AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
345 
ton ; Charles Matheson, of Pomfret; T. S. Gold, 
of West Cornwall; Asa Hubbard, of Middle- 
town ; John S. Yeomans, of Columbia. 
The above officers constitute the Executive 
Committee of the Society. 
The following resolutions were passed: 
1. That an agent or agents be appointed, if 
deemed advisable by the Executive Committee, 
to traverse the State and bring the Society be¬ 
fore the people. 
2. Each County Society may appoint a dele¬ 
gate who shall sit as a member of the Execu¬ 
tive Committee of this Society. 
3. That the Executive Committee take mea¬ 
sures to hold a State Fair in October^ 1854. 
4. That the Executive Committee take meas¬ 
ures to procure a grant from the Legislature at 
its next session, for the benefit of the Society. 
5. That the Executive Committee petition the 
Legislature to enact a law for the extirpation of 
the wild carrot and Canada thistle. 
The Society then adjourned. The large sa¬ 
loon of the City Hall was liberally placed at the 
disposal of the Society by the Common Council 
of the city of Hartford, and occupied for its 
afternoon session. 
J. A. Pokter, Secretary. 
UNITED STATES’ AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The Second Annual Meeting of the United 
States’ Agricultural Society, will be held at 
Washington, D. C., on Wednesday, February 
22d, 1854. 
Among the objects of .the Association are the 
following: 
The acquisition and dissemination of the best 
experience in the Science of Agriculture; the 
union of the men who desire to advance to its 
legitimate rank, this most important of all hu¬ 
man pursuits; and the increase and extension 
throughout our country of a more cordial 
spirit of intercourse between the friends of Ag¬ 
riculture, by whose countenance and coopera¬ 
tion this Society shall be elevated to a position 
of honor and usefulness worthy of its national 
character. 
Business of importance will come before the 
meeting. A new election of officers is to be 
made, and in which every State and Territory 
is to be represented. 
Applications will be laid before the Society 
for the holding of National Exhibitions in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the Union. 
Delegations are respectfully solicited from all 
the Agricultural Societies in the country, and 
the attendance of all Agriculturists who may 
find it convenient to honor the occasion with 
their presence. 
Marshall P. Wilder, President. 
Wm. S. King, JRec. Sec. 
The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature. 
W. H. Bid well, editor and proprietor, 120 
Nassau street. 
Of all the foreign re-publications, the Eclectic 
is immeasurably superior. The good taste of 
the editor leaves out all trash; and the more 
local articles, selecting those only which have 
an immediate interest among us, or are of per¬ 
manent value. It is therefore nearly as valuable 
to bind up at the end of the*year, to occupy a 
place in the library, as to adorn the center-table 
from month to month. Each number contains 
144 pages of large Octavo, in double columns, 
making 1,728 pages a year. 
FARMS IN VIRGINIA. 
A few weeks since we published a letter from 
a correspondent, asking for information in re¬ 
gard to farming in Virginia. The question is 
one of considerable interest to many of our 
young farmers in the northern and eastern 
States, who contemplate trying to better their 
situation by swarming from the parent hive. 
Many have done well who have emigrated there. 
The soil is good and the climate mild all through 
the Atlantic coast. Virginia is easily reached, 
and new buildings, fences, and other improve¬ 
ments will not generally be the first thing re¬ 
quired as in new countries. 
There are immense unoccupied fields in the 
Western States and territories, which invite the 
industrious husbandman. But there are those 
who prefer settling nearer the seaboard, and who 
are hardly adventurous enough to seek a home 
in the distant western forests or prairies. To 
such, Virginia offers many advantages. There 
are large tracts of land in that region which are 
under a high state of judicious cultivation; 
others are yet unbroken by the plow; again, 
other lands that have been partially worn out 
upon the surface by continually cropping with¬ 
out manure, and which by the application of a 
little skill and concentrated labor, may be made 
as of old, equally rich with any in the world. 
The general plan of cultivation in Virginia has 
been upon the large farm system. In our travels 
in that State, we have seldom found a farm of 
less than four or five hundred acres, and perhaps 
a majority of them contain more. Many of the 
farmers we know reckon their acres by thou¬ 
sands. The labor is generally performed by 
slaves, and with this class of labor, and with so 
large a surface to attend to, it is not surprising 
that a superficial system has been so often prac¬ 
tised. Divide these large estates into small 
farms of a hundred acres, and put upon each a 
thorough go-ahead Yankee, and he will trans-* 
form it into a productive garden, which will 
yield ample and profitable returns. The west¬ 
ern part of the State, however, at this time holds 
out the best prospects to new comers, except 
where they wish to rear flocks of mutton sheep, 
or make market gardens and peach orchards of 
their farms. As stated by our correspondents in 
former numbers, the railroads opening westward 
over the mountains, are bringing within reach 
of the seaboard markets, a large section which 
has yet in reserve all its native richness of soil. 
In answer to inquiries, we have received a 
number of letters, some of which we shall pub¬ 
lish from time to time. We invite further in¬ 
formation, asking those who write us, to write 
briefly, and to the point. Let them give such 
information as they would themselves desire in 
regard to a new and distant territory, which 
they had not visited, but to which they were 
looking as a future place of residence. We also 
ask the same information from the States and 
territories at the west. Those seeking new 
homes wish to know all about the soil, its cha¬ 
racter, depth, and fertility ; they want to learn 
something of the prospective market facilities; 
what difficulties must be contended with, what 
outfit is needed, &c., &c. We present below 
another letter from Virginia. The writer as¬ 
sures us that he is little acquainted with ex¬ 
pressing himself in our language. He gives us 
a statement of some of the items of farming in 
his neighborhood. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
From your Agriculturist , No. 15, I see you 
wish to receive some information about Virginia. 
I think I can give some for Wood County. I 
don’t intend to sell my farm, my pen is there¬ 
fore not influenced by pecuniary interest; but I 
would like to have some intelligent and indus¬ 
trious farmers here to give the Virginia blood a 
little fresh start. 
Our climate is very healthy. The doctors are 
not doing very well. Our water communications 
are Ohio river and the Little Kanawha, with 
some creeks, which also drive saw and flour mills. 
Our county roads are as yet badly managed; 
the few turnpikes however are very good. Hilly 
wood-land well timbered is plentiful, and costs 
from $2 to $10 per acre. Improved farms in 
this section are held at from 3 to 40 and over 
50 dollars per acre, according to bottom-land, 
neighborhood of town, or river location. The 
general rotation here is wheat and corn, corn 
and wheat, and down in grass and weeds, if 
it will not produce corn more. The general 
practice is crop three inches of surface out as 
fast as possible. I have often seen oats sown 5 
or 6 times in succession; the last year gives a 
few bushels of oats and a load of briars per acre. 
Manuring is “too dirty work.” You can often 
see here, the cattle by the barn, or in the wheat 
field eating wheat straw, while in other parts of 
the farm hay-stacks are rotting. Wheat pro¬ 
duces from 18 to 35 bushels per acre, corn 40 
to 65, oats 15 to 20, buckwheat sown after wheat 
in July, 30 to 45 bushels per acre. Farm horses, 
3 to 4 years old, are worth $75 to $i20; milch 
cows, $15 to $28; two year heifers, $8 to $18; 
6 weeks fat calves, $3; oxen 2 years, $30 to $50 
a yoke; 3 years, $60 to 85 a yoke; common 
sheep, $1 25 to $1 50; fat cattle 2£ to 3 cents 
per lb. live weight; hay, $5 to $7 a ton; wheat, 
50c. to $1 12 per bushel; rye and barley, 40 to 
55 cents; oats, 25c. to 45c.; corn, 25c. to 55c. 
Negroes are not often seen here, but we have 
some lazy whites. Hands are scarce, and 
prices are from 62£ cents to $1 25 a day with 
board. Our commercial prospects are going up, 
as in a year the railroad which connects Park¬ 
ersburg with the Wheeling and Baltimore rail¬ 
road, will be finished. 
A farm, containing 20 acres clear first bot¬ 
tom, 7 acres orchard, 10 acres of fine pasture, 
30 acres second bottom—these all fenced—95 
acres wood-land ; lying a quarter of a mile along 
the Ohio, 8 miles from town, having a good frame 
house and barn with stables, was bought for 
$2500 two years ago, with no stock or crop on 
it. It is now held at $4000. So much for 
Wood County. 
I have often seen in your paper big and fast 
farming stories; I will give you one. I churned 
(last autumn) in Crowell’s thermometer churn, 
1-J- gallons cream, and in one and a half minutes 
produced fine and hard butter, and have often 
done my churning in 2 and 3 minutes. I never 
allow my milk to sour before I take the cream 
off. E. Meldahl. 
Parkersburg , Fa., Jan. 8 tli, 1854. 
- * * O - 
Missouri Hemp. —The increase of receipts at 
St. Louis over last year, in this important staple, 
foot up about 14,324 bales, making an aggregate 
of 63,450, against 49,124 for 1852. When to 
this is added the enhanced rates at which this 
article sold, (a considerable portion of the crop 
bringing as high as 20 per cent, advance on the 
sales of the previous season,) a money balance 
in favor of the present year may safely be esti¬ 
mated at from $200,000 to $300,000. 
Hogs at the West.—The hog stock on the 
farms of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, 
Illinois and Iowa, is estimated to amount to nine 
million of hogs. 
