1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
259 
certainty of the markets for cattle and beef, giving 
a fair remuneration upon the investment.” 
Dairy Products. “The manufacture of butter 
and cheese in the Western Reserve, is spoken of as 
being practiced with success; and the new plan of 
making cheese in large establishments, which take 
the curd from the dairymen in a fresh state, is 
thought an improvement as regards the profits of 
all. 
Raising Mules. —This branch of farming is 
thought profitable. It is spoken of as follows:— 
“The raising of mules is becoming an important 
branch of the stock business, and is decidedly the 
most profitable of any that the farmer can engage 
in. They may properly be called a staple stock; 
for, from an intimate acquaintance with the busi¬ 
ness, we can state that they afford the most uniform 
compensation, and they have been less subject to 
injurious fluctuations, and are fit for earlier sales 
than any other stock. Their average cost, at six 
months old, may be put down at twenty dollars per 
head, and this is a remunerating price to the breed¬ 
er up to that age; and then with common keep on 
grain, hay and pasture, (if you have it) for the first 
winter, and with grain and rough feed through the 
next winter, entirely dispensing with grain after¬ 
wards, the grazier may calculate, with certainty, 
to advance his animals in price at least twenty dol¬ 
lars a year. Should he feed on grain all the time, 
it will pay him twenty cents a bushel for the corn 
in addition, up to the age of two and a-half to three 
years, at which time they are put to work or sent to 
market. The stock of mares in our country is well 
calculated for producing a superior quality of mules; 
and with the advantage of a large breed of Jacks, 
we need not fear competition with any part of the 
world. These animals are hardy and remarkably 
healthy, the deaths seldom exceed three per cent.; 
the care necessarily bestowed upon them is but tri¬ 
fling. The breaking and handling, or quieting, is of 
no advantage to the seller, the purchasers making 
that rather an objection than admitting it to be a 
benefit. Color and slight blemishes do not materi¬ 
ally depreciate the price, and the farmer can calcu¬ 
late, with certainty, upon a market whenever he 
wishes to sell.” 
Wool-growing.— There are large portions of 
Ohio well adapted to sheep husbandry. It is re¬ 
marked—“ The grassy plains of the central portion, 
and the broken lands of the eastern and southern 
borders of our state, embrace a large territory of 
but little value for ordinary cultivation, but well 
adapted to the habits and constitutions of the dif¬ 
ferent breeds of sheep and to the growing of fine 
wool.” 
But a great drawback to the successful keeping 
of sheep is their destruction by dogs, and the Le¬ 
gislature is appealed to for the adoption of some 
measure to prevent this evil. It is said—“ The 
wolf has become extinct, or nearly so, but his place 
has been supplied by hordes of ravenous dogs, which 
have committed more injury within the last five 
years than all the wolves ever congregated within 
our borders, and this injury,which annually amounts 
to a heavy tax, our farmers have been obliged to 
submit to without redress or remuneration. This 
liability to injury from the depredations of dogs, 
undoubtedly retards, in a great degree, the improve¬ 
ment in our breeds of sheep, for but few enterpri¬ 
sing men will be at the risk, trouble and expense of 
importing new and improved breeds of these ani¬ 
mals, when they are thus liable to be torn to pieces 
and destroyed.” 
[By the way, did not the Legislature of Ohio, at 
its last session, pass an act in reference to this mat¬ 
ter? Eds.] 
Rearing and fattening hogs— Packing Pork. 
—This is a great business in the state of Ohio. 
“ The number of hogs annually fattened, packed 
and exported from the state, probably exceeds one 
million. The average price being about two dol¬ 
lars and a-half per hundred pounds, and the ave¬ 
rage weight about two hundred pounds, would make 
the hog crop amount to five millions of dollars. 
The number of hogs slaughtered and packed in Cin¬ 
cinnati the present season, as we learn from an ac¬ 
curate statement made by the Chamber of Com¬ 
merce in that city, is a little less than four hundred 
thousand. Within a few years, the business of 
packing hogs has extended to nearly all the interior 
towns of the state of any considerable size, and ly¬ 
ing near the public thoroughfares, and still the num¬ 
ber slaughtered and packed in Cincinnati has not 
diminished, but has steadily increased, in conse¬ 
quence of the supply of hogs driven to the city 
from Indiana and Kentucky. The breed of hogs 
throughout the state consists of a compound mix¬ 
ture; Berkshires, Bedfords, Irish Graziers, and, 
perhaps, a dozen other varieties, but pure stock of 
those named are such as to leave but little improve¬ 
ment desirable, except that they should supply the 
place, or root out the many specimens of “ woods 
hog ” and land pike,” that yet remain in many 
parts of the state.” 
New Articles of Culture. —Several of these 
are noticed as worthy of trial; as broom, corn , 
which has already been introduced in some of the 
rich vales; and has produced in favorable situations, 
about one-third of a ton of cleaned brush ready for 
market, per acre, worth from $33 to $42. Mustard 
seed has been profitably grown in some sections. 
Flax and hemp are favorably noticed; the greatest 
obstacle to their profitable culture being the want 
of suitable machinery for breaking and cleaning the 
lint. The planting of trees for the production of 
timber for fences—such as catalpa, chestnut, black 
locust, &c.—is recommended, the trees to be set in 
rows around the outside of fields. The osage 
orange as a hedge plant is noticed, but its value for 
a permanent and convenient fence is considered not 
yet fully ascertained. 
Implements. —The introduction of a steel mould 
board plow is recommended, as being better adapt¬ 
ed for the rich alluvial lands, on account of its 
scouring more readily, and keeping cleaner than any 
other. 
A Scientific Agricultural Survey of the 
state is advocated, which it is thought should be 
commenced as soon as practicable. 
A State Fair, under the supervision of the Board , 
is to be held at Cincinnati on the 11th, 12th and 
13th of September next. 
Reading Books for Schools. —The Massachu¬ 
setts Plowman suggests that an “ important im¬ 
provement in our common schools woulld be to in¬ 
troduce better matter for reading. Instead of put- 
ing young scholars to read of the celebrated men of 
old—warriors mostly, who acquired their renown 
by shedding human blood—let a part of their read¬ 
ing lessons consist in compositions relating to Agri¬ 
culture.” 
Killing Sorrel. —-According to the Michigan 
Farmer, plowing sorrel, with a shallow furrow, 
late in the fall, leaving the roots exposed to the ac¬ 
tion of the frost through the winter, has been found 
effectual in destroying that pernicious plant. 
