368 
REVIEW OP THE AUGUST NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
some of them in bread— the taste of the public re¬ 
quires it. True, it is a vitiated taste, but yet it 
seems to be the prevailing one, that requires all of 
our wheaten loaves to be very light and white as 
driven snow. And for this, nutritious and healthy 
food is drugged till just about as fit to eat as a 
whitewashed sponge would be. I do most earnest¬ 
ly urge upon the attention of every editor to agitate 
the subject until a reform is effected. 
Remarkable Cows. —“ It is a pity that every calf 
from such a cow, whether male or female, could not 
be saved for breeders.” This sentence is found in 
remarks upon a cow of Mr. Cumings’, in an arti¬ 
cle immediately preceding the one under notice. 
Every friend of improvement will subscribe to the 
doctrine. Now let me ask if our whole system of 
premiums at all of our agricultural shows, is not 
based upon principles of a diametrical tendency 
from this % It appears to me that fineness of form 
and fatness of carcass are more likely to win favor 
with the dispensers of premiums, than great milk¬ 
ing qualities. 
The Tallow Tree of China. —Is this a relation of 
the tallow tree of New England ? [No. The 
“ tallow tree” of Rhode Island is the ailantus, or 
“ tree of heaven,” so common in most of our At¬ 
lantic cities and larger class of towns, which is 
corrupted from tilou, the French name of this tree.] 
However, it is of no consequence. I shall not re¬ 
commend the cultivation of either, because we have 
a much more prolific tallow tree in this country, 
the seed of which is usually in this latitude, plant¬ 
ed about the 20th of May, and the crop gathered 
in October. The tallow is most successfully ex¬ 
tracted from the seed, by feeding it to an animal 
whose progenitors are said to have come from 
China. “ The tallow then resembles” corn-fed 
pork. It may also be remarked that the “candles 
made from this substance, in winter, have a tendency 
to get soft in summer,” and therefore the ingenious 
Yankee nation have invented a process by which 
candles are made superior to those from any other 
kind of “tree tallow,” namely, “stearine” or “ada¬ 
mantine candles.” 
Gutta Percha. —One of the uses of this substance 
not enumerated by you, and probably not generally 
known among those most interested, is making 
gaskets , an article well known to all steam engi¬ 
neers, for making steam-tight joints in steam pipes. 
I have been informed by engineers, that gaskets 
made of gutta percha will outlast any other sub¬ 
stance that they have ever used. I cannot see 
why this species of tree cannot be grown in Florida 
or Texas. Shall we ever have a department in 
our general government, a secretary of home affairs. 
to attend to matters of far more benefit to us, as a 
nation, than the science of throat cutting and all 
the kindred accomplishments of war and carnage ? 
Cost and Profit of Raising Wheat and Indian 
Corn. fyc. —I cannot go over all these statements, 
though 1 cannot help thinking that they give a 
false coloring. It is from such statements that 
novices are led into errors. The profits of farming 
look so flattering on paper, that many undertake it 
without due consideration, and their failure deters 
others from embarking in a pursuit, that, if judi¬ 
ciously managed, would afford a more comfortable 
subsistence than they obtain as hangers-on of a 
city life. On the other hand, many a man has 
been tempted from a comfortable New-England 
home, by just such statements as that of the Hon. 
Mr. Henley, member of Congress from Indiana, in 
which he has proved by an indisputable array of 
figures, that the raising of wheat upon the great 
western prairies, only costs “ twenty-five cents a 
bushel .'' 1 Now in truth is this so ? If it is, then 
should we all be tempted to emigrate to that Para¬ 
dise of wheat growers. True, he does hint that a 
crop is occasionally blighted ; and that “ considera¬ 
tions contribute to swell the average expense of pro¬ 
ducing wheat on the western prairies to probably 
“ thirty-five cents per bushel j” that is, of course deliv¬ 
ered in market; for he gives the cost of transporta¬ 
tion, at two dollars an acre ' that is, less than 5| 
cents a bushel for hauling twenty miles. His esti¬ 
mate of cost of harvesting and threshing is equally 
erroneous. As this is a very important matter, 
and as this error is liable to lead us, poor grubbing 
Yankees astray, or at least cause us to think that 
our lot is cast upon a soil that does not pay for 
cultivation, and tempt us to go where we can raise 
wheat so cheap, I pray you bear with me while I 
show this picture in another light. To enable me 
to do this, I have corresponded with a wheat-grow¬ 
ing friend of mine in the neighborhood of Chicago. 
He thinks that the distance wheat is hauled into 
that immense depot, will average at least thirty-five 
miles, at a mean expense of 12| cents a bushel. 
From careful examination, my friend is sat¬ 
isfied that, throughout all the region that sends its 
crop to the Chicago market, the yearly average 
yield of all the wheat sown, will fall below ten 
bushels per acre ! The cost of plowing, or break¬ 
ing up prairie, he says, is fairly given, and that is 
about the only correct item in Mr. Henley’s state¬ 
ment. The estimated cost of growing an acre of 
wheat, on the Illinois prairie, then he gives as fol¬ 
lows :— 
Plowing one acre of old ground, not less 
than - - - - - - 0.75 
If only decently seeded, two bushels will 
be used; average 75 cents, - - 1.50 
Sowing, and harrowing, at legist three 
times over,.1.00 
A cradler half a day; raker and binder 
half a day: average wages $1 and 
board,.1.25 
Shocking and stacking, ... o.75 
Threshing, will average, counting all ex¬ 
penses, 12£ cents a bushel, - - 1.25 
Average cost of hauling to market, 12£ 
cents per bushel, - - - - 1.25 
Total, - - - $7.75 
This is counting the yield at his estimate of ten 
bushels per acre. Of course, the plowing and 
sowing, would cost no more for a crop averaging 
35 bushels, but the harvesting would, and the 
threshing and hauling 25 cents upon each addi¬ 
tional bushel. What the average price of wheat 
in that market is, my friend does not give; but, 
supposing it is 75 cents, the profit would be easily 
counted, if all the labor was hired, to say nothing 
of interest on land, &c. 
Cold-Water Bathing. —Cold or warm, so that 
the bathing was done, I should look upon as 
