THE CULTIVATOR. 
99 
pudence, (when I visit his lordship’s estate,) to question, 
sotto voce , Earl Spencer’s chief steward or under gardener. 
The grass in the fields is still green, and cattle, fattened 
for Christmas, still feeding upon the herbage, with only 
an occasional lock of hay. The frosts, for this climate, 
have been very severe, yet there has been no snow. The 
farmers hereabouts have now little to do. Some are 
carting manure from town, or heaping it in their yards, 
or scraping refuse leaves and dirt from the road side. 
Others are taking the dead wood from hedges, repairing 
their farm buildings and implements, or possibly break¬ 
ing in young horses. Great numbers of them have been 
attracted by the fat cattle shows in various counties, which 
as usual preceded the Christmas holidays. That of the 
Smithfield Club is worthy of special mention, as having 
been visited by thousands, as well as by the Queen, Prince 
Albert, &c. There were on show 100 head of cattle, 
300 of sheep. A very large polled Angus ox of Prince 
Albert's, was particularly remarked. You will find full 
accounts in the Mark-Lane Express. 
At the Christmas market, were exhibited, of beasts 
5,713, of sheep 36,970, being an increase over last year’s 
show of 1,000 in cattle, and over 10,000 in sheep. The 
comparative prices of the two yeax-s range thus, per 
quarter of eight pounds: 
1843. 1844. 
Beef,. 3s. 8d. to 4s. 4 d. 2s. 10 d. to 4s. 6d. 
Mutton,. 2s. 8d- to 4s. Ad. 2s. 10<Z. to 4s id. 
Yeal,. 3s. 4 d. to 4s. 6 d. 3s. 4 d. to 4s. id. 
Pork,. 3s. to 4s. 3s. to 4s. 
Notwithstanding the amazing quantity of meats which 
are so temptingly displayed in all the city stalls at this 
holiday time, yet there are many poor fellows who have 
to rest satisfied with the sight only. Before my eyes every 
day a dozen cabmen, who stand exposed to all weathers, 
eat their two meals upon the stand, consisting, in no in¬ 
stance, of more than four slices of barley bread and a 
cup of coffee. The most efficient workmen can be hired 
for Is. and 9d. (38 cents) a day, finding themselves. And 
the cases are almost numberless of a cabman being 
obliged to support a wife and two or three children upon 
wages of seven shillings a week, out of which he has to 
pay two or three shillings rent! Do some of your readers 
want to emigrate, where they may find so cheap labor? 
Hear the other side of the story first. If you hire land 
you will have to pay fi’om .£3 to £8 the acie, and in most 
instances the taxes beside, which are enormous; more¬ 
over, the purchase of implements, &c. (at English prices) 
would require an investment sufficient to buy and enclose 
a hundred acres in Illinois. If actual purcliase is consi¬ 
dered, let me suggest that it would be hard to buy land 
at a price to live by, from those who are content to hold 
it while paying them but two per cent under high im¬ 
provement. It requires no long residence here to dis¬ 
cover that money is a cheaper commodity than with you, 
but while cheap, confined to comparatively a few, and 
those few the landholders. 
The St. Johns’ market—the largest in the world—makes 
a grand show as Christmas approaches. The dressing of 
the meats, and their fatness, in themselves a show, to say 
nothing of the immense displays of every variety of 
fruit and vegetable, and flowers and evergreens, stretch¬ 
ing down the three hundred and fifty yards of tabling, 
and the fanciful festoons and holly branches, and boughs 
of the mistletoe, hung over every stall, and the thousands 
thronging the stone pave from eight in the morning till 
eleven at night. The rents of St. Johns’ mai'ket, the last 
year, amounted to 6,578 pounds. It covers an area of 
8,235 square yards, with roof supported by one hundred 
and sixteen cast iron pillars twenty-five feet high. There 
are besides, in Liverpool, three other markets for the sale 
of meats, covering nearly an acre of ground each; in 
addition to which are the fish mai’ket, the pedlar’s mar¬ 
ket, the pig market, the hay market, and the cattle mar¬ 
ket. Venders of butter and poulti’y in many cases bring 
their produce directly from the country to the doors of 
their customers, in a bit of a i*ough cart, drawn by as 
rough a donkey. The Irish butter comes in tubs, with 
the several balls rolled in muslin; some of it is very 
nice, selling from \9d. to 14 d. at retail. The best Eng¬ 
lish fresh made butter fetches 14d. to 18d., being now 
unusually high. An importer told me a day or two since, 
that a lot on hand would turn thirty per cent over the 
invoice price to the shipper. This was from the Canadas, 
though United States butter, the duty on that imported 
direct being very great. This reminds me that a cor¬ 
rected scale of the British tariff on American agricultural 
produce will be acceptable to many of your readers. I 
therefore append one, which I have submitted to inspec¬ 
tion at the custom’s rooms, and is pronounced correct. 
The sliding scale of duties on bread stuffs, I omit. 
Price of wheat the past week, has averaged 45s. a quar¬ 
ter—duty 20s.; that being the duly whenever the price 
is under 51s. a quai'ter. Of this sliding scale, the advan¬ 
tages and disadvantages, its advocates and opponents, I 
will speak more fully in a futux-e communication. 
British Tariff. 
From. Forbi Countries. From British Proves, 
Apples, raw, bush.. 
• $0 11 
$0 04 
Apples, dried, bush. 
46 
46 
Bacon and hams, cwt..-- 
• 3 22 
80 
Beef, cwt.. 
2 04 
46 
Butter, cwt.. 
4 75 
1 15 
Cheese, cwt. .. 
2 41 
57 
Cranberries, gall.- -■ 
2 
2 
Fruit, £100 value,. 
- 23 75 
23 75 
Hay, load,. . 
3 68 
1 84 
Lard, cwt.. 
46 
11 
Pork, cwt.. 
1 84 
46 
Tallow, cwt.. 
72 
6 
Teasles, 1000,. 
6 
6 
In my next I will give you the prices of all marketable 
produce as retailed in the market houses. 
Till then, yours, &c. 
D. Y. Mitchell. 
FOREIGN ITEMS. 
Tiles for Draining. —Cottam and Hallen exhibited 
a new drain tile machine, at the late Smithfield show, 
said to be capable of making 10,000 tiles per day. 
4 new kind of Roofing is coming into use in Eng¬ 
land. It is called the Patent Asphaltefelt. Its cost 
is one penny per square foot. The felt being impervious 
to rain, frost and snow, and a non -conductor of heat, 
makes a warm and dui-able covering, and from its light¬ 
ness, economy and portability, is particularly well suited 
for cattle and sheep sheds, and other out buildings. 
Death of Fellenberg.— The celebrated M. Fellen- 
berg, founder of the agricultural school at Hofwyll, in 
Switzerland, died on the 21 st of November last. 
Allotments. —The average acreable products undet 
the allotment system in England, for 1842, are said to 
have been as follows: Potatoes 413 bushels, wheat 43^ 
bushels, barley 53| bushels, peas 45 bushels, beans 56| 
bushels. 
It appears that the quantity of wheat imported into 
Canada from the United States, fx’om the 11th of October, 
1843, to the 5th of July last, (to which day the returns 
received only extend,) was by sea 634 quarters, and by 
inland navigation or land cai’riage 21,161 quarters. 
RAISING EARLY CUCUMBERS. 
H. G. Dickerson, of Lyons, Wayne county, NT. Y. one 
of the most successful cultivators of garden vegetables, 
adopts the following mode of raising early cucumbers. 
He makes his hot-bed at the usual time, and when the 
soil is placed upon the stack of manure, pieces of turf 
are placed just below the surface, on which the seed are 
planted. If the grass of this turf is alive, it is to be put 
upside downwards. On the arrival of warm weather, 
and when the soil in the open air becomes fit for cultiva¬ 
tion, these pieces of turf are removed entire, with the 
young plants upon them, and placed in highly manured 
ground where they are finally to grow. In this way the 
l’oots are taken up without the least mutilation, conse¬ 
quently no check is given to their growth. Afterwards, 
whenever there is any probability of a night fi-ost, each 
hill is covered with a bell glass. Thebe glasses have a 
small opening at top, which prevents the sun scorching 
the plants in case they are not removed in time; they are 
obtained at the glass-works in the neighborhood, for four 
cents a piece; but where they cannot be had, boxes with 
panes inserted, will answer nearly as well. 
By this means, cucumbei-s fit for the table, were raised 
the past season, by the first of sixth month, (June.) 
