306 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Sept, 
that when confined there may he one or more of these ele¬ 
ments for which no provision is made in their food. Of 
course no intelligent prescription can be made for the 
disease, until by patient study of their nature, and care¬ 
ful observation of their habits when free, we shall dis¬ 
cover its cause. Perhaps the best thing to be done in 
the case of very valuable fowls, is to send them to some 
suitable person in the country, to breed them under more 
favorable circumstances, than in an infested flock shut up 
in the city. Chickens so reared will go to the city with 
better constitutions and be more likely to resist the dis¬ 
ease. 
I am asked finally, What varieties have you , and at 
what prices ? I have furnished fowls for my neighbors 
of the Dorking, Spanish, Creole, Cochin China, Shanghae, 
&c., but on my own farm I am raising but one kind, and 
that is the Chittagong, 
These appear to me so much superior to all others, that 
having disposed of all former kinds, I procured, last 
spring, five layers, and from these have the prospect of 
raising about two hundred chickens. A part I shall keep, 
another portion distribute among my friends and have a 
small number to sell. If applied for early, the price will 
be, for good specimens, five dollars a pair. A very few 
select ones have been already engaged at a higher price. 
Most of the other varieties in this neighborhood can be 
furnished at prices somewhat less. 
I have, in this very imperfect manner, replied to the 
questions proposed, so far as was intended in this com¬ 
munication. I have a great many other questions re¬ 
ceived, but must beg indulgence until after the hurry of 
harvest. I have a larger number of applications from 
the different states of our country on this subject, than I 
anticipated, but not one too many, as it indicates a very 
general interest in the subject, cheering to those who are 
turning away from the distracting and demoralizing ob¬ 
jects of ambition to the majority of mankind, to the in¬ 
nocent and quiet pleasures of rural life. With sentiments 
of respect I am yours truly, John T. Andrew. West 
Cornwall , Conn . 
-►©.-- 
Dairying on the Western Prairies. 
The retail price of butter during the month of April, 
in all the Mississippi towns and cities, ranged from twenty 
to thirty cents per lb., and so difficult is it to get a regu¬ 
lar supply of good butter, that respectable families are 
willing to contract by the year, at from fifteen to eighteen 
cents per lb., including, of course, the winter months. 
Cheese retails at from eight to twelve cents per lb., and 
the market is supplied mainly from Ohio. The New Or¬ 
leans market , is open to the farmers of the Upper Mis¬ 
sissippi valley, at least nine months out of twelve, and 
with a trifling effort on the part of the northern farmers, 
the entire trade of that great emporium, might be se- 
cured to this valley, instead of being supplied with pro¬ 
visions from New-York, Pennsylvania, and other eastern 
and northern states. Butter in New-Orleans is ordinari¬ 
ly worth fifty cents per lb., and that market is mainly 
supplied from the dairies of Orange and other neighbor¬ 
ing counties of New-York, where the price of good land, 
suitable for grazing, is worth from fifty to one hundred 
dollars per acre, and where the cost of transportation is 
fully as great, if not greater, than from the Upper Mis¬ 
sissippi Yalley. The dairymen of Orange, had no difficulty 
in contracting, the past autumn, for their entire dairies, at 
thirty-five cents per lb., whilst an Iowa farmer, with the 
low estimate that is placed upon his skill in this line, in 
summer and autumn months, cannot get more than ten, 
and at the farthest eighteen cents per lb., for the pro¬ 
duce of his dairy by the season. 
This defect will shortly j?e removed, and an example 
once successfully established, will renovate the whole 
business so as to place western dairying on a par with the 
same business in any other portion of the union, with the 
additional advantages of cheap land, good water, easy 
access to markets, and an almost boundless extent of 
suitable land for the business that cannot be surpassed in 
any country for its grass and vegetable producing powers. 
A colony of dairy farmers from Orange county, New- 
York, have lately arrived in Muscatine county, Iowa, 
being in an exact parrallel line of latitude with their for¬ 
mer residence, and have brought all their appliances with 
them, and in their purchases have selected mainly with a 
view of carrying on the dairy business on a large and 
respectable scale. The butter will be stored in ice houses, 
and properly packed for the New Orleans market, where 
one of their company will be located to receive and dis¬ 
pose of the entire produce of the company, or rather of 
the colony. From experiments already made, an acre 
of Iowa land, costing some five or ten dollars per acre, 
within five or ten miles of the river, will produce, with 
less labor, a greater quantity of butter and of equal if 
not superior quality to that produced on the high priced 
and highly taxed lands of Orange county. The experi¬ 
ment now being made, is in the hands of some forty com¬ 
petent, wealthy, and intelligent families, and we shall 
watch the progress made, and report thereon in due time, 
as further developments may make it desirable. 
The very best quality of land, with tolerably good im¬ 
provements may be had for from five to fifteen dollars 
per acre, which for dairying or for any other purpose 
adapted for northern farming, cannot be surpassed. What 
is most wanted here, is men of capital, having had long 
experience in the practical details of agriculture, who 
will combine, with their money, labor, and skill, a scien¬ 
tific course of husbandry, suited to the circumstances of 
the soil, climate and other influences of the country, and 
with such men and means, western farming can be made 
the most profitable and pleasurable pursuit that could 
engage the attention of an intelligent mind. W. G. Ed- 
mundson. Keokuk y Iowa. 
Clover for Wheat— According to Lawes' experi¬ 
ments, the clover that would make a ton and a half of 
hay, would contain 60 lbs. of nitrogen, which, if plowed 
in, would be sufficient, if all were assimilated , to in¬ 
crease the following wheat crop 12 bushels per acre, and 
the clover roots six bushels more. 
Harrowing Wheat in Spring.- —Myron Adams, of 
East Bloomfield, N. Y., who harrows his wheat early in 
spring, with a heavj^ harrow, thinks it increases the crop 
from two to five bushels per acre. It also greatly as¬ 
sists the growth of the clover seed, sown just preceding 
the harrowing. 
