PRICES OF "WHEAT AND FLOUR. 
371 
PRICES OF WHEAT AND FLOUR. 
We are asked if the prices of wheat and flour 
are likely to rule as low as they now do through¬ 
out the year. We think not, for the following 
reasons: 
1st. Corn has been a failure almost entirely, 
in what is called the transition or middle country 
of the south, owing to the excessive drought; 
and it is not a large crop anywhere, except at 
the west. 
2d. Potatoes have rotted badly; and turnips 
and other root crops, owing also to the drought, 
have suffered severely. 
3d. Pasture in many places has been so short 
since August, that much corn has been cut up, 
and hay given out to the cattle for fodder. 
Now when hay, vegetables, and corn are 
scarce and high, much more wheat, and particu¬ 
larly shorts and bran, will be consumed than 
ordinarily. Wheat and flour must consequently 
be in greater demand. We have heard of wheat 
being ground up already, in considerable 
quantities, with corn, oats, and other grain, for 
provender for cattle. 
The crop of wheat has been large this year 
in America, and generally the same throughout 
Europe. Notwithstanding this, Great Britain will 
want a good deal; and the consumption at home 
will be more, depend upon it, than is now antici¬ 
pated. On the whole, we think wheat and flour 
is destined to gradually advance through the 
winter, and that next spring they will be higher 
than now—still, we may be disappointed in so 
agreeable an anticipation for the benefit of the 
farmer. 
-- 
WINTER MANAGEMENT OF STOCK. 
In this cold latitude, where farmers are com¬ 
pelled to keep their stock for five or six months 
in a year, on food which has been laid up in 
store, during the season of grazing, it is a con¬ 
sideration worth)'" of their first attention, to 
know how, or by what means they may avail 
ihemselves of the greatest possible benefit to 
their stock, from the fodder designed for the use 
of winter; or, in other words, how they may 
keep their stock in the most thrifty condition 
on a given amount of fodder. There are, doubt¬ 
less, scores of farmers who make little or no 
reckoning of the growth of their stock, during 
the months of winter; and therefore, to all ap¬ 
pearance, think it is a matter of indifference 
whether they receive an adequate allowance 
of food, or are protected from the pinching cold 
and pelting storms. Pecuniary interest would 
seem to prompt to a proper investigation of this 
subject, and to an adoption of the wisest and 
most profitable system of management; but 
humanity, alone, demands that we pursue the 
course which will secure the greatest amount 
of comfort, and the largest compensation, as a 
reward for the time and expense of wintering 
stock. 
By taking a proper view of this subject, three 
things are particularly worthy of consideration. 
First: A supply of good fodder, adequate to 
the amount of stock to be kept during the fod¬ 
dering season, 
Second; Comfortable protection from the 
cold and storms of winter. 
Third: System and regularity in feeding. 
1. The period of time “ between grass and hay,” 
has ever been acknowledged as the most trying 
for stock of all kinds. It is a time when, if 
particular .vigilance is not exercised by the 
judicious husbandman, his stock will be seen to 
fall away in flesh. This period arrives, in the 
same latitude, earlier or later in the season, ac¬ 
cording to the mildness of the weather, the fall 
of snow, and the abundance of herbage. This 
is the most proper time for every farmer to 
make an estimate, whether he is in posses¬ 
sion of an abundance of fodder, for the main¬ 
tenance of his present stock, during the fodder¬ 
ing season. 
When it is perceived that cattle obtain an in. 
adequate supply of food from the pasture, they 
should be yarded, or put in their stalls, during 
the frosty nights, and fed a little hay, cut corn¬ 
stalks, or pumpkins. And I consider it the 
wisest management, not to suffer them to go 
into the fields, in the morning until after the 
frost has disappeared; because, while the frost 
is on the grass they will eat little or none, and 
will destroy more grass by stepping on it, 
while it is frozen, than they can consume in 
half a day. But few farmers are aware of the 
necessity of commencing to fodder until after 
the supply in the form of pasture is entirely 
cut off. Cattle of any kind, taken from herb¬ 
age and confined to dry fodder, suffer amazing¬ 
ly, on account of the change which the diges¬ 
tive organs must undergo in order to prepare 
themselves for the discharge of their respective 
functions; The change should be gradual; and 
then there need be no apprehensions of injury 
to the animal. If there has been an exuberance 
of herbage, in order to keep up the same thrifty 
condition on fodder, not a little effort will be 
necessary on the part of the husbandman, to 
pamper the appetite, by feeding a variety of 
food. Cattle and horses, as well as the human 
species, are extremely fond of a variety of food. 
