276 
THE BUTCHERIES OF NEW YORK, ETC. 
TOPPING- INDIAN CORN. 
In your article in the July number of the Agri¬ 
culturist, on work for July, north and west, under 
the head of “Topping Indian Corn,” you state the 
opinion of many to be that the practice is an idle 
waste of time, and injures the quality of the 
grain. With regard to its injuring the grain, I 
have but one idea to advance, and that is this: 
You may take a field of ten acres, top one half of 
it, at the usual time of topping; that is, when the 
milk of the grain is beginning to harden, and let 
the other half remain untopped, and leave it in that 
state until fit for cribbing, and you will find that 
part of the field not topped, from seven to ten days 
in advance of the part topped. 
Now, to condense my idea, as above stated, in a 
few words, I will simply state that when the milk 
of the grain is beginning to harden, that part of 
the stalk above the ear is a useless appendage; for, 
on removing it, it immediately withers and dries up 
for want of the nourishment it has received from 
the part below the ear. This fact clearly accounts 
for corn that has been topped not maturing so soon 
as that having the tops on. The sap that once made 
ear and stalk above the ear, is now all employed 
in making and filling out the grain, thus making it 
more perfect and plump. J. B. L. 
Brookville , L. J., August 1st, 1849. 
THE BUTCHERIES OF NEW YORK. 
It is quite time our city fathers proceeded effi¬ 
ciently for the removal of these intolerable nui¬ 
sances. The stench from these yards is perfectly 
unsupportable, and has its full share in bringing, 
augmenting, and continuing the plague of cholera 
within our city. Let any man go through miles of 
our streets, in the upper portion of the city, on a 
hot day, and he will almost feel the fetid breath, as 
it ascends from these receptacles of blood and offal. 
We would forego the use of meat six months in the 
year, and so, too, would half the citizens exposed 
to the noxious effluvia, rather than submit to it. 
These pestilent butcheries have no business on 
this island, and they ought, within reasonable time, 
to be totally removed from it. Why pay more 
deference to the charnel houses of cattle, than to 
those of our own species ? By almost universal 
consent, no burials are permitted below the Trinity 
grounds, near 200th st, some eight miles above the 
south end of the city—yet they are incomprehensibly 
less objectional. There, decaying matter is buried, 
four feet at least below the surface. In the other 
case, it is left to stagnate above ground, pollute the 
air with its poisonous miasma, and soak into the 
surface as it leisurely steals along, for miles on 
miles, through the gutters. During the afternoon 
and evenings, our streets absolutely run with blood, 
and yet there is enough left, with other offal, to 
create a pestilence in every neighborhood where 
they exist (and where don’t they, in any part of 
the city, save the most business portion, or a 
favored and comparatively small part of it, occu¬ 
pied by the wealthiest classes V) 
The remedy for all this, (and without mitigating 
the excessive carnivorous habits of our citizens— 
a characteristic in which they are not exceeded by 
any body of savages on the face of the globe,) is 
simply, a total and entire removal of every butchery 
from the island. Put salt water between these 
death-dealing, blood-spilling, stench-creating, pesti¬ 
lence-producing establishments and other civil 
pursuits. And where shall they go ? is the very 
pertinent inquiry. To the Jersey shore, and the 
northeastern side of the Harlaem River. All the 
animals driven in for slaughter, pass these points 
to reach the city; and those floated to us by water 
may as well debark there as elsewhere. Or they 
might be located on any railroad leading to the 
city; and at a distance of even 20 or 30 miles, they 
would still be within an hour's ride. 
The animals wrnuld thus have time to refresh 
themselves, and resume that quiet, healthy condi¬ 
tion, so essential to render their meat wfflolesome. 
It has been proved that meat slaughtered during 
the later hours of night, will keep much longer 
than if killed during the day. This is the result 
of the diminished action of the arterial system, 
when the pulse is least excited; and consequently, 
it will approximate to this condition, just in pro¬ 
portion to the quiet and repose of the animal at 
the time he is killed. 
The above arrangement would remove from us 
another intolerable nuisance, in the droves of fever¬ 
ish, excited animals, that frequently break loose, 
and, goaded to madness, rush wherever they will, 
often endangering life and limb. If these establish¬ 
ments are clustered together, as they ought to be, 
ferry boats can bring to the city the prepared car¬ 
casses only, leaving the tallow, the offal, and much 
of the bones, to undergo such preparations as may be 
necessary to fit them for use. This would neces¬ 
sarily carry with them the tallow melters, soap¬ 
boilers, glue manufactories, bone cleaners, and 
tanneries; and if they needed any assistance to 
remove their odoriferous appendages towards the 
raw materia], we would give them the full benefit of 
the municipal levers to aid them in their meritorious 
undertaking. Distilleries, also, might be advanta¬ 
geously added to the above list. 
Now, why should not this be done by the strong 
arm of the law, impelled, as it would be, by the 
sustaining voices of nineteen twentieths of the 
intelligent citizens % Echo answers, why ? Our 
worthy and efficient mayor has made some good 
moves in cleansing this Augean stable of ours, and 
he needs but the sustaining influence of our reflect¬ 
ing inhabitants, to push every well-merited reform 
to a successful conclusion. If this is promptly 
and generally afforded, the work will be accom¬ 
plished—if not, not—and there an end ; and we 
must continue to jog on, like beasts of prey our¬ 
selves, surrounded by the decaying offal of our own 
gluttony ! A beautiful comment, this, on the pro¬ 
gressive improvement, intelligence, and humanity 
of our self-lauding race. 
This exodus of stenches, must carry with them 
an important and salutary change in the manage¬ 
ment of fresh-meat exchanges. Animals would be 
purchased by fewer persons, and in larger numbers; 
they would have extensive and permanent ranges 
of sheds, buildings, and yards ; their arrangements 
and appointments would be vastly more convenient 
and complete; and their operations would be perfectly 
systematized and much more economical. It would, 
in a measure, tend to a division—an advantageous 
division of labor. One man would then purchase 
