ta B aggjMB i 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
48 
NOTES F OR THE MONTH. 
Foreign Notices, as well as a large quantity of oth¬ 
er matter prepared for this month, we are obliged to 
omit tor want of room. 
The Farmer’s Monthly Visitor. —Two volumes of 
this excellent paper have been completed, and a third 
commenced with the present year. Gov. Hill has 
brought to the aid of this work, the untiring industry 
and strong common sense for which he is so justly 
celebrated, and we are not surprised to learn that its 
success has been such as to encourage him to new ef¬ 
forts to increase its usefulness. He has made it indeed 
a welcome and beneficent Visitor to the Farmer’s fire¬ 
side, and it cannot fail to increase rapidly in circulation 
as the beneficial influence of agricultural reading be¬ 
comes more generally understood. Terms 75 cents a 
year—three copies for $2. Address Hon. Isaac Hill, 
Concord, N. H. 
The Farmer’s Register. —The Carolina Planter, 
published the year past at Columbia, S. C., has been 
united with the Mr. Ruffin’s Farmer’s Register, at 
Petersburg, Va., which is hereafter to be issued in a 
weekly as well as monthly form—the weekly, 16 pages 
octavo, and the monthly 64 pages as heretofore—the 
price of each $5 per annum for two copies. A new vol. 
(the 9tii,) commences with this year. We perceive by 
a notice in the last number, that complete sets of this 
valuable work, from the commencement to Jan. 1842, 9 
large octavo volumes, may be had for $22,50. We re¬ 
commend it heartily to such as wish to make a valuable 
addition to their Agricultural libraries. Address E. 
Ruffin, Esq. Petersburg, Va. 
The Magazine of Horticulture, is the only publi¬ 
cation in this country expressly devoted to Horticulture, 
Floriculture, Botany, &c., and should be in the hands 
of every fruit grower and florist. The Feb. number 
contains a descriptive catalogue of 107 varieties of Ap¬ 
ples, which have produced fruit in the Pomological Gar¬ 
den of R. Manning, Esq. Salem, dui'ing the years, 1839 
and 1840, which we should be glad to transfer to our 
pages, could we make room for it. The Magazine is 
published by Hovey & Co. Boston—>$3,00 a year. 
Journal of the American Silk Society. —We are 
gratified to learn that this Journal is to be continued, 
the 1st and 2d numbers of the 3d volume having just 
come to hand. It is conducted by G. B. Smith, Esq., 
and is a work which should be taken not only by those 
actually engaged in the silk culture, but by all who de¬ 
sire its prosperity. $2,00 a year—new subscribers will 
be charged but $4,00 for the 1st, 2d and 3d volumes. 
Address the Editor, Baltimore, Md. 
Large Hogs. —There was exhibited in the Center 
Market in this city on the 22d of Feb. four hogs whose 
dead weight was as follows :—the 1st, a full-bred Berk¬ 
shire, 2^ years old, weighed 635 lbs.—the 2d, Berkshire 
also, 3 years old, 655 lbs.—the 3d, half Berkshire, 2 
years old, 537 lbs.—the 4th, 2 years old, 500 lbs. A 
hog, raised by Mr. P. Mosely of Lebanon, Madison 
County, N. Y. w'as exhibited in this city on the 29th of 
January last, which weighed alive, 1,255 lbs. He was 
21 years old. His keepers were taking him to Wash¬ 
ington, as a present to the President elect. We find in 
an English paper, an occount of a still larger pig, own¬ 
ed by Mr. John Hartshorn, Marshpool, and which 
weighed 1,630 lbs. Mr. H. has another weighing 980 
lbs. 
Prolific. —We are informed that Mr. John Cross, 
of South Westerloo, in this county, has a sow which has 
brought him 47 pigs at three litters—at the 1st litter 13 ; 
2d, 19 ; and at the 3d, 15. Two of the last litter, (11 
months and 2 days old.) were killed Feb. 1, 1841, and 
weighed (one 330 lbs. the other 406 lbs.) 786 lbs. 
Prize Farms. —The Massachusetts Society for pro¬ 
moting Agriculture, have awarded four premiums for 
farms, as follows :—For the best cultivated farm, to 
Abel Moore of Concord, $200—for the second best, to 
Paoli Lathrop of South Hadley, $175—the third pre¬ 
mium of $150, was divided between Mr. Winchester 
and Mr. Salisbury, as was also the 4th premium of 
$100, between Mr. Reed and Mr. Converse. 
Sugar Beets. —:The Boston Cultivator states that 
Col. E. Falkner of Acton, fattened a cow nineteen years 
old, on beets and meal. She was poor in the fall ; he 
fed her only ten weeks on about three pecks of beets 
and half a peck of meal per day, and the beef was good 
enough for an epicure. 
Correction. —The weight of the pig mentioned by 
M. Y. T., p. 39, was 372£ lbs. instead ob272£. 
Snow Storm in Scotland. —In January 1794, a snow 
storm occurred in Scotland, which for its destructive 
effects has never been exceeded. Prof. Low, in his 
work on British Animals, gives an interesting account 
of it, from which we make the following extract, which 
will give some idea of the immense damage occasioned 
by it. i£ A number of the rivers on which the storm 
was most deadly, run into the Solway Frith, on which 
there is a place called the Beds of Esk, where the tide 
throws out and leaves whatever is carried into it by the 
rivers, where, after the storm subsided, there were 
found on that place, and shores adjacent, 1340 sheep, 9 
cattle, 3 horses, 2 men, 1 woman, 45 dogs, and 180 hares, 
besides a vast number of smaller animals.” 
Freak of Nature. —The Agriculturist says that 
“ Mr. Lewis Joslin, seven miles from Nashville, who 
is well known to the community as a gentleman of vera¬ 
city, informs us that one of his flock has brought forth 
a lamb with but one eye, and that in the center of the 
forehead.” 
limi. Ado ,- ’ k XPERIENCE 18 01 &reat value— Theories of 
wr mpnt, P lf g a f 1 the y are directly deducible from actual ex. 
peiiments and well attested facts.” 
Letter to Solon Robinson, Esq, 
Hear Sir —Permit me to offer you my very sincere 
thanks for the kind and friendly feelings which you have 
expressed towards me in your late letter published in 
the February number of the Cultivator ; and to assure 
you most truly, that I estimate them highly. But I 
have another motive for addressing you at this time. It 
is to condole with you on the bitter disappointment 
which I am sure that you especially, as well as all the 
other friends to a National Society of Agriculture must 
feel, m learning from the worthy Editors of the Culti¬ 
vator themselves, that we must not, at least for the pre¬ 
sent, look to them for any aid towards the establish¬ 
ment of such an Association. After stating many rea¬ 
sons, in which I doubt not, that these gentlemen consci¬ 
entiously confide, they conclude with these most discour¬ 
aging words : “ When the time arrives in which such an 
Association can be organized with a reasonable certainty 
of success, we trust that we shall not be found backward 
in aiding the enterprise to the extent of our abilities .” 
Now I call these words discouraging, because the pub¬ 
lic press not only forms, but governs public sentiment 
in this country, more, probably, than in any other coun¬ 
try on the face of the earth. Our political journals give 
most of us both the law and the gospel in politics, while 
our agricultural papers do the same in all rural affairs. 
Hence, I will venture to predict, although I am no pro¬ 
phet, that if all the Editors of the latter, not only keep 
silent in regard to the establishment of a National Soci¬ 
ety of Agriculture, but actually discourage the attempt 
to form one, we shall see it, (according to the old say¬ 
ing,) “ when two Sundays come together since the ar¬ 
rival of that “ reasonable certainty of success,” for which 
our friends Messrs. Gaylord and Tucker say they must 
wait, can never arrive at all, unless it is brought about 
by those very papers which guide and govern the opin¬ 
ions of the great majority of those who read them. 
Another argument used by these gentlemen in oppo¬ 
sition to any present attempt to establish a National 
Agricultural Society, is, that “ Agricultural Periodicals 
in a great measure perform here, the part which Farm¬ 
er’s Clubs, Associations and Societies, do in the more 
densely populated farming districts of Europe.” Now 
it really seems to me, that if this be a good reason 
against attempting to form a National Society of Agri¬ 
culture, it is nearly or quite as good against every thing 
of the kind, either in our States, Districts, or Counties ; 
for none have any thing like as dense a population as 
the “ farming districts of Europe nor will probably 
have for many generations to come. Although I deem 
this a legitimate conclusion from the premises, I will 
not sujypose that our friends designed that their remark 
should be so understood ; for they have expressed them¬ 
selves, on various other occasions, as great friends to 
local Associations for Agricultural purposes. 
The foregoing considerations, my good sir, have 
“ thrown me all aback” in regard to the project which we 
both have so much at heart; and the cold water thrown 
upon it in this icy weather, by our good friends of the 
Cultivator, had chilled me so thoroughly, that I was a 
long time in recovering sufficient warmth to start anoth¬ 
er scheme for effecting our purpose, since they will not 
aid the one proposed in your letter. If mine also fails, 
I will then agree, but not until then, that Messrs. Gay¬ 
lord A Tucker are right in thinking that the time has 
not yet arrived for accomplishing your design, and that 
we have been wrong in adopting a contrary opinion. 
My scheme is as follows :—Let some friend to the ob¬ 
ject of it—and surely at least one may be found in each 
Congressional District within the States most convenient 
to the seat of the general government—endeavor to ob¬ 
tain a written promise from any one intelligent farmer of 
good reputation as such, to attend at the city of Washing¬ 
ton, provided onehundred others will give similar promi¬ 
ses, for the purpose of organizing a National Society of 
Agriculture. Then let these promises be forwarded by 
the members of Congress from the Districts in which they 
may have been made. The extra session which will 
probably be held, will furnish ah early and good oppor¬ 
tunity; and the papers containing the pledges to attend, 
might be directed to some friend of the scheme in Wash¬ 
ington. I will venture, without consulting him, to name 
Mr. Ellsworth, the Commissioner of Patents, for I do 
not believe there is, in the United States, a more zeal¬ 
ous friend than himself to the great cause of American 
Husbandry. The only trouble he need take, would be, 
to count the names in the papers directed to him, and 
if there were as many as a hundred, to publish the fact 
in the public journals, and to name some early day for 
the meeting. Should he deem it inconvenient to act. 
and state it in the Cultivator, I myself, if able to go, 
would attend at Washington for the purpose ; and should 
deem myself most amply repaid for my trouble, if I 
found the requisite hundred names of “ good men and 
true,” both ready and anxious lo execute a plan for the 
good of our beloved country, which, in my humble opin¬ 
ion, would render her a more essential service than any 
that could be devised, unless it were one for the moral 
and religious education of our whole people. Without 
this vital element of national welfare, we never, no 
never, shall be a happy people, whatever other condi- 
tion we may attain in that reckless and wicked struggle 
lor supremacy in political power, which seems, at pre¬ 
sent, to have distracted all the nations Of the earth 
Before I conclude, permit me to acknowledge that you 
and our unknown friend near Boston, whose approval 
ot your scheme is mentioned by Messrs. Gaylord & 
Tucker, were both right in differing from me relative to 
the aid to be^ expected from members of Congress to¬ 
wards its fulfilment. A moment’s reflection would have 
prevented me from even imagining, that they (generally 
speaking,) would be prevailed upon by any thing less 
than the danger of losing their seats, to encourage, or even 
to think of any project which is totally exempt from 
party politics. These, and these alone, for a long and 
most distressing time past, seem to have occupied near¬ 
ly the whole time and thoughts of our public functiona¬ 
ries, while the great interests of the nation have been 
so deeply and vitally wounded, that it will require for 
their restoration, the constant exertion, for many years 
to come, of all the talents, wisdom and virtue which can 
possibly be concentrated in our public councils. But 
enough of a theme which no true friend to his country 
can ever contemplate, without the most heart-sickening 
reflections and anticipations. 
I will now bid you farewell, with the sincere hope, 
that you at least, may live to see your favorite scheme 
accomplished, as you may then have the pleasure of 
counting our present gainsaying friends of the Cultiva¬ 
tor among its warmest supporters. Without doubt they 
will prove most powerful co-laborers in improving the 
structure when once the foundations are laid, although 
they have declined leading the van to fix the corner¬ 
stone, which no one can regret more than you and their 
personally unknown friend, 
JAMES M. GARNETT. 
Essex Co. Va., Feb. 17th, 1841. 
Feeding Swine. 
January 1. —Shut up 41 store hogs—spring pigs. 
Fed with boiled potatoes, and provender and meal. 
Feb. 4.—Up to this date have fed out 105 bushels of 
potatoes, and 14 bushels of provender and meal. Pigs 
thriving as fast as is desirable, living in fine condition. 
Used up 4 loads of wdieat straw in the time for litter. 
The account stands thus : 
Pigs Dr. to Farm, for 105 bush, potatoes, Is .$13 13 
* “ “ “ 14 “ provender, 3s. 5 25 
“ “ “ “ 5 cord wood 8s. used in cooking, 50 
$18 88 
Do not charge them any thing for the straw, as I am 
glad to get it used up. It has cost then,$18.88, to feed 
41 hogs 35 days, or one cent three mills and a half per 
hog per day. It adds much to the profit of pork ma¬ 
king to keep store hogs in good order through the winter. 
After various experiments, the best mixture I find to 
be, 16 bushels of potatoes boiled, and while hot add 
two bushels of meal, or its equivalent in provender. 
The potatoes should be well mashed, before the meal is 
stirred in. I mash the potatoes in the same water in 
which they are boiled. I am aware that there has been 
an impression that the water in which potatoes were 
^boiled was injurious ; but have fed out over 300 bushels 
this fall, and found no bad effect yet. Water is added 
to fill up the vat, holding about eight barrels. I neg¬ 
lected to add to my account above, one peck of salt, used 
during the time ; but my charge upon the wood and 
provender is high enough to cover it. 
I find a great advantage in cooking oats for horses, 
having followed it now for three months, and intend to 
do so through the year. I think there is a clear saving 
of at least cne-fourth. Yours respectfully, 
Darien, N. Y. Feb. 6, 1841. T. C. PETERS. 
Prices of Eouth Sown Sheep. 
Messrs. Gaylord &. Tucker —In reply to your cor¬ 
respondent, who inquires for what prices he can have 
South Downs, delivered on board a packet at New-York, 
will you allow me to say, my price at the yard is from 
$20 to $50 each ; and that the additional expense would 
be from one to three dollars—though there is not 
one in the flock but was selected in England, by one of 
the best judges in the country (except the lambs of such 
without admixture) and cost me here an average of near 
$35—that though there is a very great degree of same¬ 
ness in their appearance and perfect purity of blood in 
all, though from entirely different families, yet so im¬ 
portant lias it been thought by judges in procuring the 
nucleus of a stock, to secure not only the best kinds 
but the best animals of the kind, that the difference has 
not been thought too great, and though I hope the time 
is not far distant when the numbers in our country shall 
reduce the price, I cannot wish to see less discrimina¬ 
tion exercised, for on that do I believe the value of any 
stock, native or otherwise, is dependant. 
The breeders of South Downs in England, who may 
be supposed to understand their interests in this matter, 
frequently pay as high as from 50 to 80 guineas a year, 
for the use of a buck, and South Downs are no new 
thing there, nor would they at this time, have been so 
here, but fob the rigorous laws which formerly prevail¬ 
ed in England against their exportation, while Spain was 
kindly furnishing us all the Merinos we chose to take 
at from one hundred to one thousand dollars each. 
Truly yours, E. P. PREINTICE 
Mount Hope, near Albanyj Feb. 18, 1841. 
