106 
April. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
During the sixteenth century, when the amount 
of business transacted was small, a prodigious in¬ 
crease of prices took place by the long continued 
influx of silver, consequent on the discovery of the 
western world. This increase has been estimated 
as high as 300 per cent. The value of gold be¬ 
came nearly doubled, or one pound *of gold which 
before was worth only nine or ten pounds of silver, 
afterwards exchanged for fifteen pounds of silver. 
At the present time, the reverse is taking place, 
though in a far less degree, yet sufficient to drive 
the present silver coin out of general use. During 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the in¬ 
crease of the precious metals produced, in the 
space of about fifty years, an advance of 20 or 30 
per cent, in prices. 
Whether a corresponding increase in prices will 
take place in the next fifty years, is somewhat in¬ 
volved in conjecture. An exchange of commodi¬ 
ties may be carried on to an unlimited extent 
without money-, or with only enough for the pay¬ 
ment of the balance. The rapidly increasing fa¬ 
cilities for conducting business on credit, through 
the assistance of.telegraphs, railroads, and steam¬ 
ships, will of itself tend more to increase the prices 
of property, than all the gold that shall be col-, 
lected for long years to come. Its accumulation 
will be far less felt in consequence of these facili¬ 
ties, and of its disproportion to the enormous in¬ 
crease in commerce; but it will not be without its 
favorable influence, for it will “ serve to strengthen 
the golden tortoise, and render the superincumbent 
mass of credit more secure.” And whether gold 
digging continues or not, the prices will probably 
advance gradually for the reasons already stated. 
On the other hand,•the great improvements which 
are making to cheapen the cultivation of land, and 
in manufacturing, will tend to keep down the 
prices of its raw and of its manufactured products, 
and increase the value of land at the same time. 
All these conflicting causes, operating together, 
must prevent any sudden change in either direc¬ 
tion.’ 
Very mistaken notions prevail as to the effects 
of Californian and Australian mining. Many sup¬ 
pose that if the country is flooded w-ith gold, we shall 
have a “golden age” in earnest, with pockets at all 
tidies full of money 5 and Ufa’s comforts and luxuries 
in profuse abundance. Nothing can be more fallaci¬ 
ous. For, admitting that by a sudden influx, gold 
should become as plentiful as silver formerly was, 
and that as a necessary consequence prices should 
suddenly rise, as we shall suppose, to as high an 
increase as those of the sixteenth century, or 300 
per cent., -what would be the result? What glo¬ 
rious times, some will imagine, these would be for 
the farmers,—wheat at three dollars per bushel, 
corn at two dollars, beef and pork at twenty-five 
cents, butter at fifty, and other surplus farm pro¬ 
duce in like proportion. Merchants would be de¬ 
lighted to find their goods tripled in value • me¬ 
chanics would rejoice at their tripled wages, and- 
lawyers and physicians at their three-fold fees. But 
this outburst of joy would all subside as soon as 
the farmers began to purchase their dry goods and 
groceries, and the shop-keepers their fann provi¬ 
sions. The mechanics and professional men would 
find it no more easy to live than before, for their 
greatly increased means would’require an equally 
increased outlay to supply every want. They would 
now learn, what many have never learned, the 
difference between value and price. The real 
wealth of the world, would remain the same: all 
the difference would be in the increased amount 
of its representative, gold,* required to purchase 
every article.' Hence we arrive again at the 
truth stated in an early part of these remarks, 
that the possession of the precious metals is not 
wealth in itself, but it consists* in all those means 
and materials which go directly to s»pply our 
wants. Real prosperity depends not on money, 
but on the industry,' enterprize, intelligence and 
energy of the peoplq, in procuring the comforts 
of home, in multiplying the products of the soil, 
in perfecting all the arts of cultivation, in facili¬ 
tating the manufacture of all crude materials, 
in rendering markets and exchanges accessible, 
and above all, in a general wish to consult the 
general good in .preference to selfish interest, 
which is a most healthy, life-giving principle for 
any community. 
Steam Plows. 
A writer in the Farmers’ Magagine (London) 
gives it as his decided opinion that steam plows 
can never come into general use. He witnessed 
the experiment made -on Locharmoss, near Dum¬ 
fries, and states that in consequence of the want 
of uniformity in the soil, the work was done very 
imperfectly, and the iron belt which drew the 
plow, continued repeatedly to break, as it met 
with obstructions. If the engine is a fixed one, 
placed in the center of the field, it must be heavy 
and expensive, to resist the lateral pressure; if it 
is so constructed as to travel in company with the 
plow, which could only be done on Ary and hard 
ground, a force equal to that of two or three 
horses would be constantly expended in draging . 
the engine itself. If this difficulty exists in Eng¬ 
land, in the way of introducing steam power for 
plowing, it must be still greater here, where coal 
or other fuel is costly, and horse labor compara¬ 
tively cheap. Hence the reason that the use of 
ther fixed steam engine, for threshing, grinding, 
&c. r is so comfiion in England; wdflle here, horse 
power for thresing is universal. If, therefore, we 
find it most costly to employ steam for fixed farm 
work, it must become far more so to use it in 
such a way as to require a constant removal of the 
engine. 
The writer above quoted thinks that steam 
plows can only come into use on level tracts of 
moss or peat bog, where the surface is even, and 
the texture uniform and with no obstructions. 
High Culture and Great Crops. 
American-readers of agricultural journals are 
familiar with the name of J. J. Mechi, the ener¬ 
getic and celebrated English farmer, who has ren¬ 
dered himself eminent by his success at high- 
farming,” that is, by profuse manuring, and pro¬ 
fuse crops. He has, in short, applied garden cul¬ 
ture to his wdiole farm. He has made a late report 
of his success with mangel wurzel, the soil for 
which was made one foot deep, and two hundred 
weight of super-phosphate of lime ’applied per 
acre. This is none else, as our readers may know, ^ 
than bones dissolved by sulphuric acid, and this 
amount alone is abou tequal'to a good dressing of 
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