236 
* THE CULTIVATOR. 
August 
The committee would ask indulgence for a few mo- 
ments to remark, that butter dairies constitute the 
most valuable agricultural interest in this state, and 
cannot receive too much of the fostering care of this 
society. 
In looking at the returns of the last state.census, the 
article of wheat appears, at the first view, to be the 
most valuable crop produced in the state. 
The number of bushels raised in one year, is given at 
13,391,770, which, at 90 cts. per bushel, which is be¬ 
lieved to be a fair average price in all parts of the 
state for several years together, yields $12,052,593. 
The quantity of butter made during the same year, 
was 79,501,733 pounds, which, at twelve and a half 
cents per pound, which is believed to be a similar fair 
average price, yields $9,937,716. 
To this may fairly be added, for increase of the but¬ 
ter dairy, as follows: 
There were milked the same year, 999,490 cows, 
of which number' three-fifths at least, it is estimated, 
were appropriated to butter dairies, and the remainder 
to cheese dairies. Three-fifths of the whole number 
would be 599,685, which would yield say 500,000 
calves, after throwing away the 99,685 for casualties, 
and in conformity to a custom which prevails in some 
places, of killing them when one or two days old— 
enough, the committee think, to warrant them in say¬ 
ing that the increase of the 500,000 cows, in the shape 
of veal and calves raised, would be equal to two dol¬ 
lars per head, which would give $1,000,000. 
There wem the same year 1,584,354 hogs, worth 
doubtless upon an average, three dollars per head, one- 
third of which number may be considered as raised an¬ 
nually by the milk from the cows used for butter dai¬ 
ries. One third of the whole number is 528,114, 
which at three dollars each, is $1,584,342. The whole 
may be summed up as follows: 
79,501,733 lbs., butter 12| cts. per lb.,.. $9,937,716 
Increase of 599,685 cows, after deducting 
the 99,685 for casualties, &c., as above, 
say 500,000, at $2 each,. 1,000,000 
528,114 hogs, at $3 each, . 1,584,342 
Total,.$12,522,058 
The crop of wheat, as above, deducted,.. 12,052,593 
Leaving a balance in favor of the butter 
crop, of . $469,465 
If the committee have estimated the increase from 
the cows too high, or if they have put down too many 
hogs as the product of the butter dairy, either or both 
items may be much diminished, and yet leave a 
balance in favor of the butter crop. 
Another advantage of the butter dairy over the 
wheat crop, consists in the cost of labor of production 
and transportation to market. The labor of females 
and boys is used mainly in the milking of cows and 
making the butter, which is cheaper than the labor re¬ 
quired in plowing, sowing, and threshing the wheat, 
and carrying it to market. 
The cost of transportation to market is greatly in 
favor of the butter dairy. 
Forty firkins of butter and three tons of pork would 
be considered a good crop from a very considera¬ 
ble farm, and yet this quantity would not make more 
than five or six two horse wagon loads, while six hun¬ 
dred bushels of wheat, the product of a moderate farm, 
would make twenty wagon loads, and the cost of rail¬ 
road or canal transportation would show a similar ine¬ 
quality. 
Moreover, the process of grazing in making the 
dairy crops, continually fertilizes the soil, and in this 
respect it exhibits a decided advantage over the wheat 
crop, as the process of plowing gradually wears upon 
and reduces its fertility. 
The*butter dairy is also very uniform and reliable, 
while the wheat crop is subject to many contingencies. 
The above calculations are not claimed to be quite 
accurate, but they are believed to be sufficiently so to 
show that the butter daily is the most valuable farm¬ 
ing interest in the state, and worthy the most favora¬ 
ble regard of every friend of agriculture. 
Proportion of the American Population En¬ 
gaged in Agriculture. —Hon. Elisha Whittle¬ 
sey, in an address before an agricultural society in 
Ohio, gives the following statistics in relation to the 
number of persons engaged in different occupations in 
this country, from which it appears those engaged in 
agriculture outnumber those engaged in the learned 
professions, navigation, manufactures, and commerce, 
more than three to one; and the annual value of agricul¬ 
tural products is upwards of 650,000,000 of dollars: 
No. of persons in the learned professions, 65,255 
internal navigation,.. . 33,076 
11 ce navigating the ocean, .. . 56,021 
“ “ manufactures,.. 791,749 
11 11 commerce,.. 137,607 
ce “ agriculture,. 3,719,951 
The annual value of agriculture is,.$654,387,579 
The value of importations for the fiscal 
year, ending on the 30th of June last, 
was,.. 121,691,797 
The value of exportations, domestic and 
foreign, for the same period, was. 113,488,516 
Amount of imports and exports,.$235,180,313 
which is some over one-third of the value 
of our agriculture. 
Salt not a Preventive of the Potato Disease. 
—Thos. W. Ward states, in the Massachusetts Plow¬ 
man, that he has tried salt for potatoes by putting it 
on the hill at planting time, both before and after the 
potatoes were covered. He could not perceive that it 
did in the least prevent or check the rot; but when 
the salt was put on before the potatoes were covered, 
“ it very much retarded the coming up of the potatoes, 
—some of the hills being a week and more behind their 
neighbors where no salt was put; nor did it prevent the 
mouldering of the leaf and the decay of the top.” 
Prof. Johnston, in some remarks on the potato 
disease, in a late number of the Edinburgh Quarterly 
Journal of Agriculture, observes — 11 It has been said, 
in some parts of Scotland, that the disease was pre¬ 
vented by the use of saline mixtures, in 1845, but the 
same mixtures failed of their effect in the hands of the 
same parties in 1846. At the present moment, sul¬ 
phate of magnesia is lauded as a specific against the 
disease, because of some supposed good effects pro¬ 
duced by it near Whitby, in 1846. I fear, however, 
that should the disease be equally virulent and exten¬ 
sive in 1847, this salt will loseAts character like all the 
others.” . 
Successful Subsoiling. —Henry Colmansays, that 
Smith of Deanston, when he commenced operations, 
about 20 years ago, had on a part of his farm not 
more than four or four and a half inches of surface soil ; 
but having applied the system of thorough draining, 
and used the subsoil plow, he can now turn up more 
than 16 inches of good soil. Subsoiling had failed in 
some parts of England, where very heavy clay and 
quicksand prevailed. In one case there was a crop of 
35 bushels of wheat per acre, where the subsoil fur¬ 
rows- were across the drains; and only 21 \ bushels 
where they were parallel with the drains 
