AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
impefr ta impok f|e Jarmer, % fIatthr, anfr tfje (gitrktter. 
AGRICULTURE IS TEE MOST ’.HEALTHY, THE MOST USEFUL , AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. - Washington. 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ALLEH & CO., 189 WATER ST. 
VOL. XI.] NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1853. [NUMBER 9 . 
mrFOR PROSPECTUS, TERMS, # c., 
SEE LAST PAGE. 
THE PRICE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 
The most interesting question with the farmer 
at all times is, the present and prospective value 
of his products. At this moment of excite¬ 
ment, caused by reports of short crops in Eu¬ 
rope, and rumors of war, this question has be¬ 
come peculiarly important; and we are contin¬ 
ually asked by our country friends, whether 
they had better sell immediately or hold on for 
higher prices ? There are so many things in¬ 
volved in such a question, and the future is so 
full of changes, no human being can anticipate 
them : it becomes us, therefore, when such im¬ 
portant interests are at stake to answer cauti¬ 
ously. 
First, then, in regard to beef and pork, we 
can see no reason why they should not advance 
some before winter is over rather than recede, 
even from the present high prices. Our reasons 
for this opinion are, that large herds of cattle 
have been driven from the Western States over 
the Rocky Mountains to'alifornia and Oregon, 
for 2GVGi*a.l years paot, Creating o. 
scarcity rather than a surplus for the eastern 
markets. Greater attention is also now given 
to the improvement of stock in that region; 
the farmers consequently wish to retain a larger 
number at home than formerly, in order to make 
their selections; they have also become richer, 
and are better able to hold their stock, which 
they will do till a surplus is grown, rather than 
sell except at high prices—and it will take sev¬ 
eral years to grow this surplus. Wool is bring¬ 
ing a high price ; sheep, consequently, will not 
be sacrificed as formerly every autumn and win¬ 
ter. This will influence the price of mutton, 
which will also increase that of pork and beef 
indirectly, although the high price of corn will 
more directly affect their value, as beef and 
pork are mostly fattened on this grain at the 
West. 
'Second, in regard to grain. The crops of 
America have been very good the present year, 
and are probably more than an average; but to 
offset these, there is a large deficiency in the 
harvest of Great Britain, France, and some other 
parts of Europe; and these countries must look 
to the United States mainly for their supplies. 
It is calculated by able economical writers in 
Great Britain, that the United Kingdom will re¬ 
quire an importation of at least 60,000,000 bush¬ 
els of wheat alone, or its equivalent in flour, to 
supply their wants the coming year, over and 
above what they have grown for themselves, to 
say nothing of Indian Corn, of which they will 
also require large quantities. 
Third, potatoes %ve rotted badly in many 
p arts of America, thifg rendering them so high 
priced that meal and flour will in many instances 
more largely take their place than usual. Other 
vegetables are not over abundant, all of which 
must slightly affect the price of grain. 
Taking these things into consideration, the 
prosperity of our manufactures, the great emi¬ 
gration to the country, and the many enter¬ 
prises on foot, we do not sec why the present 
prices of produce should not be maintained all 
winter without much fluctuation. Nothing but 
the scarcity of money has prevented extensive 
speculations in produce, and prices advancing 
considerably above their present mark. This 
pecuniary pressure is likely to remain for some 
months to come; and perhaps on the whole this 
check upon speculation will operate for the ben¬ 
efit of the majority of the producers of the 
country. Great inflations are often more ruinous 
than great depressions; and those are the best 
times for us, when prices for all sorts of products 
remain steady. 
We conclude by saying, that perishable arti¬ 
cles, such as potatoes, &c., should be sold as 
fast as convenient. If you can store your grain 
cheaply and safely, be in no hurry to sell it. 
Beef, pork, and mutton should be sold as fast as 
prepared for market, for few farmers have the 
facilities for putting them up properly lor a ais- 
tant market. 
POPULAR FALLACIES. 
It has often astonished me to find that any 
scheme, or recipe, once-allowed to appear in 
print, generally makes the round of all the 
public papers, without any further inquiry as to 
either its probability or practicability, and is acted 
upon by thousands, who know no better, but 
merely “take the papers;” a few examples I 
will mention: 
When on a recent visit to a friend, who re¬ 
sides on Long Island, I went into his orchard, 
and to my astonishment saw that all his plum 
trees were swathed and bandaged around the 
stems with cotton batting—looking for all the 
world like so many old dowagers suffering with 
severe sore throats, or stiff necks. Upon in¬ 
quiry I found my friend “ took the papers,” and 
likewise took every thing that appeared therein 
as “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 
the truth.” He had read an invaluable recipe 
for preventing the ravages of the curculio, and 
the aforesaid cotton bandage “ was to prevent 
any and every curculio in the neighborhood 
from ascending the trunk of the plum tree, 
when they should emerge in the Spring from 
the earth, where they had spent a very quiet 
and comfortable winter in the chrysalid state!” 
Now, as the above-mentioned curculio can fly 
from any level surface as well as most of the 
coleapteroe, (beetle tribe,) as I have ofttimes 
proved to my satisfaction, these bandages re¬ 
minded me forcibly of the wise men of Gotham, 
who surrounded a crow in a field hoping b 
catch it. Both Gothamites and recipe-maker, 
forgetting in their theoretic zeal that crow and 
insect possess at least one pair of wings, and 
moreover know how to use them. Much cha¬ 
grined at the failure of this invaluable recipe to 
catch curculios, my friend said with warmth, 
“ It does catch insects anyhow, and I can prove 
itso he did, for upon examining the cotton, 
we found it full of the larvae of the coccinella, 
(lady bird,) an insect which is one of the best 
friends the gardener or fruit-grower possesses , 
as its whole life, both larvae and perfect state 
is devoted to devouring the aphis, (plant louse,) 
which is so destructive in our orchards and gar¬ 
dens. Thus the benefactor was prevented from 
ascending the tree to exterminate noxious in¬ 
sects, the larvae possessing no wings, and at the 
same time nothing was done to prevent the cur- 
culio/rom flying into the head of the tree where 
the fruit was forming. Although I reasoned 
with him, he still persisted in keeping up the 
hospital appearance of his orchard, for, as he 
told me with an incredulous smile, “he had 
read it in the papers.” 
Another friend asserted that the papers ;aid 
“to prevent the ants ascending trees me nn 
tai ui j.m-n; and therefore his trees were all 
girdled with an extremely ornamental ring of 
sticky material, which had the peculiar property 
of damaging all white pantaloons or ants, that 
went too near their trunks. Now, as the ant 
only feeds upon the excrementitious matter 
ejected from the aphis, which is elaborated in 
the stomach of the insect from the sap of the 
tree, and which, under the name of honey-dew, 
so disfigures our vegetation, I don’t sec what 
very great injury the poor ant does in making 
a comfortable breakfast on what is entirely use¬ 
less to us, and only disfigures the orchard. 
The papers again state, that by putting a 
saucer-full of chloroform under bee hives, the 
bees only sink into a state of sweet oblivion as 
to all sublunary affairs, and that the honey may 
then be extracted from the hive much in the 
same manner as teeth are extracted by a fashion¬ 
able dentist, under the same influence. Bees 
and patients knowing nothing about their loss 
until upon awaking, an awful gap in both hive 
and mouth assures the sufferers that all is over, 
and they none the wiser as to how it happened. 
Now the theory is good, and might do very well, 
if we knew how to administer the opiate in 
merely sufficient quantities to produce happy 
oblivion ; but as bees are apt to be very soon 
intoxicated if an over dose is given, instead of 
being put to sleep for the operation only, they 
would be very liable to be put to sleep for ever ; 
and until we know exactly how much to admin¬ 
ister, and how long it is to be administered, if 
we love our bees better than honey, we had 
better let chloroform alone, By the way, chlo 
