lotion. The only remedies for this are to dig 
deeper after lower stores of natural fertiliza¬ 
tion to manure artificially, or to move away 
and cultivate, fresher and unbroken soils. It 
is unnecessary to say that this last has been 
the resource of American farmers. Their 
process has been ro plow the soil a few inches 
deep, get all they could out of that, and then 
remove westward to fresher fields. 
They were forced to this system by the 
competition Of other countries in the produc¬ 
tion of breadstuffs for the markets of the 
world—a competition that first mndejtseif 
felt in the decade 1830-40. The dearness of 
fertilizers and farm labor left the farmers of 
that period but one alternative, and t hat, was 
removal beyond the Alleghanies. This laid 
THE FLOWERS GRAPE 
BETTER THAN EVER 
Dear Rural How can that be ? “ Bet¬ 
ter than ever.” You have always been 
“belter,” or too good for the money. Why 
undertake to furnish fifty dollars’ worth, or 
more, of reading matter in a year, of a char¬ 
acter so unmistakably interesting, and so 
well adapted to enlighten, enliven and cheer 
the people of our entire Nation, for the piti¬ 
ful sum of *2.50 l The thing is too one-sided. 
You to do »tll the work — furnish such a vast 
amount of valuable information—and the 
reader to enjoy all the benefit ! 
There is an inequality in this thing, upon 
the present schedule, a nd the only scheme to 
suggest as a remedy, is to levy a direct tax 
upon every reader, old and young, male and 
female, grave and gay, for the proceeds of 
two new subscribers from each, to bo sent in 
during the month of January. The same 
matter which adds so richly to the stock of 
intelligence in ten, twenty or fifty thousand 
households, is admirably adapted to the 
same mission service, in two or five hundred 
thousand. A paper for the million —and 
tween the Alleghany mountains anu me 
great river (the northwest territory) increas¬ 
ing slowly up to 1806 and declining slowly 
since that year. In 1839 the Atlantic States 
produced 68 per cent, of the total wheat 
crop ; in 184'J but 52 per cent.; in 1859 but 31 
per cent., and in 1*69 but 20 per cent. Here 
the momentous decline ceased. In 1870 it 
changed to an advance, and the Atlantic 
States produced in that year 21 per cent, of 
the wheat crop. The statistics of 1871 (the 
latest official statistics in print) show that 
the advance continued ; for in that year the 
Atlantic States produced 22 per cent, of the 
wheat crop. 
Coincident with the increased cultivation 
of wheat on the seaboard is that of its di¬ 
minished cultivation in the interior. From 
less than 2 per cent, in 1839 the trans-Missis¬ 
sippi States produced over fi per cent, of the 
wheat crop in 1845; in 184!) nearly 9 per 
cent,; in 1859 over 19 per cent.; in 1866 nearly 
19 per cent.; in 1867 about, 2S per cent.; in 
1868 30 per cent., and in I860 over 32 per 
cent. Here this extraordinary movement— 
which has drawn after it not only the popu¬ 
lation of the New England and Middle States, 
but nearly the entire foreign immigration, 
planted rich cities in the wilderness and 
dwarfed into relatively Insignificant powers 
the former giant Stales of Now York, Penn¬ 
sylvania and Virginia—here this movement, 
i ceased : ceased from sheer fatigue of dis- 
Vance ; noiselessly and unawares to the nu 
I tion whose interests are so largely bound up 
Since 1869 the proportional 
PRESERVING GRAPES, 
path will not be resumed. The American 
farmers’ occidental journey is for the pres¬ 
ent at an end. 
Pending the accomplishment of those re¬ 
forms in our transportation system which 
this condition of affairs calls for, (and this 
maybe a matter of some years.) There are 
several ways in which the Western farmer 
can economise in his method of tillage. Wb 
W. B. Pratt of California writes to the 
Rural Press, giving his method of keeping 
grapes fresh through the winter as follows : 
In the first, place the grapes should be han¬ 
dled very carefully in picking, for if any are 
bruised or partly broken from the stem they 
are sure to spoil. Then put a thick layer of 
clean, dry wheat cliall in the bottom of your 
box, then a layer of bunches of grapes, and 
so on alternately. It is best, however, not 
to put more than three layers in depth, as 
the weight may crush the under oner. If 
deep boxes are used, clcets may be nailed on 
the inside of each end of the box, and boards 
laid on to sustain the weight of the next 
three layers, ai d so on until the box is filled. 
They should then bo clo.ed tight enough to 
keep the mice out and placed in as cool a 
place as possible in this climate, and where 
they will be perfectly dry, and you may- 
have grapes at Christmas, aud even in 
March, as fresh as when picked from the 
vine. I havo kept them in this way several 
seasons past and havo had nice, fresh grapes 
until the first of April The dry chaff absorbs 
all moisture from any that may decay, and 
imnarts no bad flavor to the grapes. 
in the fact 
wheat product of the trans-Mississippi has 
declined to little more than 27 per cent. 
While this extraordinary retardation was 
taking place something was felt to bo wrong; 
the trade at Milwaukee, Chicago, etc., fell 
away; prices fell off; and many other 
phenomenal symptoms of some hidden 
trouble were observed ; but no one saw any¬ 
thing more than ephemeral difficulties which 
would soon be removed by topical treatment, 
such as the organization of special freight 
lines and other remedies of the sort. Some 
of the shrewder farmers, suspecting the 
truth, must have abandoned further at¬ 
tempts to cultivate wheat for markets dis¬ 
tant 2,000 miles by rail, and sometimes 4,000 
miles more by sea, and gone back to the At¬ 
lantic States, evidence of this being found in 
the remarkable revival of wheat culture in 
this State, as shown in the following table : 
WHEAT CROP OV TUB STATE OP XKW YORK. 
Year. bushels. Authority. 
issa.U.900,000 United States Census. 
1SU.13,410,000 state Census. 
1S15...10,200,000 Finance Report, 18W5. 
1S49 .13.100,000 United States Census. 
med up m ine ciuam.Ji.auvu ..i me wn, 
now less and less every year. In England 
the average crop is 39 bushels of wheat to 
the aero; In tni; country —I am almost 
ashamed to state it—but 11 bushels. It can 
be easily imagined wliut. general shift lessnesa 
follow’s so superficial and exhausting a sys¬ 
tem of culture—rude dwellings, temporary 
barns, poor fences, ill-fed and strolling cat- 
tic etc —to sav nothing of the moral and 
intellectual stu tftedness proceeding from such 
nomadic lifo as the exhaustive system of 
culture has entailed upon our farmers. As 
to home in its true sense, no has scarcely 
known what it means ; even attachment to 
the soil, which philosophers Inform us is the 
basis of patriotism, could hardly continue to 
be st rong in men who are continually pulling 
up stakes ftnd removing to some strange lo¬ 
cality remote from friends and the scenes of 
childhood. . . 
The Statistician of our Agricultural De¬ 
partment drew’ attention to this featuic of 
our agricultural system in his report of 1=>6S. 
The remedy, ho thought, lay in rotation and 
the cultivation of root crops and hay, to be 
fed upon the farm as. restoratives for tho 
exhaustion of the soil occasioned by the ex¬ 
clusive cultivation of bread crops, cotton, 
tobacco, etc. He showed how- much greater 
the yield per acre could be made under an 
improved system and proved by the follow¬ 
ing table that the yield of wheat per acre 
wits up to a certain point always in direct 
proportion to the quantity cf restorative 
crops produced. 
Table showing the percentage of exhaust¬ 
ive aud restorative crops respectively pro¬ 
duced in the following countries, and the 
yield of wheat per acre in each, in tne year 
: Yield wheat 
Exhaustive. R.esto.ative. per acre 
Per cent. Per cent. Bushels. 
MOVEMENT OF THE CENTER OF WHEAT 
PRODUCTION. 
VINEYARD NOTES, 
Stato Census 
Phylloxera in French Vineyards. — A 
French correspondent says : — “ Apart from 
flooding vines, a new means of killing the 
Phylloxera is, to bore three holes, two feet 
deep, by means of a dibble and a mallet, 
arouud the root of the vine, pour into each 
hole one and a half ounces of carbonetof sul¬ 
phur, called also sulphuret of carbon and 
alcohol of sulphur ; cover in the hole but do 
not water, the liquid evaporates rapidly, and 
its terrible fetid smell and acid, burning taste, 
destroy, iu a week, every bug in its vicinity.” 
Hampton Court Vine Grape .—It is assert¬ 
ed that on one occasion George III. was so 
pleased with a performance at Drury Lane 
Theater, that, he gave orders for a hundred 
dozen bunches of grapes to be cut off from 
the Hampton Court vine, if so many could 
be found upon it, and sent to the actors. 
The guxdaner executed his commission and 
informed his royal master that he could still 
cut off as many more without stripping the 
tree. 
Grafting the Grape on Mulberry Stocks 
has been recommended as a security against 
attacks of the Phylloxera. It is suggested by 
a contemporary that a more certain remedy, 
provided it i3 successful, is to graft on iron 
i post s. 
,887:::::;;: *,200.000 Agricultural Report. 
. ;; : 
INK)..*1.700,000 . ** 1T> . 
1871 . 9,000,000 Agricultural Report. 
* Conjectures of the whent crop In these years urn 
Given tn the Report of the Anrh-uituraJ Department! 
but Uiey are utterly worthless. Tho system of ro- 
--j es „ completely established ( n 
It is a well-known fact that ever since the 
first settlement of this country the center of 
its wheat cultivation has constantly receded 
from the seaboard ; but what is not so gen- 
that since 1869 that center 
mcnccd to return toward 
In other words, that in 
orally known is, 
seems to have com 
the seaboard attain. 
1869, or thereabout*, the far West seems to 
have attained Its highest development in the 
production of wheat in this country. The 
following table exhibits the. proportions of 
the wheat crop of the United States pro¬ 
duced respectively in, first, the States be¬ 
tween the Atlantic Ocean and Alleghany 
Mountains ; second, the States between the 
Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi 
River, and, third, the States west of the 
Mississippi River—since 1839. The statistics 
for the years 1S39,1849, 1859 and 1869 are de¬ 
rived from the United States Census', the 
turn# bow more or less completely e>ui.Diisncu in 
that Deportment, wa * on, f acMuncnoea in 1802, nnu 
until 1*67 made no pretentious to reltiiblliiy. 
+ Tito United States Census returns for this year 
differ; but tor ull tears Since lSwi the Agricultural 
Report Is proterred, 
From our 16,000,000 bushels lu 1845 the 
wheat crop of New York fell to little more 
than 6,090,000 bushels in 1864 ; but from this 
point it has since increased to nearly 10,000,- 
000 bushels. Similar facts are to be observed 
with reference to Pennsylvania, Virginia and 
the other Atlantic States, once especially fa¬ 
mous as wheat-growing sections. Iu exam 
ining the causes of this new turn to our agri¬ 
cultural progress, it will be borne in mind 
that the nourishment of plants is drawn not 
from the soil, which is the mere passive me¬ 
dium of their growth, but from what the 
soil contains of organic matter and from air, 
rop of the United States —four heat and moisture. Continual cultivation 
1. The Cis-Alleghany States. 2. without manuring, as in tho case of wheat 
Alleghany-Mississippi States. 3. grown in this country, eventually exhausts 
Mississippi States. 4. The Pacific t .he soil of whatever nourishment it may 
le fi<mres show the percentage of have derived from ages of natural accuinu- 
j transportation. 
