things made me feel rather unpleas¬ 
antly at first, but after we got out on the 
Father of Waters, the novelties of my sit¬ 
uation, and the scenery of its banks, soon 
occupied my attention. ' 
You have no doubt read a description of it 
lately written by some of the Railroad ex- 
curtionists, from Rock Island up, (see map). 
But there is one thing I have not seen men¬ 
tioned. It is this ; The banks of the river 
exhibit to me almost incontrovertible evi¬ 
dence in favor of the theory that this west¬ 
ern country was once a vast inland ocean. 
The banks of the river are from one to three 
miles apart, though the river occupies but a 
small portion of this ; banks are from 100 to 
500 feet high, almost perpendicular, and are 
lined to the top with a species of sand-stone, 
and almost invariably, at a height of 3 or 
400 feet from the water, they exhibit the 
same signs of having been washed by some 
mighty flood, that they now do at or within 
a few feet of the water’s edge. Another 
strong argument I would adduce is this ; 
The banks are very irregular, they are brok¬ 
en constantly by immense ravines, some of 
them are the beds of streams, and some are 
now dry, but once undoubtedly were the 
beds of river. My theory is this; This 
western country, I have said, was once a 
vast inland ocean, that an outlet was forced 
through to the Gulf of Mexico, and at that 
time the bed of the river was hundreds of 
feet above where it now is, and on a com¬ 
parative level with the surrounding country. 
But during the ages and centuries that it was 
drawing off and pouring its immense flood 
into the ocean, the bed of the river gradual¬ 
ly wore down, its tributary streams wore 
down in corresponding manner, until they 
reached their present bed, and left an almost 
boundless extent of country of incomparable 
beauty, of apparently exhaustless fertility, 
that will at no distant day be the garden of 
the world in agricultural productions. 
Keeping Apples.— Some one having stated 
that the best way to preserve apples from 
rotting was to pack them in salt, the editor 
of the Albany Knickerbocker tried the ex¬ 
periment. He says they have kept for three 
years, and would keep eternally, if they 
waited for him to eat them. The saline par¬ 
ticles so mix with the apples, that you can’t 
eat one of them without fancying you are 
chewing a piece of Lot’s wife ! 
Truth is a rock of strength sufficient to 
bear the universe. 
The veil that covers the face of futurity is 
woven by the hand of mercy. 
