348 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Nov. 
Water-lime cisterns will not yield soft water for 
a long time after they are in use. Ours was plas¬ 
tered anew five years ago, and great improvement 
is yet needed in its quality for washing. Another 
hint may be useful. Water-lime plaster requires to 
be covered up completely from the frost. After an 
unsuccessful experiment, we had timbers laid across 
the cistern, covered with two-inch plank, and pine 
shavings to the depth of two feet. It was then 
carefully sodded over, and we have discovered no 
encroachment by the frost. Aquarius. 
A lady at my elbow says, the expense (in¬ 
cluding damage) of driving cows long distances to 
water, is greater than to turn all the rain from the 
barn roof into cisterns; and she also suggests that 
farmers should not bring their cattle round the 
house, or into the door-yard, where mud would be 
made for their wives to scold over. 
Profits of Farming. 
Eds. Cultivator — I notice an article in the 
September number of The Cultivator , signed u A 
Farmer, Hillsdale , Columbia County ,” containing 
statements of the comparative productiveness of 
capital and labor, as applied to farming and other 
pursuits, suggested by the table in the July number 
of your paper, giving the estimate of the principal 
products of Seneca county, for the year 1848. He 
says — u that notwithstanding the superior advanta¬ 
ges and management of the farmers of Seneca 
county, still the income on their capital and labor 
is vastly inferior to that of any other of the great 
industrial interests of our country.’ 5 Now, on ex¬ 
amining that table, I find the following results, viz: 
that the average nett profit over cost of production 
on the land devoted to wheat, was $11.25 per acre; 
on the land in Barley, $6.13 per acre; on that in 
Oats, $5 per acre; and on the corn lands, $7.25 per 
acre; and that the average of the whole 64,363 
acres, devoted to these four principal products, was 
$9 per acre. 
Assuming the average value of these lands to be 
$50 per acre, which I imagine is a liberal estimate, 
I find that the income or nett profit of capital would 
be, on the wheat lands, 22i per cent.; on that in 
barley, 12^ per cent; on that in oats, 10 per cent; 
and on that in corn 14-| per cent.; and the average 
rate upon the whole 64,363 acres, 18 per cent, nett 
profit! Now I would ask, what u other of the 
great industrial interests of our country” does or 
can produce an “ income on their capital and la¬ 
bor ” like this? Certainly not the manufacturers 
of New England, which I believe to be at this time 
as profitable as those of any other country in the 
world—and which, I think I may say without fear 
of contradiction, have not netted their owners for the 
ten years past, a profit exceeding 7 per cent, per 
annum upon their capital. 
In the same September number of The Cultiva¬ 
tor , is a statement of the products of the Lakeland 
farm of Mr. Foster, in that same Seneca county, in 
which 55 acres of wheat land, (the only crop of 
which particulars are given,) are stated to have 
produced 28 per cent, on the value of the land! 
Certainly I would not offer this premium farm as an 
exponent of farming in general, but I take it in 
some measure as an exponent of what farming 
might be, if the same skill, economy and capital 
was devoted to it as there is to many other of the 
great industrial pursuits. Again, “ A Farmer” 
says that “ the income of all the other great indus¬ 
trial interests of our country, is shown by the cen¬ 
sus to be from one hundred to two hundred pr cent. 
upon their capitals;” and to prove this, quotes in a 
note, the census of Massachusetts for 1845, where 
the manufacturing capital of that State is put 
down at over forty-six millions of dollars, and the 
value of their products at nearly eighty-eight mil¬ 
lions “ or,” he adds, “ near two hundred pr cent, 
on capital employed, and near $700 annual income 
from the labor of each individual.” Here, it seems 
to me, is an important error, occasioned by leaving 
out of view the value of the raw material, which 
the manufacturers work upon, and which, though 
constituting a great part of the value of their pro¬ 
ductions when finished, is yet in no sense their pro¬ 
duction ; for example—the cotton manufacturer, 
out of a pound of cotton, costing 12 cents, produ¬ 
ces three yards of cloth, which netts him six cents 
per yard, amounting to 18 cents. Now the produc¬ 
tion of his labor and capital is not 18 cents—it is 
only six cents, the increased value of the cotton 
over its cost, and this is about the average propor¬ 
tion of the products of our manufacturers general¬ 
ly. So that instead of taking the income of capi¬ 
tal and labor employed in manufacturing in Massa¬ 
chusetts at the “value of their products ” when 
sold, it should be stated at only one-third of the 
amount; thus, the income from the capital and la¬ 
bor of the manufacturers of Massachusetts should 
be put down at twenty-nine millions, instead of 
eighty-seven millions and over—which would leave 
for each hand employed, 230 dollars annually, in¬ 
stead of near $700,” as stated by your correspond¬ 
ent; and showing too, the earnings of individuals 
engaged in agriculture, by his own statement, to 
be nearly seventy dollars per year more than those 
engaged in manufacturing, See. 
It seems to me that the profits of capital and la¬ 
bor devoted to agriculture, have never been ascer¬ 
tained and understood in this country, and that a 
more thorough examination and calculation would 
show, that agriculture might be made to be w T hat 
God intended it should be, the most profitable, as 
well as the most natural and happy pursuit of man. 
Enquirer. Stockbridge, Mass., Oct. 5, 1849. 
Agricultural Show in Scotland. 
We have received a copy of u The Scottish Agricul¬ 
tural Journal ,” containing an account of the show of 
the Royal Northern Agricultural Society, held at Aber¬ 
deen in August last. It was the fourth exhibition of 
this association, and appears to have been a fine dis¬ 
play of stock, implements, fruits, &e. At the dinner, 
at which the Earl of Aberdeen presided, Mr. Pliny 
Miles, formerly of Watertown, N. Y., responded, in 
a very felicitous manner, to a toast. u He said he was 
a son of a New York farmer who had received three 
first prizes from agricultural societies. They carried 
on a reciprocity system in the agricultural societies of 
the United States, which deserved attention. For in¬ 
stance, the society of New-York co-operated with Up¬ 
per Canada, and exchanged the right of competing in 
the respective societies. The exhibition of live-stock 
which he had seen that day, w r as superior to what he 
was accustomed to see in America—not in number, but 
in quality. He had been extremely well pleased to 
observe the perfection to which the cultivation of fruits 
had been carried in Scotland. He had picked straw¬ 
berries in the open air in Florida, in the month of Feb¬ 
ruary; but he had certainly never seen better stra wber¬ 
ries, cherries, and peaches, than he saw at the Horti¬ 
cultural Show that day. He had seen, indeed, better 
,pears and apples, but altogether he had been astonished 
at such an exhibition of fruit in this northern climate, 
where there must be so short seasons. With reference 
