122 
. AMBEIOAN AGrRIOtTLTTJRXST. 
their sons and their daughters might ride at 
pleasure, as well as to make the animal more 
serviceable in the field. In conclusion, Mr. Hol¬ 
comb said—I shall go away from this Convention 
very grateful for the exhibition. To a similar 
exhibition I shall certainly return; and to that, 
or to some other occasion, we must postpone the 
erection of an equestrian monument to George 
M. Atwater ; (Loud applause) and to a much 
later period—to a day, I trust, that the youngest 
in this assembly will scarcely see—the erection 
of a monument to the memory of the man who 
was the friend to horticulture, terraculture and 
agriculture—the friend of rural life, in all its 
relations, Col. Marshall P. Wilber. (Great 
cheering.) I will conclude with the expression 
of a wish—a good wish. It is prompted by a 
recent visit to the grave of Robert Burns. I 
went down to Ayrshire, where the noble poet 
labored, like myself, in the harvest held and at 
the common drudgery of life, boasting that no 
man could beat him at the plow, and so he 
put absolute want at defiance. He apostrophises 
the farmer in this way—let me quote the words 
of the poet, to whom I am brother: 
“O ! Scotia! my dear, my native soil, 
For whom to Heaven my warmest wish is sent, 
Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil 
Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content, 
And, Oh ! may Heaven their precious lives defend 
From luxuries’ contagion weak and vile ; 
Then how e’er crowns and coronets be tent 
A virtuous-populace will rise the while, 
And stand a wall of fire about their much lov’d Isle.” 
The following characteristic note is in answer 
to an invitation to attend the late National 
Horse Exhibition. 
Burlington, Vt., Oct. 14, 1853. 
Gentlemen,—I am very sorry that I shall not 
be able to partake of your horse-pitality. Being 
a born-Vermonter—who, you know, is a “ per¬ 
fect Arab” for horses—I claim no exemption 
from the charge of loving a “ charger,” and ad¬ 
mire a “ courser,” of course. Indeed, I must 
say, in the manner of Alexander to Diogenes— 
“If I were not a man I would be a horse ”—an 
animal which, in utter contempt of the monkey- 
theory of the naturalists, I hold to be next of 
kin to his master. In short, he who does not 
love a horse, is—an ass, and deserves a per¬ 
petual diet of thistles instead of the sumptuous 
fare which your famous Springfield caterers 
will spread before you at your banquet, on the 
20th. Hoping that Vermont will represent her¬ 
self worthily at the great National Exhibition 
of Horses, I am, gentlemen, 
Yours, very truly, 
John G. Saxe. 
-©-© ♦- 
Receipts of the late Horse Show at 
Springfield. —The gross receipts of the Ex¬ 
hibition were nearly $10,000, and the sum 
received will be just about enough to pay ex¬ 
penses. The leading items of those expenses 
are, the premiums, amounting to about $3000, 
to which will probably be added many gratuities, 
over and above this sum, bestowed upon fine 
horses present from a distance; the erection of 
the high board fence around the lot and the 
building of the stalls and seats, which cost $1200 
to $1500; printing and advertising; the ban¬ 
quet and the entertainment of invited guests. 
A large amount of minor expenses, many of 
which could not have been foreseen, and even 
now must be indefinitely estimated, were in¬ 
curred. The Managers were liberal in their 
arrangements, in proportion as the certainty of 
success enabled them to be. The receipts for 
entrance fees for horses amounted to from 
$1600 to $1700, and between $1000 and $1200 
were taken for tickets to the banquet. The 
balance of receipts is from entrance fees from 
spectators. 
Horses and Tobacco. —N. P. Willis gives the 
following hint whereby trees may be saved from 
being gnawed by horses, from which they suffer 
so much in exposed positions, when used as 
hitching-posts: 
Strangers will tie their horses to the trees 
from which I can least spare the bark they eat 
off, while their masters rambling about, and I 
have just been washing the trunks of two or 
three evergreens with tobacco juice, (said to be 
a six months’ disguster for the worst kind of 
crib-biter,) when neighbor S~-, with his 
white locks flowing over his shoulders, and his 
calmly genial face beaming from under his 
broad-brimmed hat, drove down the avenue—a 
moving picture among the beautiful cedars and 
hemlocks that made them more beautiful than 
before. We tied his horse to one of the tobac- 
coed cedars, which the fine animal, a splendid 
bay, opened teeth upon, and immediately back¬ 
ed off to the length of his halter, taking an at¬ 
titude of repugnance in .which we found him on 
our return. 
A New Medicine.— The following certificate, 
says the Dutchman, has been received by the 
author of the “ Granicular Syrup 
Portsville, July 29, 1853. 
Dear Doctor,— I will be 175 years old next 
October. For ninety-four years I have been an 
invalid, unable to move except when stirred with 
a lever; but, a year ago last Thursday, I heard 
of the Granicular Syrup. I bought a bottle, 
smelt of the cork, and found myself a new man. 
I can now run twelve and a half miles an hour, 
and throw nineteen double somersets without 
stopping. 
P.S.—A little of your Alicumstoutum Salve 
applied to a wooden leg, reduced a compound 
fracture in nineteen minutes, and is now cover¬ 
ing the limb with a fresh cuticle of white gum 
pine bark. 
-©-©-© - 
Pre-payment of Postage. —All correspondents 
are requested to pre-pay their postage on letters to 
us, as they thereby secure pre-payment in return. 
The saving of two cents for each letter may seem a 
small matter to such as seldom write, but the gen¬ 
eral omission to pre-pay would make a difference of 
hundreds of dollars per annum in our own postage 
bills. 
We also suggest the propriety, where correspond¬ 
ents write us expressly on their own business, re¬ 
questing a favor which causes us some trouble, and 
with no corresponding benefit, that they not only 
pre-pay their postage, but also enclose a stamp, to 
pre-pay the answer they solicit in return. 
Dating Letters.— Where our correspondents are 
not perfectly well kuown to us, we wish they would 
in all cases, date their letters very plainly, with their 
post-office address. Nearly every town in the United 
States has half a dozen name-sakes in other States, 
and of some of the most popular, they number by 
fifties. A few years since, there were about thirty 
Washingtons in Ohio alone. Let us, in all cases, 
have the name of their post-office and State, at the 
head of their letter, and they will be sure of a right 
direction for their letters in return. . 
Correspondents will confer a favor by writing 
plainly. We speut four hours in deciphering a 
long article from a correspondent, which con¬ 
tained some good ideas. We have just received 
another from the same source, which we have 
necessarily laid by for the leisure of a rainy day. 
We never did like illegible writing, but we cheer¬ 
fully correct ungrammatical expressions, and will 
properly prepare manuscript for the press with plea¬ 
sure. If only plainly written, we care not how 
homely the style. 
To our Friends. —Several communications, 
books, and pamphlets are received which we 
have not had not time to notice, owing to 
continued absence at the Cattle Shows and 
Fairs. Our friends and correspondents shall 
receive due attention in a week or two; in the 
mean while we beg a continuance of their fa¬ 
vors. 
lHarkck 
Remarks. —We refer our readers to a full account 
of the European Corn Market, from the Mark Lane Ex¬ 
press of the 17 th Oct. In that it will be seen, Wheat 
had risen somewhat in France, since our last, and 
given way in England, from Is. to 2s. per quarter. 
But we have a circular of two days later from Eng¬ 
land, by which we see that Wheat and Flour had 
recovered this depression. Provisions were inactive 
without change of rate. Cotton remained steady, 
notwithstanding the difficulty between the manufac¬ 
turers and their operatives, and a great turn out of 
the latter for increased wages. 
From the Mark Lane Express, Ocl. 17th. 
REVIEW OE THE BRITISH CORN TRADE. 
The weather since the commencement of the 
month has been very similar to that experienced at 
the corresponding period of- last year, and the land 
is now in nearly as unfit a state for being worked as 
it was then. The primary cause of the shortness of 
the breadth of Wheat sown in the autumn of 1852 
was the excess of wet, and we appear at present to 
be threatened by a like visitation. We sincerely 
trust that so great a misfortune may be averted; 
but thus far the season has been decidedly unfavor¬ 
able for forwarding the necessary labors, and the 
sowing of Wheat must be delayed to a later period 
than usual in good years. The constant wet has 
besides, rendered it very difficult to get in the patches 
of spring-sown Wheat, late Oats and Beans remain¬ 
ing out at the close of September; and there is even 
at this period some quantity of corn in the fields, a 
portion so much injured as scarcely to be worth car¬ 
rying. There is consequently nothing in the position 
of affairs to allow us to take a more favorable view 
in regard to our own resources. 
The autumn-sown Wheat has given a decidedly 
short yield to the acre, and part of that sown in . 
spring has been wholly lost, or is, at all events, unfit 
for human food. The Wheat trade has nevertheless . 
become much quieter the last week or two, and a 
slight reaction has even taken place in prices. This 
pause we attribute mainly to the fears generally en¬ 
tertained of increased scarcity of money, and a con¬ 
sequent determination on the part of merchants and 
others to discourage speculative investments. The 
sad experience of 1847 is still, too fresh in the memo¬ 
ries of all to be overlooked, and there is an anxious 
desire to decline business attended with any kind of 
risk. The precaution which has all along been ex¬ 
ercised is the best guarantee of future safety; and 
though an increase in value of money will naturally 
have the effect of contracting business in grain in 
the same way as other mercantile operations, we be¬ 
lieve the corn trade to be in as sound a state to meet 
the difficulties of a contracted circulation as any other 
branch of commerce. 
The decline in the price of Wheat from the highest 
point has been about Is. to 2s. perqr. at most of the 
leading provincial markets. At Liverpool there was 
a few pressing sellers of American Flour in the early 
part of the week, and on Tuesday sales of the article 
were made at a reduction of 2s., and in partial cases 
2s. 6d. per bbl. A portion of this decline was sub¬ 
sequently recovered, and on Friday a good business 
was done at rates very little below those previously 
current. 
In addition to the cause above referred to, the 
downward movement in prices has no doubt beeu 
assisted by the increased arrivals of Wheat from 
abroad. A prevalence of westerly winds the latter 
part of last month, kept back vessels from the Baltic, 
and for a week or two the supplies were compara¬ 
tively small; latterly we have had the wind from the 
east, and a large number of corn-laden ships have 
reached our coast. These will probably bo followed 
by the remainder of the fleet in the course of the 
next eight or ten days, but afterwards we may calcu¬ 
late on a period of short arrivals, the shipments from 
the Lower Baltic ports having been very small of 
late, and those from Danzig having fallen off. Mean¬ 
while there appears a probability of a revival in the 
French demand, the latest advices from thence stating 
that previous supplies had been worked up pretty 
closely, and that after a period of calm, prices had 
again begun to rise at the principal consuming towns. 
The Eastern question is still involved in great doubt 
aud uncertainty, and war between Russia and Turkey 
is quite as likely as a peaceable arrangement of the 
dispute. It is therefore very questionable whether 
any portion of the large stocks of Wheat lying at 
Odessa and Galatz will be shipped off before winter . 
sets in and puts a stop to the navigation. Such be¬ 
ing the position of affairs at home and abroad, it may 
be questioned whether prices of Wheat can recede 
materially, and circumstances might easily occur to 
give a fresh impetus to the upward movement. 
We have endeavored, in the foregoing remarks, 
to avoid exaggeration in any shape. We would ra¬ 
ther allay than encourage alarm; but the fact that 
Great Britain and France will have to import to 
make good the deficiency of nearly, if not quite, one- 
third in the produce of the respective Wheat crops 
of these great bread-consuming countries, is of too 
much importance to be disguised ; aud we consider 
the economy of consumption, which a comparatively 
high range of prices is sure to occasion, the best safe¬ 
guard against scarcity hereafter. 
