408 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
New-York, Wednesday, March 8,1854. 
SPECIAL NOTICES. 
We send a copy of this number, containing 
the index, to those whose subscriptions have re¬ 
cently expired. The later back numbers can 
still be supplied. Single copies five cents. 
We frequently send single copies, as speci¬ 
mens, to persons not subscribers. 
No person need return copies of the paper , as 
it is never sent where it is not considered paid 
for. 
Any person having a spare copy of No. 1 of 
this volume will confer a great favor by mailing 
it to this office, as there are several subscribers 
who are very desirous to obtain that number to 
complete their set. 
The next number begins volume XII., which 
will be completed in 2G numbers with an index. 
-•-»-•- 
We have received an early copy of the Annual 
Report of the Secretary of the Massachu¬ 
setts’Board of Agriculture, which is really one 
of the most valuable documents of its kind we 
have met with. It is admirably printed, al¬ 
though from the hands of the “ State printer,” 
and contains a large amount of valuable infor¬ 
mation condensed within reasonable limits. 
Mr. Charles L. Flint, the able and indefati¬ 
gable Secretary of the Board, has expended 
a great amount of labor in gathering reliable 
information in the various departments of agri¬ 
cultural industry, and deserves the hearty 
thanks of the farmers both of Massachusetts and 
her sister States. 
We wish this work was in the hands of pri¬ 
vate publishers, that it might be placed on sale, 
and we should then say to every farmer procure 
a copy. As this is not the case, we shall take 
the liberty to extract pretty largely from its 
pages. It contains the best practical treatise on 
the cultivation of cranberries which we have 
yet met with. In our next, which will be the 
first number of the half yearly volume, we shall 
commence this article which will occupy a page 
each in three or four numbers. This article will 
alone be worth to many persons much more 
than the price of the volume, ($1.) At the pre¬ 
sent time a crop of cranberries is one of the 
most remunerative which can be produced upon 
the farm. On another page will be found an 
article from the above report upon “Root 
Crops,” to which we refer our readers. 
-•*-«- 
Guano on Sugar Cane. —Messrs. R. and V. 
La Branch, of Jefferson Parish, La., made an 
experiment last season of guano against stable 
manure in the cultivation of sugar cane. Four 
arpents of land manured with guano, produced 
ten and a half hogsheads of sugar, weighing 
1200 lbs. each; while the same quantity of land 
dressed with stable manure, produced only six 
and two-third hogsheads. The sugar from the 
guano cane was superior in quality, and sold for 
half a cent more per pound than the other. 
When may a lawyer’s clerk be considered 
most captivating ? When he’s engrossing. 
For tlie American Agriculturist. 
TO MINNIE MYRTLE. 
I am not about to take the subject out of your 
hands, but you have touched a chord which vi¬ 
brates, and I must respond a little. I was not 
born “ a farmer’s daughter,” but a farmer’s son, 
and the first seventeen years of my life were 
spent under this bondage; and when I saw the 
pale faces and soft hands writing briefs in law¬ 
yer’s offices, and measuring tape and counting 
out needles behind the counter, oh, how I longed 
to be released from what I considered the drudg¬ 
ery of the farm; and when emancipated, enter¬ 
ing upon a life of a calico ambassador, I was as 
careful not to have it known that I had ever 
worked on a farm, as I would not to have it 
known that I had stolen a sheep, had such a thing 
happened. However, I became wiser as I grew 
older, quit importing gew-gaws to the impov¬ 
erishing of my country, and fostering the pride 
of her daughters, and now boast of being a 
farmer—yes, a book-farmer, together with all my 
sons ; and shame be to him or her who is afraid 
to espouse this as a profession; and if they are 
not respected, it is wholly owing to themselves. 
I am rejoiced to find that the Agriculturist has 
a lady contributor to its columns, able to give 
such a faithful portrait of the ridiculous objec¬ 
tions so often made to the profession of a farmer; 
and I hope she will go on and tell all her own 
experience, intermixed with that of others. I 
think by the description of her own dress, she 
must be, like myself, very nearly, or, 
Almost an Ootogerarian. 
-# »•- 
FUTURE PRICES OF GRAIN. 
Me publish the items below for the purpose 
of showing our readers that there is no danger 
of their starving, especially after the canals open. 
We fancy some who boast such large profits 
upon the operations of 1853, will lose an equal 
or greater amount on those of 1854. Flour has 
already fallen from $1 50 to $2 00 per barrel on 
the highest prices of last winter, and we opine 
the fall will be still lower before the close of May. 
We saw nothing in foreign advices the past win¬ 
ter which Warranted the great advance that 
took place at one time, either at home or abroad; 
and those who have recently purchased, or who 
are still purchasing on speculation, we fear will 
meet with heavy losses before the coming sum¬ 
mer is over. 
Produce in Burlington. —At no time in the 
history of our city was the amount of produce 
any thing like it is at present. Every place 
that a bushel of wheat, corn, oats, barley, &c., 
can be stored in, is literally crammed with these 
and other articles, for shipment on the opening 
of navigation. Our dealers no longer count by 
hundreds, but by thousands of bushels on hand. 
One gentleman, we learn, has in store upwards 
of twenty thousand bushels of wheat! and ano¬ 
ther some sixty thousand bushels of oats! and 
still there appears no less to come, as our streets 
are daily crowded with teams bringing in more. 
—Burlington (Iowa) Gazette , 16 th. 
In Peoria, not only every warehouse and store 
room is full of grain and flour, but every cellar 
in which it is safe to put grain, is also occupied. 
Several large warehouses are now being erected 
for that purpose, one of which is over 200 feet 
long, and 50 feet wide. We know of one dealer 
who has over two hundred thousand bushels of 
grain now in store, and three that have over 
one hundred thousand bushels each. There is 
at present in Peoria near one million bushels of 
grain awaiting the opening of the river and 
canal for the Eastern market. A great portion 
of this would go forward by railroad if it was 
completed; and as fast as removed, the ware¬ 
houses would be re-filled by grain from the 
country. If we have the requisite facilities for 
shipping by canal and by railroad, we may cal¬ 
culate on a business of over two millions of 
bushels in grain alone this season, with a large 
increase, in flour, pork, and whiskey .—Peoria 
Press. 
Grain at Chicago. —The Tribune of the 23d 
says: “ The warehouses along our river are now 
full of grain, and several operators have been 
compelled to withdraw from the market, in con¬ 
sequence of failing to obtain storage room. It 
is hardly probable that any of the fleet now in 
port will leave for the lower lakes for six weeks 
hence, and as it may be a matter of interest to 
know what number of vessels are in port, and 
what amount of grain they can take, we find 
the whole number of vessels, brigs, barks, pro¬ 
pellers and schooners to be sixty-four. Fifty- 
seven of which may load with grain, and can 
carry from 2,500 to 16,000 bushels, or the total 
of 646,900 bushels. The seven propellers in 
port may probably load with provisions.” 
A New-Yorlc dealer is reported to have made 
$68,000 by the rise on flour which he purchased 
in September at $5 75, and sold last week at 
$9.— Exchange. 
Upon this the Buffalo Courier remarks. 
“ There are Buffalo dealers whose good for¬ 
tune has been nearly equal to that of the New- 
Yorker. We suspect that there is more than 
one house on the “ dock” who would respectfully 
decline an offer of $68,000 for their profits dur¬ 
ing the year 1853.” 
■-• O O- - 
Remarks. —Flour, a decline last week of 37A 
to 50 cents per bbl. Wheat being rather scarce 
did not fall to correspond. Corn has given way 
from 4 to 7 cents per bushel. Pork an advance 
of 50 to G2-J- cents per bbl., while Lard has re¬ 
mained stationarv. 
Southern Products are without change. 
Money is considered a little easier, but out¬ 
siders still have to pay all the way from S to 15 
per cent, on their bills. 
Stocks gradually improve. The season is 
opening finely, and our Southern friends have 
commenced planting cotton, corn, &c., briskly. 
PRODUCE MARKETS. 
Wholesale prices of the more important Vegetables, 
Fruits, &c. 
Washington Market, Ncw-Y'ork, March 4,1854. 
Vegetables.— Potatoes, Junes, 1? bbl., §2 75; Western 
Reds, §2 50 ; Merinos, $2 37>k ; Mercers, $3®$3 25; Car¬ 
ters, $3@$3 50 ; Onions red, bbl. $2 50 ; yellow, $2 50 ; 
white, $3 ; Cabbages, from §6@Sjj>10 100 ; Celery, ^ doz. 
bunches, 75c.@$l 12^ ; Turnips, $ bushel, white, 7oc., 
yellow Russia, $1 bbl., $2 25; yellow stone, bbl., $2; 
Parsneps, ^ bushel, $1 ; Beet?, bushel, 62jj£c.; Carrots, 
bushel, G2J£c. 
Fruits.— Apples, Greenings, $ bbl., $3@$3 50 ; Spitzen- 
burgs, tjjl bbl., $3@$3 50; Roxbury Russets, $ bbl., $3®. 
$3 50 ; Cranberries, bbl., $5@,iji8@g8 50; Maple Sugar 
of an extra quality, is worth 12 %c. per pound. 
The apples named are about the only kinds in market at 
present, and they must be in the very best order to bring the 
price they are quoted at. 
The market is not as active as last week; buyers arc 
holding on hoping to obtain produce at a low price, when 
navigation opens. 
— • o • - 
NEW-YORK CATTLE MARKET. 
Monday, March 0, 1854. 
The sales for the past week have not been as large as 
usual, and the prices are quoted not as high, but the quality 
of the cattle in market to-day averages better than for several 
weeks past. We noticed some very fine cattle indeed, one 
pair in particular, fattened by Mr. Iloon, of Chester county, 
Pa. The dressed weight was calculated at 1400 each. They 
were held at $350 for the pair. 
The prices of cattle are asfollows : 
Lowest price, 8c. 
Middling beef,,9c. 
Best, 10c. 
