AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
363 
Several years since our attention was called 
to this beautiful variety, and we advised Mr. 
Lawton to cultivate them for distribution 
throughout the country. Last year we received 
some very beautiful specimens of the fruit, and 
Taylor’s saloon in this city was furnished for 
several weeks with a daily supply for his pa¬ 
trons. This is quite probably a new variety, 
and its size and quality seem not to depend 
upon great richness of soil or careful cultiva- 
LAWTON’S BLACKBERRY. 
tion. The llower, leaf, stalk, and fruit have thus 
far always been found of mammoth proportions 
if in any other than a dry, sandy soil. It ap¬ 
pears quite unlike any of the upright varieties 
cultivated in Massachusetts which we have seen, 
and we are almost inclined to consider it equal 
to any late acquisition to the fruit garden. The 
fruit is uniformly large, and the seeds so com¬ 
pletely imbedded, that in eating the fruit they do 
not interfere with the enjoyment of its rich pulp, 
CLAIMS OF AGRICULTURAL PATENTS 
ISSUED FOR TIIE WEEK ENDING JAN. 28tll, 1854. 
Cultivators. —By Enos Boughton, of East 
Bloomfield, N. Y.: I do not claim any part of 
the raising and depressing device ; nor do I claim 
the knife or the wheels separately. 
I claim the combination of the knife with 
the wheels, for the purpose of cutting up the 
ground and destroying thistles or any other 
weed plants, or grasses therein. 
Cotton Presses. —C. J. Fay, of North Lincoln, 
Me.: I claim the use of the slats or guide strips, 
arranged as set forth. 
Ee-issue. 
Opening and Closing Gates. —S. G. Dug- 
dale, of Richmond, Ind. Patented originally 
Oct. 11, 1853: I claim, first, opening, closing, 
fastening, and unfastening the gate, by moving 
the bottom of the gate in an oblique direction 
from and to the post upon which it is hung, as 
specified. 
Second, I also claim the use of the pendulous 
and vertical levers and arms in combination with 
the hinges of the gate, as set forth. 
CANADIAN AGRICULTURE. 
The average product of Wheat in Upper 
Canada is set down at 16 14-60 bushels per 
acre, and in Lower Canada at only 7 8-60 
bushels per acre. These averages, it will readily 
be understood, convey no correct idea of the 
capabilities of the soil. There are plenty of 
instances where over fifty bushels to the acre 
are grown; thirty is a very common crop. But 
if the crops sometimes run high above the 
average, they must also sometimes run far 
below it, unless the facts have been inaccurately 
stated to the enumerators. That this is the 
case in many instances there can be no doubt 
farmers often having a fear that the census- 
talcing has some reference to the taxation of 
of their property. Lower Canada is a poor 
wheat country. For some years the ravages 
of the wheat fly was so great as to cause almost 
the entire suspension of wheat growing. Of 
late years, this calamity has been decreasing in 
some parts of Lower Canada; but the weavil 
has been steadily making his way up toward 
this section of the Province. In 1851, Lower 
Canada produced only 3,400,000 bushels of 
wheat, which would be not more than half 
sufficient for its population, on the supposition 
that they consume six bushels for every indi 
vidual. The county in Lower Canada growing 
the highest average—Megantic—only gives 15 
bushels to the acre, and the lowest—L’lslet— 
only 6, Gashe and Saguenay 7 each, and Mon¬ 
treal 8 bushels to the acre. It is surely not 
worth while cultivating land to obtain such 
miserable returns as these. The county in 
Upper Canada—Bruce—which has the highest 
average, shows 20 bushels of wheat to the acre, 
and 26 of Indian corn. Five counties—viz: 
Halton, York, Oxford, Kent, and Peel—grow 
18 bushels of wheat to the acre, four others 17, 
and three 16 each. There is one whole town¬ 
ship that averages 26 bushels of wheat to the 
acre; four average 21, twelve average 20, and 
eleven average 19 bushels. In 1851, Upper 
Canada grew 12,802,272 bushels of wheat; and 
besides supplying the deficiency of some 3,000,- 
000 bushels in Lower Canada, exported 4,276,- 
871 bushels. The average product of wheat in 
Ohio is less per acre by more than four bushels 
than the average of Upper Canada. 
It would be unfair to make any comparison 
between the relative increase in the export of 
wheat between Canada and the United States, 
inasmuch as the United States consume, in the 
production of manufactures, a large quantity of 
grain, while Canada has no such class of con¬ 
sumers. It is not, however, unfair _ to make a 
comparison between the relative increase of 
production in the two countries. During the 
last ten years the growth of wheat has increased 
upward of 100 per cent, in Canada, while in the 
United States the increase has been only about 
48 per cent. Strange to say, we have also out¬ 
stripped the United States in the increase of the 
growth of Indian corn, in ten years, at the rate 
of 163 against 60 per cent. In oats, Upper 
Canada has, during the same period, increased 
the production 133 per cent, against 17 per 
cent, in the United States. All Canada produces 
one-seventh more wheat than Ohio per indi¬ 
vidual of the population, although Ohio has 
9,800,000 acres of cultivated land against 7,300,- 
000 in Canada. The Census Commissioner in 
the United States makes a most important 
omission in not giving the number of acres 
under any peculiar crop; an arrangement which 
prevents comparisons with other countries, that 
might be of great advantage. From this cause 
it is impossible to compare the average pro¬ 
ductions per acre of any particular crop in 
Canada with the same in the United States. 
The truth is, Upper Canada runs too much 
upon wheat, to the partial neglect of some pro¬ 
ductions. In 1851 Canada possessed 49,963 
more milch cows than Ohio, and yet did not 
produce as much butter by one-third, and only 
about one-eighth as much cheese. In these 
two items Canada is short to the value of about 
$2,000,000 a year, although she possesses more 
cows than Ohio. The inquiry into the cause of 
such analomies as these cannot but be of the 
highest importance. It must not be concluded 
that Canada is making no progress in the arti¬ 
cles of butter and cheese. The reverse is the 
fact. Within the three years from 1849 to 1851 
inclusive, the production of butter has increased 
372 per cent., and that of cheese 223 per cent. 
Of sheep, the Province owns but 1,600,000, 
while Ohio has no less than 4,000,000. The 
annual production of wool in that State exceeds 
ours by $6,400,000, and of sheep, reckoned at 
$1 50 each, about $3,500,000. Yet there is 
very little difference in the respective number 
of occupied acres here and in Ohio; while there 
the extent cultivated is about one-third more 
than with us. The discovery of these facts must 
lead to an inquiry into their cause, which can¬ 
not fail to result favorably to the cause of agri¬ 
culture.— Corr. of Tribune. 
Pigeon Roost -Hunter's Paradise .—In Frank¬ 
lin county, Indiana, north of the town of Brook- 
ville, the pigeons congregate now-a-niglits in 
prodigious numbers. The woods, over a space 
of ten miles in length by five in breadth, are 
nightly filled by countless multitudes of these 
birds, that light upon the branches and pile 
upon each other in such enormous masses, that 
the stoutest limbs give way, killing in their fall 
thousands of their destroyers. Mornings and 
evenings the air is darkened by swarms of my¬ 
riads upon myriads of pigeons. The flocks are 
miles in extent, and sweep over the heavens like 
thunder clouds. The roar of the innumerable 
wings during the hours of arrival and depart¬ 
ure at the roost, is tremendous. The ground 
in the vicinity of the roost is covered in places 
to the depth of several inches, by pigeon guano. 
Hundreds of hogs are engaged in devouring the 
birds which are killed by various casualties. 
The people in that vicinity are tired of shooting 
among the serial hosts. 
A person who desires to kill a few thousand 
in the course of a night, takes his gun and am¬ 
munition, enters the roost, sits down and fires 
as often as he can load, directly upward, and 
his game tumbles down around him. It has 
been remarked, facetiously perhaps, that some 
sportsmen have been overwhelmed and nearly 
crushed in the fall of birds following a shot. 
A genuine sportsman would not enjoy such 
, murderous operations as these, but men who 
