154 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
STATISTICS OF WHEAT, &c. 
At the the present time, when the statistics of agricul¬ 
ture, in connexion with tariffs and corn laws, are receiv¬ 
ing so much attention, we think the following table of 
the prices of wheat in different places, in the same year, 
prepared for the N. Y. Express, by E. Williams, Esq. 
will not be without interest. The several tables of Mr. 
W., which we have compressed into one, will certainly 
furnish matter for reflection; for the price of bread stuffs 
must always have a controlling influence on the general 
prosperity of any country. Mr. Leavitt’s Memorial, 
from which these tables were derived, abounds in similar 
facts of the greatest value to the political economist, and 
to the farmer. 
Average prices of wheat per bushel of 60 lbs. in the 
several places, and years named: 
Year. 
Ohio. 
Phila. 
France. 
England. 
Flour in 
Phila. 
1820 
20 Cts. 
92 
1,44 
2, 03 
4,72 
1821 
31 
93 
1,10 
1,68 
4,78 
1822 
38 
1,33 
1,07 
1,34 
6,58 
1823 
38 
1,37 
1,08 
1,60 
6,82 
1824 
42 
1,11 
99 
1,92 
5,62 
1825 
33 
1,00 
1,05 
2,05 
5,10 
1826 
38 
92 
1,07 
1,76 
4,65 
1827 
50 
1,00 
1,31 
1,75 
5,23 
1828 
50 
1,10 
1,49 
1,81 
5,60 
1829 
78 
1,29 
1,48 
1,99 
6,33 
1830 
50 
96 
1,60 
1,93 
4,83 
1831 
50 
1,12 
1,57 
1,99 
5,67 
1832 
65 
1,12 
1,28 
1,76 
5,72 
1833 
59 
1,12 
1,06 
1,50 
5, 63 
1834 
59 
1,02 
1,00 
1,39 
6,17 
1835 
83 
1,21 
96 
1,18 
5,88 
1836 
1,12 
1,60 
1,17 
1,45 
7,99 
1837 
1,15 
1,73 
1,69 
9,37 
1838 
1,05 
1,60 
• • • • 
1,94 
7,79 
1S39 
84 
1,37 
1,43 
2,12 
6,72 
1840 
50 
1,00 
1,47 
1,99 
5,07 
1841 
60 
1,14 
1,93 
5,40 
The following table shows the per centage rate of du¬ 
ty charged in Great Britain, on the staple agricultural 
products of the United States. It will be seen that the 
average rates on the enumerated articles is two hundred 
and sixty-four per cent. It is a striking commentary on 
the principles which govern the trade, the agriculture, 
and the commerce of that country. At the present mo¬ 
ment,according to the late great speech of Lord Brougham 
on the state of the nation, one million five hundred thou¬ 
sand of the population of G. B. receive aid as paupers, 
or in other other words, one person in every thirteen, is 
only prevented from starvation by public aid. How 
much better off a very large portion of the remainder are, 
the details of that speech, and the reports from all pax*ts 
of that kingdom, too painfully show; and yet while our 
country is overflowing with provisions, which we should 
be glad to furnish those starving millions, a barrier strong 
as Gibraltar, is drawn between this, country and that, by 
these duties. When will nations learn that the great ob¬ 
ject of all good government is the happiness of the peo¬ 
ple? 
Staple Agricultural 
Products of the U. 
States. 
Average cost of Ag¬ 
ricultural products 
in N. York, March, 
1S42. 
Louisiana Sugar, 
do. Molasses, 
S. Carolina Rice, • 
Southern Tobacco, 
do. Cotton,in¬ 
spirits from Grain, 
Cider,. 
f Wheat,. 
Barley, ••• • 
Oats, '•. 
Potatoes, 
Flour, . 
Hay,. 
Salted Beef, • 
do. Pork, 
Bacon,. 
Hams,. 
Lard,. 
Butter,. 
1 Cheese,. 
Linseed Oil,. 
Forests—Timber, • 
Staves, •• 
S 3 
J-* 
P* o 
fa* 
fa 
CO o 
g 3 
.St* 
a o 
6 cts. per lb. 
21 cts. per gallon. 
2f cts. per lb. 
6 cts. per lb. 
8 cts. per lb. 
20 cts. per gallon, 
15 cts. per gallon, 
$1,25 per bushel, 
75 cts. per do. 
50 cts. per do. 
30 cts. per do. 
$6 per barrel. 
75 cts. per 100 lbs. 
$6,50 per barrel, 
$7,50 per do. 
7 cts. per lb. 
7 cts. per lb. 
5 cts. per lb. 
15 cts. per lb. 
7 cts. per lb. 
95 cts. per gallon, 
14 cts. per cub. ft. 
$50 per 1000. 
Duty on the same in 
Great Britain, calcu¬ 
lated as per centage 
on the cost of the arti¬ 
cles in N. York. 
270 per cent. 
400 
do. 
118 
do. 
1200 
do. 
8 
do. 
2700 
do. 
273 
do. 
60' 
74 
per cent 
100 
• rates duty, Feb. 
84 
1842.* 
60 
37 per cent. 
80 
do. 
68 
do. 
85 
do. 
85 
do. 
34 
do. 
28 
do. 
32 
do. 
80 
do. 
96 
do. 
110 
do. 
* Generally they are prohibited. 
HORSE SHOES. 
Many of the readers of the Cultivator are aware that 
some two or three years since, a patent was taken out by 
Mr. Burden of Troy, for machinery intended to manu¬ 
facture horse shoes. Circumstances prevented Mr. Bur¬ 
den from perfecting his plans at the time, and it has not 
been until lately, that he has found leisure to return to the 
subject. He has done it, however, and the result is that 
with his machinery he is able to produce a more perfect 
shoe than can be in any other way, and with a rapidity 
which may well astonish those accustomed only to the 
former slow and laborious methods. The regulating the 
size of the shoe, punching the nail holes, turning the heel 
corks, forming and welding on the steel toe corks, are 
all performed by the machinery, and with a perfection 
and accuracy the eye and hand are unable to attain. Five 
different sized shoes are turned out by the machinery, 
thus securing a proper fit to feet of different sized horses, 
without heating, or other trouble. Mr. Burden uses 
none but the very best Swedes iron, of consequence the 
quality of his shoes will be first rate. 
There are probably very few who have properly con¬ 
sidered the importance of the horse shoe manufacture to 
the country, or the quantity of iron consumed in that pro¬ 
duct. The census gave the number of horses at about 
four millions three hundred thousand. For the whole, it 
will not be too much to allow two sets of shoes annually, 
which at the ordinary weight of horse shoes, would use 
at least twenty-five thousand tons of iron and steel. It is 
very probable the shoes of Mr. Burden will soon be 
found occupying the market extensively, if not exclu¬ 
sively, and the estimate has been made that by their 
adoption, the cost of shoeing horses can be reduced one- 
half. Any saving of this kind will be extensively and 
beneficially felt, and by none more so than by the farmer. 
WESTERN FARMING—WHEAT AND WOOL. 
The West is truly a great country. No where else are 
things done on so great a scale, or when done, is so little 
said or thought about them. We do not wonder the 
dwellers on the banks of the father of rivers, and its tri¬ 
butaries, are proud of their country; for there is not ano¬ 
ther on the face of the globe, that can support such a po¬ 
pulation from the products of the soil, as that. There is 
a vast deal of the true yankee ingenuity too in the west, 
that is rapidly overcoming some of the natural difficul¬ 
ties of position; and by the more complete adaptation of 
their immense resources, rendering themselves more tru¬ 
ly independent, and by the applications of science to ob¬ 
jects comparatively of little value, securing some of the 
necessaries as well as luxuries of life. Thus supe¬ 
rior wax candles are made from fields of the castor oil 
bean; and the western herds of swine have not only dri¬ 
ven whales out of the great valley, but are fast following 
them over the Alleganies. Clothed in silk, feeding on 
short horns and the finest of wheat, and lighted with 
elaine, truly the prospect of the west is enviable. 
There are some farmers at the west, and the number 
is increasing, who have farms, and who cultivate them 
too, in a style worthy of the country in which they live. 
Go to the farm of the Messrs. Sullivants, near Colum¬ 
bus, and see on the beautiful river flats from twelve to 
fifteen hundred acres of corn, while their fine flocks are 
covering a thousand hills; or visit the Illinois prairie 
farms, such as is the one described below, and you can 
form some conception of western farming. 
Eighteen miles above Peoria, Mr. Jas. Underhill has 
a farm of twenty-three hundred acres, part of which only is 
under crops at the present time, but will soon be reclaimed 
and cultivated. It lies on the Illinois river, on the La 
Salle prairie, and a short description must be interesting. 
The first field of this farm you reach in ascending the ri¬ 
ver from Peoria, is one of five hundred acres; three hun¬ 
dred acres of which are in wheat, and two hundred in 
corn and oats. The wheat is estimated to yield as an ave¬ 
rage, only 20 bushels per acre, the land having been re¬ 
claimed and plowed for the first time last year; the mass 
of vegetable matter not being sufficiently decomposed in 
that time to give a full crop. This field is fenced with 
a rail worm fence, eight rails high. This fence cost 
about $1,200. The second field, which is separated by 
a road from the first, contains two hundred acres, enclosed 
with a good substantial board fence, costing $1,265. 
This field contained wheat, rye, oats, and corn, all excel¬ 
lent. The wheat was most beautiful, and was estimated 
at thirty-five bushels per acre. The third field, which 
lies to the north of the second, and which is now being 
reclaimed, part of it being broken up and in corn, will 
contain sixteen hundred acres, all within one fence. Mr. 
Underhill is intending to put eight hundred acres to 
wheat this fall; and as much of it will be ground a se¬ 
cond time cropped, should the season be favorable, a 
great crop may reasonably be anticipated; probably not 
less than 20,000 bushels. The breaking up of the prai¬ 
rie, costs Mr. U. $2,50 per acre, by contract; and the 
wheat the past season, has sold at Peoria, for 75 cents per 
bushel. The prices of the new crop must be lower. 
Mr. Underhill has built this season, two large barns on 
the bank of the river, each 30 by 50 feet, from which his 
grain can be transferred at once to steamboats without 
handling. In the breaking up, and fencing his farm, for 
the comfort of the laborers engaged, Mr. Underhill had a 
house 14 by 20 feet constructed, and mounted on strong 
wheels, which is drawn from place to place on the prai¬ 
rie, by the oxen of the establishment, as the convenience 
of the party of laborers may dictate. This house affords 
good lodging room, a dining hall, place of deposit for im¬ 
plements, &c. It has undoubtedly contributed much to 
the health of the laborers. Mr. Underhill’s farm has a 
straight line of fence on one side of three miles in length. 
The foregoing facts, gathered from the Peoria Press, 
show what an opening the west affords for men of capi¬ 
tal and enterprise, disposed to engage in the culture of 
the soil. 
We find it stated in the Buffalo Com. Advertiser, that 
a gentleman in that vicinity, having a prairie farm of 
some 500 acres, purchased 2000 sheep, which he placed 
upon it, under the care of two faithful men as shepherds. 
They have succeeded admirably. The sheep have kept 
in the best of health, have been in excellent condition at 
all times, and the proprietor, as the first fruits of the un¬ 
dertaking, has just received 6,000 lbs of wool of good 
quality, and which in the Buffalo market was worth 30 
cents per lb. This, with the natural increase of the 
flock, must be a handsome profit on the capital invested, 
and obtained with very little trouble or risk. The trans¬ 
portation of the wool from Ill. to Buffalo, was about one 
cent per lb. The great difficulty which has existed in 
the west to the keeping of sheep, has been the wolves, 
the prairie wolves in particular; but the settlement and 
improvement of the country will remove this obstacle, 
which now, indeed, is easily overcome by a shepherd 
and his dogs. There are many men in this and the east¬ 
ern states, owners of western lands, which are now lying 
a dead weight on their hands, who we think might take 
a useful hint from the above. Sheep may be purchased 
at a price merely nominal at the present time, and driven 
the whole distance, experience shows, with little loss. 
Once on the prairies, daily attendance and supervision is 
all that is necessary, and the cost of this can be well af¬ 
forded, where the flock is large. 
SORREL. 
We have had little acquaintance with sorrel, it is true; it 
does not seem to take on the limestone soils of New-York, 
but what little we have known of it, has not prejudiced 
us in its favor, and we have always treated it as a weed 
of the most worthless kind. Yet here comes the Maine 
Cultivator, with an article by its worthy editor, teaching 
us how to cut and cure it for hay, and extolling its good 
qualities as food for the sheep and horse. Some farm¬ 
ers, he says, let their sorrel stand till ripe, when they cut 
it for the seed, which,when ground, they think worth as 
much per bushel for animals, as Indian corn. It is ad¬ 
ded —“ As a proof of the value of sorrel when cured in 
this way, [cut early, while green, and so as to save the 
seed on the sorrel hay,] it may not be improper to state, 
that we have now a flock of fifteen sheep, which were 
kept the past winter exclusively upon it, and without 
tasting a particle either of roots or grain. These sheep 
are now in prime order, and have brought up fifteen 
lambs, the average weight of which was eight pounds 
per quarter, besides shearing on an average four pounds 
of wool per sheep. We lost no lambs during the win¬ 
ter; notwithstanding some of them were lambed in De¬ 
cember, and at a time when the weather was unusually 
severe and cold.” 
For ourselves, we must say, that we imagine that sheep 
or horses would eat well cured clover hay, as freely as 
sorrel hay, and would infinitely prefer it for pasture. 
Besides, according to our experience, sorrel is not equal 
to clover as a renovator of the soil, or as a preparative 
for a wheat or corn crop, and we would therefore ad¬ 
vise our friends every where, to substitute clover for sor¬ 
rel, in their courses of cultivation and cropping. 
STEAM PLOW. 
We find the following in the “ Planter’s Banner,” a 
paper printed at Franklin, La. We cannot doubt that 
eventually, the obstacles that have yet prevented the suc¬ 
cess of the steam plow, will be overcome, and the culti¬ 
vation of our rich and vast prairies effected mainly by its 
use. The grand difficulty so far, has been, not to create 
the power, but to make power effective. When required 
to drag a great weight, it is found that the wheels of the 
engine will frequently slide on their circumference; this 
is sometimes seen on railroads. If Mr. Larkin has de¬ 
vised a way to make the wheel stick, the plows will follow 
as a matter of course. The failures in England and Scot¬ 
land, have arisen from this source; and it has occurred 
to us while reading accounts of their experiments, that 
strong spikes of proper lengths on the outer surface of 
the engine wheels, by penetrating the earth, would se¬ 
cure their advance, when in motion. 
“ We had the pleasure,” says the editor of the Banner, 
“ at the recent election in this parish, of seeing Mr. Lar¬ 
kin’s model of a steam plow, in operation. There are 
two engines which are attached to a square frame, with 
a boiler between them. Each engine is attached to the 
draining wheels, which are set in motion something af¬ 
ter the manner in which the paddle wheels of a steam¬ 
boat are caused to turn. In front there are two guiding 
wheels, which are easily turned by means of a draw 
wheel. The plows are attached to the rear of the ma¬ 
chine. This locomotive was set in motion by Mr. Lar¬ 
kin, in the presence of a large number of persons, and va¬ 
rious opinions were expressed as to its probable success. 
We heard several intelligent planters say they were con¬ 
fident Mr. Larkin’s invention would answer all his ex¬ 
pectations. In the experiments that have hitherto been 
made in plowing by steam, the great difficulty has been 
to find a fulcrum on which the power of the machine 
might act. The resistance of the plows in the earth, has 
been found so great, that although the power was in the 
machine, still it had not a sufficient prop or fulcrum to act 
upon. Mr. Larkin has taken this difficulty into conside¬ 
ration, and he says he can overcome it. We sincerely 
trust he may.” 
BARLEY AFTER POTATOES. 
We find the opinion is prevalent to some extent, that 
barley will not succeed well after potatoes; and a late 
number of the Maine Farmer, gives some instances of a 
field sown with barley after potatoes and corn, in which 
the barley was good after the corn, but a failure after the 
potatoes. Our experience has been different from this; 
having raised as good barley after potatoes, as after any 
other crop. Last year, wishing to seed down a field on 
which potatoes and corn had been cultivated the year 
preceding, it was sown to barley, with herds grass and 
clover. It was one of the finest crops of barley we have 
ever raised, and that on the potatoe ground was at least 
equal to that from the corn land. We should have no 
more fears of a failure of barley after potatoes, than of 
spring wheat or oats; but should consider our prospect 
of a good crop of either, a faint one, unless the root crop 
had been well manured and cultivated. Barley is a ve¬ 
ry good crop to sow grass seeds with, but whether this 
or other spring grains are used, if we would insure suc¬ 
cess, the roller should be used. 
