daily cup or meal. And the greater the intelligence, the greater the dependence upon this source of instruction. Why is this so? Because they realize its benefit; they calculate it. And if not jingling out each week or month as the paper is unrolled, the cash finds its way eventually to the pocket, and the enlightenment to the brain, which, independently is a gain. Agriculture and the Agriculturist. EDITOR FARMER:-Agriculture, one of the most ancient, as well as healthful occupations, lies at the very foundation of a nations strength and prosperity. Some at the present day, consider it an occupation fit only for the ignorant and stupid; but many of the ancients considered it a high and noble calling. We need not refer to farming, as practiced thirty or forty years ago, to convince the reader of the value of agricultural science, and of The Chinese, who, it is supposed have existthe journals that represent it; nor to the su-ed as a nation for about three thousand years, perior tillage of Europe over our own. This is evident; and is becoming more and more so hold a solemn festival every spring, at which every day. For light is scattered broadcast, the ruler of this great nation, the princes of and for a mere trifle-common as the light of peror takes the handles of a plough into his own hands, ploughs a few furrows, then plants a small portion of each of the staple grains of that country in the newly ploughed earth. At the time the Roman nation enjoyed its greatest power and glory, Agriculture was considered the highest occupation in which man could be employed. The reason so many at the present regard farming as being beneath their notice, is because it has not kept pace with the advancing age; although there have been many valuable improvements in the mode of farming as well as in the implements used. There is room and much need of improvement in both, especially the former. the sun, and almost as cheap. And yet the blood, the nobles of court, and some of the agricultural journals are but sparsely distribu- distinguished cultivators of the soil are present ted, when we consider the extent of the farm-to celebrate the return of seedtime. The Eming interest-the most extensive of human employments the vital interest of the world, without which society would cease to exist. Why is this so? Why is the great majority of the farming community still ignorant-still damaging the earth, and disgracing agriculture? It is prejudice, based as it always is, on ignorance, and a stubborn selfishness.Here is work for the journals-for the real disseminators of light, who do the work for the farmer. These should be encouraged. It is the spurious that are constantly in the way, reflecting a pernicious influence on laudable merit. And it is hard to get rid of the fungus growth, formed by the sham tricks of the day, in common with other spurious publications, and drawing their substance from the true journals. This is the greatest evil the agricultural press has to encounter. Were it not for this, their success would already be complete, and the farming interest advanced. There is no remedy, however. The croakers will always follow the singing birds, and divide their food with them. However as light advances, their chance improves. The crisis of the country, whatever else its effect may be, will starve out these birds of ill omen; and leave the field fresh and clear. A better day is coming for agriculture. Its march is onward, and cannot be arrested. To arrest it is to arrest life itself in the same degree. The journal, the real instructor of the farmer, is as certain of success, as of bread. It must be limited, however, because the science ls yet in its infancy. But eventually it will meet with patronage commensurate with the extensiveness of the farming interest. Its day is coming; it has already dawned. We have instances of comparative success-not purely agricultural, but mainly, and decidedly. As soon as the public become convinced of the utility, the almost absolute necessity, of an agricultural press, the day has arrived when the farmer's journal will be the peer of the newspaper.- Valley Farmer. It is urged by some, that farming is no employment for the mental powers, that the exercise is all physical; but one will readily see how groundless this objection is, when he considers that the farmer must know, if he would be successful what affords the most nourishment to his grain, that he may know what soil is best adapted to the grain he wishes to grow, or if not suited to the growth of his grain what will best prepare it. Let us look for a moment at Agriculture and those engaged in it, without prejudice. We find the farmer situated upon a piece of land, with a good house, barn and all necessary outbuildings, &c., suitable stock of sheep, cattle, horses and hogs, for without these he should not be considered worthy the title. In the morning when he rises he looks forth upon his of his own labor brings a satisfaction which fields, and a feeling of delight mingled with is never enjoyed by the man who is compelled thankfulness, fills his heart. A few minutes to look to others for the necessaries of life.later we find him attending to his stock. His Moreover, this independence, in addition to horses welcome him with a neigh; and the the comfort which it insures, has likewise a sheep press around to lick the hand that tendency to increase the farmer's self respect administers to their wants. In the spring, na- and to develop that self reliance which is esture spreads her enchanting scenes before him.sential to true manhood. May we not conclude, His fields are covered with grain and grass.- therefore, in the words of Washington, that His fruit trees are loaded with blossoms that "Agriculture is the most healthful, the most promise a fruitful harvest. In midsummer his happy and the noblest occupation of man?" situation is not less enviable, and although he may be obliged to laboe hard, the scenes around him are such that he feels less fatigue than he would at other work. In the morning, as he goes forth to labor, gentle breezes play with his locks; the lark and a thousand feathered songsters greet him with their sweetest songs and cheer him on in his task. As the day advances, and the birds cease their morning anthems, he feels weariness coming on, when he straightens up for a moment's rest; he casts his eyes around and a scene is before him which a king might envy. There stretches to his right for a mile, over hills and vallies, a field of half ripened grain waving in the noonday sun, with here and there a dark cloud-shadow gliding over it like the wing of evening. To his left lies a field of corn, its dark green leaves wrestling the wind. As he looks at these scenes in addition to the usual emotions awakened by them, he anticipates a fruitful harvest; thus he soon forgets his weariness and turns to his task with new strength and zeal. Autumn comes, loaded with fruit for the farmer. His barns groan with their burden of golden grain; his fruit trees bend with their load of precious fruit. Thus the farmers situation is not only pleasant and desirable, but one that tends to a reflective mind, filled with a sense of the goodness and wisdom of the Author of nature. There is another feature in farming worthy of notice, that is, its independence. The farmer knows that if his business thrives, all others thrive also. As he seats himself at the table to satisfy the claims of nature, the thought that it is loaded with the productions WAYNE, Ill., Jan. 2, 1862. [From Gov. Andrew's Message.] Massachusett's Agriculture. * The Agricultural interests of the Commonwealth have been highly prospered during the past year. Their products are estimated as exceeding thirty-two millions of dollars. The season was propitious and the crops, with few exceptions, were abundant and profitable. The exhibitions of the Agricultural Societies as a whole were more complete and attractive than ever before, while the interest manifested in them by the large attendance of people was never excelled. Under the encouragement of the Commonwealth, the smaller and feebler societies are gradually placing themselves upon a more permanent and useful basis, and it is believed that if the present fostering care is continued they will, within a reasonable length of time, attain a degree of strength and prosperity which will make them self-sustaining and self-reliant. Notwithstanding the poverty of her soil, in contrast with that of some of her sister States, the agricultural interest of Massachusetts is one of the most important; and the great and rapid development of her resources, through the growing intelligence of her husbandmen, as shown in recent years by the increase of farm crops, the improvement in the breeds of domestic animals, the production and culture of new varieties of fruits, all confirm the wisdom of that legislation which has encouraged the formation of societies for the State. agricultural improvement, by the bounty of Many additions have been made to the State Cabinet during the year, and the interest manifested in it by the large and increasing number of visitors from day to day, shows clearly the practical value of the collection in developing a fuller appreciation and knowledge of the Natural History of the Commonwealth. The State Board of Agriculture, sensible of the importance of having the elements of agriculture taught in our common schools, made arrangements with Messrs. Geo. B. Emerson and Charles L. Flint to prepare a text book or erage market price of a ton of good hay in Worcester county, for the last ten years, will not exceed fifteen dollars; a ton of good hay will make more than two tons of solid manure, weighed when recently dropped by the cow or ox, but we will call it two tons. The liquid Manual of Agriculture, comprising and presenting in an elementary way the principles and practice of this art, including the composition of soils and manures, the preparation of lands, the culture of special crops, the principles of rotation of crops, the diseases and enemies of growing plants, the choice and man-excretions discharged by an ordinary cow or agement of farm stock, and the general economy of the farm. This work has been executed so as to meet the approbation of the Board, and their recommendation of it as adapted for use in the schools of the Commonwealth. I trust it will serve to help increase an intelligent interest in farming, and develop the productiveness of this fundamental pursuit of industry. ox, while consuming one ton of hay, with a suitable supply of water, will be admitted by all who understand the matter, to be equal in value to the solid. Thus four tons of manure is produced by a cow while consuming one ton of hay. Four tons of fresh manure is equal, by measurement, to one and one-quarter cords weighing sixty-four hundred pounds the cord, or fifty pounds the cubic foot, the value of which we will estimate at four dollars the cord, and one ton of good marketable hay we will call worth six dollars the ton, for feeding stock on the farm. If these premises are correct, the amount will stand: DR. Delivering one ton of hay sold...... 66 Cash paid for 1 and 14 cords of manure,. "Carting four tons, or 1 and 14 cords of manure to farm, Value of hay for feeding stock on the farm,..... An undue proportion of the soil of our Commonwealth is unused for any profitable purpose. This is in part owing to following the local traditions, instead of studying the secrets of nature, and extracting her truth.Much land now wasted might be used for the growth of wood and timber, yielding a crop once in twenty or thirty years, without much labor in its care; and farms now of little profit might become profitable by the proper methods of adaptation, and the skill to diversi- CR. One ton of hay sold, average price,. fy their cultivation. Fruits, vines and various branches of gardening, may be largely cultivated by those whose main pursuits are indoors and sedentary. And might not the study of nature awaken a taste for horticulture and the like, in our boys and girls at school, the results of which will be seen, not alone in the larger business of regular farming, but in a thousand humbler ways, adorning the village, the wayside and the cottage home with beauty, giving freshness to many jaded minds, besides increase of health, industry and wealth? Loss to balance,..... $1.50 5.00 6 00 6 00 $18.00 ..$15.00 3 50 $18.50 Thus we see, by the practice of selling hay, instead of gaining, as many believe they do, we are losing at the rate of three dollars and fifty cents for every ton sold. KILLING SMUT IN SEED GRAIN, &C.-There is a simple and affective means of killing smut in seed wheat, etc., withtn the reach of every practical cultivator, who is not too idle or careless to use it with caution, namely, lye made from the ordinary wood ashes of the daiIn some remarks before the Worcester North for if too strong it will kill the seed also, as I ly fire. But there is danger in using it strong; (Mass.) Ag. Society at their exhibition last have proved. There is much difference too, Autumn, Mr. Brooks of Princeton touched up-in the ashes from different sorts of wood. on this subject as follows: Loss by Selling Hay. It was his belief that if farmers would ex-weeks before sowing your seed, from precisely The only safe way is to make lye some pend more of their surplus funds in improve the quality of ashes you will use in the lye for ments on their farms; rear and feed a larger dipping the seed, and then sow small quantinumber of cattle, sheep and swine; cultivate ties of seed, and set in a warm place to be sure more root crops; expend a larger portion of it will grow. their produce upon the farm, and rely for profits the parasitic insects which infest either trees Even a weak lye will kill any of upon the sale of beef, mutton, pork, butter and cheese, they would by so doing find their ma- make this lye, the ashes are simpy put into or the grain of our farm or garden crops. To nure heaps constantly enlarging, their crops the water a few hours. I mean to try it on annually increasing, instead of diminishing, as they now do, by the practice of selling the the pea bug, also, when he again troubles me, crops off the farm, and placing the proceeds at interest, to be eventually more or less of it lost by bad investments. Many farmers believe themselves growing rich by selling their hay, especially if they purchase and return to the farm as much manure as the hay sold will make, and if they do not, their farms will soon bedome worthless, or nearly so. The av as I conceive a dose of it will be too caustic for his digestion.-J. W. Clarke, in Country Gentleman. A solution of blue vitrol has been repeatedly recommended in the FARMER, and the experience of those who have tried it, so far as we know, has proved its value. Good Seed-Early Wheat. To STOCK REGISTER. For the Farmer. Stock-Growing in New Mexico. [Letter from Judge J. G. Knapp of the U. S. Court.] TAOS, New Mexico, Dec. 17, 1861. This place situated in latitude 36° 30′, and "What you sow, that shall you also reap," is as true in agriculture as in morals. It was once thought, and sustained by high authority, that imperfectly ripened wheat, if it would germinate, was as good as any for seed-and even recommended as better than good, plump kernels, as more seeds were contained in a bushel. Experience proves this notion fallacious. We may as well expect a full sized at an elevation of 8,100 feet, is enclosed on Morgan horse from a Spanish jackass, as a the northeast and southwest sides by moungood crop of wheat from imperfect seed. produce the best, we must propagate from the best. tain ridges which rise in many points to 20,000 In England, the farmers take the sheaves feet. On the remaining sides similar mounand whip them gently over a stone, when the best and earliest ripened kernels will fall out, tains just appear above the horizon at the which they take for seed. A better method is distance of from seventy-five to one hundred to go through the field and select the earliest miles. The mountains in the north are already ripened heads for seed, which will soon produce an earlier variety than the original stock. whitened with snow as well as are the north Such seed will also produce a crop free from sides of all. The ground here has been twice smut. Sowing poor, half ripened, imperfect seed, is sowing smut and disappointment. It merely whitened in the morning, but it all might seem that it would be an endless task to melted during the day. And at this time there gather enough early heads for seed, but it re- would be no difficulty in plowing. In truth quires but two or three years to change the variety, and have seed enough and to spare. there has not as yet been enough frost at any time to prevent breaking the ground, although there have been frosts every night since the first of November. The great defect of this Territory is want of rain to produce vegetation. No crop can be raised without irrigation, and as that is dependant on the mountain streams, which are fed by the snows and showers which fall upon the peaks and high ridges, the amount of arable land is very limited. A wheat known in Scotland as the Hopetown wheat, and deemed an excellent and prolific variety, owes its origin to an accidental circumstance, an observing farmer having remarked a very superior ear, from which he picked out ninety-nine kernels, and from their product come this celebrated variety. PASTURE LANDS. "To show the rapidity with which such seed may multiply, we gave an instance. A farmer in Cambridgeshire, England, in 1840, gathered eighteen very fine ears, the proceeds of which filled a common wine glass. These seeds he planted the following autumn, and produced one peck. This was planted the following autumn, and produced seven bushels and one peck, and this produced one hundred The pasture lands of New Mexico, on which and eight bushels and two pecks, which was the immense herds of antilopes and buffaloes planted in 1843, and produced one thousand once fed, are mostly situated on the east side eight hundred and sixty-eight bushels." This was the increase of eighteen heads of wheat in of the mountain ranges. In the valley of the four years. Another farmer planted thirty Rio Grande del Norte, above this point, the kernels in 1839, which produced fourteen and three-fourths ounces; this was sown, and prograss is found only in patches, and is very duced one bushel and one peck; this produc- short, but is exceedingly nutritious. The ed forty-five bushels; and this, in 1841, pro-grass on the eastern side is much more plentiduced five hundred and thirty-seven bushels. It will thus be seen that the task of gather-ful, and taller. All is killed by the first frost, ing the earliest ripened heads, and thus pro- or dryed up in the months of September and ducing an early variety, is not great; and farmers will be well paid for the trouble.They will get a variety that can be sowed late enough to escape the fly, and that will still ripen early enough to escape the rust. Try it, and give us the result.-Ohio Farmer. October. After which time the stock live upon the dry feed, yet the stock raisers can see no difference with their cattle in the amount of nutriment which it contains; or if there be any it is in favor of the dry feed; the stock We want the experience of sound prac-being in better plight in the opening of spring SALT, TETEZQUETA. and in some all are found. In some places traces of lime can be discovered, and in others alum, or saltpetre, or both. SHEEP. The great region for rearing sheep, com Stock are reared without any salt. The extensive plains of soda which is found in every portion of the Territory, answers as a substitute for that mineral. Horses are never hurt by it, but sheep and cattle are not unfrequent-mences on the east about the middle of Kansas, ly killed with it, especially those which are kept in its neighborhood, only occasionally.To allow sheep and cattle to come suddenly in contact either with the infloresed salt, or with water saturated with it, with empty stomachs, and to eat or drink as much as they please, is almost certain death to the animal within a few hours. With full stomachs there is less danger. The flocks are often driven by the shepherds to the tetezqueta, or salt ponds, for the purpose of allowing them to eat and drink the saline matter. In such cases the shepherd causes his flocks to feed on the best grass he can find in the neighborhood, until about two o'clock in the day, when he starts them over the salt plain as fast as they can be hurried by himself and dogs, only allowing them to catch so much as they can get in the hurry. Next day they are again driven across in the same manner. After which, or on the third day they are allowed to eat and drink as much as they please, always on a full stomach. With these precautions it sometimes happens that they get too much at first. Those flocks which are fed in constant contact with it, never hurt themselves, although they have no other water to drink. And even the shepherds drink it with impunity. To a stranger it operates as a powerful purgative, but from which the party will recover in a few days. Tetezqueta is composed almost exclusively of soda, carbonate, sulpnate, muriate, and nitrate, with a trace of nitrate of potash. And generally infloreces in fine needles, so light as to be insusceptible of removal, without destroying the crystals. It efferveses strongly with acids, and is therefore used by the inhabitants in lieu of soda for raising bread. There is considerable difference in the tetezqueta of different locations. all the purposes to which lard is usually apSome is almost pure supercarbonate, while plied. The same is true of the suet of the others is mixed in various but small propor- beeves. This must be owing to the character tions with the sulphate, muriate, or nitrate, of the grass. Sheep and cattle are always and extends west to the mountains of California, and from the thirty-ninth to the twentyeighth paralel, thus placing its center about two degrees south of this place. Still the northern portion is best adapted to the fine wools. There are now in New Mexico from 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 of sheep, mostly of the coarse wooled variety brought originally from Mexico. The wool ls very well fitted for the manufacture of carpets and blankets, and ought to be in great demand in the States at this time. It is the same as the Navajo Squaw uses for making her famous blankets, which are impervious to water and command a price of $15 each. There could be at least 10,000,000 lbs. of wool purchased in this Territory, taken in the fleeces at the shearing places for six cents a pound; while assorting, packing, pressing and sacking, could be done for a cent and a half more, and transportation to the Missouri river could be got for from four and a half to five cents. In short, New Mexican wool can be delivered in Atchinson, Kansas, at twelve cents a pound. There is no market here, and probably 10,000,000 of sheep are never sheared at all. The weathers are eaten for food, and the ewes are kept to rear lambs. The owners always calculate on rearing as many lambs as they have ewes of one year old; or doubling the flock every second year. The quality of the wool would be entirely changed by keeping only full blooded bucks of the fine wools, in the course of a few years, if the coarse wools were killed off for mutton. I notice one peculiarity in the mutton of this country. The tallow of the sheep is but little harder than the fat of a corn-fed hog in Wisconsin. On which account it is used for |