1872.] 
255 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
my opinion principally on the fact that Mr. 
Lawes’s experimental field showed that the 
wheat crop of England was decidedly below the 
average, and that consequently there would be 
an active demand for export. I know too, or 
think I know, that our surplus is rarely as large 
as is estimated. Our population is rapidly in¬ 
creasing. Taken as a whole, we are the most 
active and industrious people in the world. 
Just now, especially, there is a great demand 
for labor. We work hard, get high wages, and 
require and will have abundance of good food. 
A man earning his $1.75 to $2.00 a day on a 
railroad can afford to eat bread from the best 
white-wheat flour. Few of us realize how much 
wheat forty millions of people will eat in 365 
days. Just after harvest every year, the millers, 
speculators, railroad bulls, and newspaper cor- • 
respondents all unite to exaggerate the yield of 
the wheat crop. Wheat may not bring a price 
equal to the actual cost of production ; but no 
matter, farmers are urged to sell—and when 
wheat is low we are all more inclined to sell than 
when it is bringing a high price. Last fall we 
sold freely, and large quantities were shipped 
abroad, and as soon as the surplus was got rid 
of, and the remaining wheat was in the hands 
of those able to hold, up go prices to a point far 
higher than the price abroad would warrant. 
We sell our wheat to the English at less than 
the cost of production, and make our own con¬ 
sumers in the end pay the loss! 
I am not prepared to suggest a remedy. I 
leave that to abler men. But one thing I feel 
certain of, farmers need not abandon their busi¬ 
ness on account of temporary low prices. There 
is a chance for us yet. Let us study to raise 
good crops, improve our stock, keep up the fer¬ 
tility of our farms, vote for honest men, and we 
need have no fear that the country is going to 
the dogs, or that agricultural products on the 
whole will not sell for what they are worth. 
We want to raise better wheat, better beef, 
better pork, better mutton, better cheese, and 
better butter. The best is the cheapest, and I 
think consumers are beginning to find it out. I 
am told that the demand for the choicest white- 
wheat flour is by no means confined to the 
wealthy. One of our large Rochester nursery¬ 
men tells me that his men, almost without ex¬ 
ception, prefer to buy the best flour they can 
get, even at the almost extravagant price asked 
for it. They find it “goes farther,” and is really 
cheaper than common brands'of flour that can 
be bought for two or three dollars a barrel less 
money. The millers tell me, further, that it is 
exceedingly difficult at all times to find really 
choice, pure white wheat. 
I am well aware that it is a very discouraging 
thing to take pains to raise a good article, and 
then have to sell it at the ordinary price. This 
is the fate of all who are ahead of the times. I 
do not believe I could get a cent a pound more 
for choice Essex pork from a Rochester butcher 
than for common pork. It is not yet sufficiently 
known to bring what it is intrinsically worth. 
But we must bide our time. I sold half a dozen 
well-fatted grade Essex pigs to a Rochester 
butcher, who packed them down. A farmer up 
the valley bought 50 lbs. of the pork, and in a 
few weeks he came again and said he “ wanted 
some more of that pork, as it was the firmest, 
sweetest, and best he ever ate.” “And,” said 
the butcher, as he told me the story, “ when 
you have any more pigs to sell I would like to 
buy them.” 
We must continue to raise a good article, and 
as soon as the consumers get acquainted with it 
the butchers will pay something near what it is 
worth. I notice that the last Irish Farmers’ 
Gazette quotes “ Limerick middles 66s. to 68s. 
per cwt., American middles 36s. to 40s. per cwt.” 
In other words, Limerick bacon brings 14| cents 
per pound, and American 8^ cents. In a pre¬ 
vious number, among the “ Imports into Dublin 
during the week,” I find the following item: 
“ 2,970 tons Indian-corn.” I suppose that corn 
is used, at any rate to a considerable extent, to 
feed Irish pigs. And so the reason why our 
pork is not as good as the Irish is not owing 
to the food. Confessedly, there is nothing bet¬ 
ter than Indian-corn for making choice pork. 
Why, then, should our pork sell for 8£ cents 
and the Irish for 14i cents per pound ? It seems 
to me that this question is of vital importance 
to Western farmers and pork-packers. 
The London Mark Lane Express says that a 
Norfolk farmer “ sold off his farm this spring 
1,497 half-bred hoggets for £5,700,” say $31,- 
190.40, or $20.83 per head. For so large a flock 
this is a very high average. 
The English papers have a great deal to say 
just now about the “ meat supply.” They seem 
to be seriously alarmed, and are discussing 
plans for getting preserved beef from South 
America and mutton from Australia, just as 
some of our Eastern papers tried to frighten us 
farmers with statements in regard to how cheap 
beef could be brought from Texas. For my 
part, I never was a bit frightened about it. I 
would like to see every one provided with cheap 
meat. The interests of the country demand it; 
but I am sure that the only cheap meat to be 
had is good meat. This apparently cheap meat 
is the dearest meat in the market. If the Eng¬ 
lish could get this cheap mutton from Australia 
they would not eat it. Within a year or two 
past, with good, choice beef in New York, Bos¬ 
ton, Philadelphia, and other large cities higher 
in the retail markets than in London, thousands 
of sheep were slaughtered and boiled down for 
the hogs and for tallow. I wish this matter was 
understood. Many of our fanners are deterred 
from paying more attention to the improvement 
of their stock from an idea that we shall be 
flooded with cheap meat from the new States 
and Territories. Depend upon it, nothing of 
the kind will ever permanently occur. You 
can not get good beef, mutton, and pork any¬ 
where without paying some attention to the in¬ 
troduction of improved breeds and giving them 
constant care. The only way to get cheap meat 
is to breed animals that mature early, and feed 
liberally and regularly. 
When I say cheap meat, I do not mean meat 
that sells for less than we are now paying. I do 
not think good meat will ever sell for less money 
per pound than now. What I mean is, that we 
should aim to produce meat so intrinsically 
good, that even if it sell for more money per 
pound it will be far cheaper than the low-priced 
meats are now. I am sure that this can be done. 
I have paid considerable attention to this matter 
for some years, and had I time could give facts 
to sustain this assertion. Taking into consider¬ 
ation the large percentage of water, bone, tal¬ 
low, skin, gristle, and other uneatable or indi¬ 
gestible parts of our average meat, it is not too 
much to say that it is not half as nutritious as a 
skillful breeder and feeder can make it. Those 
who wish for cheap meat should look for it in 
this direction, and not from the half-wild animals 
of South America or Texas. Leaving out inside 
fat, there is more digestible nutriment in a well- 
bred, well-fed nine-months-old Efesex or Berk¬ 
shire pig than in the biggest wild hog that ever 
was killed—or in half a dozen three-year-old 
landpikes sometimes seen in the Southern States, 
and not entirely extinct at the North and West. 
“ But why did the ewe kill her lamb ? ” Per¬ 
haps because it was weak, and she was a be¬ 
liever in Darwin’s doctrine of the “ survival of 
the fittest.” Perhaps because it was high-bred 
and of great value, and “ nature ” wished us to 
know that if we want good things we must 
look after them. If a good long-wooled or 
South-Down sheep gets on to her back, she will, 
if undisturbed, lie there until she dies. I do 
not know that this is any less mysterious or un¬ 
natural than it is for her to accidentally paw her 
lamb to death. If we have good stock, we must 
give it daily, almost hourly, attention. 
Why High-priced Eggs do not Hatch. 
High-priced eggs do not always hatch, for we 
have tried them and know. We set two dozen 
under orthodox hens of amiable disposition, 
that knew how to stick to the nest, and did it 
for twenty-three consecutive days. It wa’n’t 
the fault of the expressman, for they did not 
come by express. They were not old. We 
kneio the yard where they were laid, and they 
were fresh eggs. There was a twelve-pound 
rooster with the hens that laid them. And the 
result of the hatching was one thorough-bred 
Buff Cochin chide. Now, there are twenty 
reasons why they did not hatch—beginning with, 
this, that the hens were kept confined in too 
small yards. We do not know what physiolo¬ 
gical laws are violated that hens kept in close 
confinement do not breed well. Perhaps it is 
because they are fowls of the air, and need a 
good deal of that article and plenty of mother 
earth to make them thrifty. The fact is pretty 
well established in the experience of poultry- 
men. There is no trouble of this kind with 
hens running at large. They steal their nests 
in hay-mows, under the barn, under the shed, 
in the woods, in out-of-the-way places with no 
protection at all, and nearly every egg hatches 
until frost comes. But with the fancy breeds, 
as they are called, come small yards, that seve¬ 
ral varieties may be kept upon the same place, 
and here trouble begins. All sorts of causes are 
alleged for the failure of the eggs to hatch. The 
expressman is roundly abused. The breeder is 
dishonest. He may be only ignorant, and over¬ 
anxious to sell eggs at six dollars a dozen. If 
small yards are not a good reason for infertile 
eggs, we will bring forward the other nineteen. 
The moral is: It is safer to buy high-priced eggs 
after seeing the fowls. Connecticut. 
■■ ■ —» * — --- 
How to Raise Roots. 
To raise roots the soil must be well prepared. 
By whatever means it may be done, it should be 
brought into a rich and mellow condition to a 
considerable depth. A rich mellow surface is 
not alone sufficient for beets or mangels or other 
long-rooted varieties; they need to find not only 
sustenance, but an easy entrance into the soil 
for their penetrating roots; and for our climate 
probably beets and mangels are the best adapted 
anti most easily cultivated. The chief require¬ 
ment of a root crop being clean, mellow soil, a 
preparation during the previous summer and 
autumn is best. A stubble plowed early and 
well harrowed will soon show a large crop of 
weeds, which when ail have started to grow 
