The cost per pound will be about 10 cents. Large sheep are the most profitable here. Hogs.-"What is the best breed?" A cross of the Berkshire with the largest breed. Turnips.-Turnips do uncommonly well, better here than in any of the other States, owing to the depth and general looseness of the soil; we have weighed turnips that weighed 8 pounds. Potatoes.-Average yield per acre, from 400 to 500 bushels; free from rot this season. Cost of production per bushel, about 5 cents. The most prolific are the Merinos or Long-red. The best varieties for family use are the Meshanocks and Pink-eyes. The best system of planting and tillage is to plough deep, then drill out the ground about 3 feet wide, then drop your potatoes in the drilled rows and cover them with coarse manure, and then cover with earth. We are, most respectfully, your obedient servants, LER. ADMIRAL B. MILLER. RAMSEY COUNTY, MINNESOTA TERRITORY, December 8, 1852. SIR: Agriculture in this Territory is in its infancy. Only 3 crops have been raised. It was not until last season that the attention of more than a few individuals had been directed to the subject. My report, therefore, must be limited. The soil of the Territory generally is a light sandy loam, underlaid with a subsoil of clay of various depths, and the whole country is interspersed with small lakes of pure water. The general fertility of the soil, like that of the West generally, is such as to induce a total neglect of manuring as yet. What manures have been applied are common stable manures, and their application has been chiefly confined to garden spots. It may be said, perhaps without exception, that the Cereals all do well. Winter wheat, however, has not yet received a fair trial. Root crops all prove very profitable. Clover, Timothy, and Blue-grass have been introduced, and promise very fair, but sufficient time has not elapsed to prove the adaptation of our soil to their culture. Wild grass is luxuriant and exceedingly nutritious. A single instance of the culture of flax, within my knowledge, induces the conviction that our soil will produce that crop abundantly. The existence of the crab apple, plum, cherry, &c., in the wild state, warrants the belief that this will be a good fruit-growing country. Many are turning their attention to the subject, and young orchards already grace many farms. I give below a table showing the average yield, &c., of the principal products yet tried in our soil. Kinds of products. Remarks. Corn Spring wheat.. April 10 1 bushel... 30 bushels 80 35 $0 75 25 45 12-rowed white flint best adapted to this climate. It should be observed, the above table is the result of culture with out manuring, and is the lowest average of such products. Many individuals produce much more to the acre. The production of pork is necessarily much limited; scarcely any has been fatted with grain. Hogs, except the past season, have become very fat on mast. The attention of our citizens has not been sufficiently turned to any other branch of agriculture to demand special notice. Very respectfully, yours, &c., To the COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS. B. F. HOYT. SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO, SIR: At the request of his excellency Governor Lane, I have the honor to send you the following communication, by way of reply to your Agricultural Circular of the present year: Indian corn is one of the chief agricultural products of New Mexico, but without irrigation there is no certainty of success in its cultivation. When the season bids fair to be unusually propitious, by the fall of fre quent showers before the commencement of the regular rainy season, the farmer occasionally ventures to plant a small quantity of ground beyond the reach of his irrigating canals, with the expectation that, should his corn fail to mature itself, he will be at least repaid for his labor by a moderate harvest of fodder. As no one has heretofore felt sufficient interest in agricultural pursuits to test with accuracy the capability of the soil, it is not possible to say what has been, or what may be, the • Minnesota oats per bushel are two pounds heavier than Illinois oats. maximum yield per acre. It is, however, certain that, under favorable circumstances, the yield could be made as great as the average product of the most favored region in the States. I have seen in the southern part of the Territory, at Doña Ana, fully as fine corn as the State of Ohio is capable of producing. Doña Ana, however, is a new settlement, and what is said of it cannot apply to the other settled portions of the Territory, the greater part of which has been much exhausted by very many years of unremitting cultivation, without rotation of crops, without rest, and without manuring, or any other means of preserving the natural fertility of the soil. The actual yield of lands thus carelessly cultivated is a matter of astonishment to the farmer from the States. Whether it be owing to the natural fertility of the soil, or to the wellknown invigorating influence of artificial irrigation, certain it is, the lands of this portion of our country appear to be inexhaustible. The crops of corn produced this year in the immediate vicinity of Santa Fé have been such as amply to repay the labor of the farmer, although produced upon lands which have been cultivated certainly for a period of not less than 200 years-and that, too, in all probability, without the intermission of a single season. The most impoverished lands, where water is attainable, will well repay the labor of cultivation, and their average yield per acre, it is presumed, will not fall short of 25 bushels. The best lands, under similar favorable circumstances, will produce from 50 to 60 bushels. Judicious cultivation could scarcely fail to increase these quantities very materially. The variety of corn here cultivated bears a strong resemblance to that which is most common in the New England States. The average height of the stalk is not more than six feet, and the ear is generally within one foot of the ground. The cob is large, but, by way of compensation, is unusually long. The grain is roundish, instead of long and flat, and the germ or heart is in larger relative proportion to the rest of the grain than is generally the case with the varieties produced in the States. Hence the corn of New Mexico is more nutritious than that of the States. The colors are numerous-blue, yellow, white, red, and even jet black. Blue seems to be the predominant color, and is esteemed by the natives as the richest of all, being almost universally used by them in making the tortilla, or their corn cake. This is the only shape in which they prepare corn bread for the table. The time of planting in this portion of the Territory is from the last week of April to the last week of May, inclusive; whilst in the latitude of El Paso it is some three or four weeks earlier. The grounds destined for this crop receive but little previous preparation. A thorough irrigation is the first step taken, and this is done with the double object of mellowing the earth, to facilitate the use of the plough, and to furnish sufficient moisture to cause the grain to sprout and rise above the ground. The next step is to run those furrows alone which are meant to receive the seed. The plough is used in covering the corn, which is never planted in checks, but always in rows about three feet apart. From three to six stalks are suffered to grow in a single hill, and the hills are very much crowded, the intervening space being barely sufficient to admit the use of the hoe. Between the period of planting and that of maturity, the crop receives, as a general rule, but one ploughing and one hoeing. During the same period it receives from two to four irrigations, according to the nature of the weather and the supply of water in the canals. Where there are large settlements on small streams, each cultivator must await his turn in the use of the water, and the farmer is thus often restricted to a single irrigation during the summer. In truth, instances are not unknown in which certain water courses, by reason of long protracted drought, have not furnished water sufficient for one irrigation. Fortunately, however, for New Mexico, this is not common, and two or three irrigations, especially when assisted by a chance shower, are amply sufficient to produce a remunerative crop. The productiveness of the soil is, of course, enhanced in proportion to the accessibility and use of water, within proper limits. Speaking in an agricultural sense, land in this country is nothing, and water is everything. Lands in the States without running water have value; lands in New Mexico without water are without value to the agriculturist. There is not a single crop of the husbandman that can be produced in this country with any degree of certainty without irrigation. At long intervals, propitious seasons do occur, it is true, but, without prescience, no advantage can be taken of them. In this connexion I will mention a fact, so singular, indeed, that I would not venture to relate it unless I had previously obtained such evidence of its truth as places it beyond all doubt. The Navajos, a powerful and partially civilized tribe of Indians, who occupy the western portion of New Mexico, do not irrigate their lands, and yet produce plentiful crops of corn. Their method of planting is as follows: Holes are made in the ground to the depth of 12 or 18 inches, by driving down stakes made of firm wood and hardened in the fire. Each hole receives one or more grains of corn; the grain is, however, first enveloped in a ball of mud above the size of a man's fist. The ball, with its seed, being dropped into the hole, is covered to the depth of two or three inches with light earth, and left to germinate. The hoe is the only implement made use of in the subsequent management of the crop. The object of the ball of mud is obviously to supply sufficient moisture to enable the corn to spring up, whilst the too early evaporation of this moisture is prevented by the thin layer of earth which is thrown upon it. The great depth of the hole, too, is not without its reason, which is obviously to shield the root of the future plant from the heat and dryness of the superficial earth, and thus enable it to grow alone by the greater moisture of the subsoil. This fact leads us to indulge the expectation that the agricultural capacity of New Mexico will be greatly increased when deep ploughing, with the American plough, shall become general. I am informed that those few New Mexicans who have introduced ploughs from the States have already verified the fact that deep ploughing diminishes considerably the necessity for irrigation. The capacity of the Territory, in an agricultural point of view, is limited by, and dependent upon, the sup ply of water; yet it may not be an exaggeration to state that the supply, such as it is, if judiciously administered to the soil, would give sustenance to more than a million of human beings. The price of corn is now, at this place, $3 the fanega, (about 24 bush els.) It can sometimes be had, especially about the time of gathering the crop, for one-half the above price. Wheat. The climate and soil of New Mexico are eminently adapted to the growth of this Cereal. It is universally sown in the spring of the year, and, for the most part, during the month of April. The ground that receives it undergoes, as with the former crop, no further preparation than a single thorough irrigation. Being thus rendered soft and moist, the wheat is sown upon it and covered by the plough. After this, in order to smother the surface, a light log, as a substitute for the harrow, is dragged over it. Motion is given to the log by connecting each end of it (by a raw-hide rope) with the corresponding end of the ox yoke. From one to three irrigations suffice to mature the crop, which is generally harvested in the month of September. The yield is never estimated here by a comparison with the land which produced it, but always with reference to the quantity sown. Thus, the farmer always says, for one fanega sown he has reaped so many. The product so estimated has a very wide range, varying, as I am credibly informed, from ten to one hundred fold. Trustworthy gentlemen from the valley of Taos tell me that they have known a single fanega sown there upon new lands to produce one hundred. Forty-fold is by no means uncommon; indeed, I may safely say that, with a sufficiency of water and judicious cultivation, forty for one might be made the average product. There are at least five varieties of wheat known in New Mexico, and cultivated to a greater or less extent: 1st, a yellow wheat; 2d, a white; and 3d, a red variety; the ears or heads of these species are smooth; 4th, the common bearded wheat; and 5th, the "siete espigas," or sevenheaded wheat, so called from the fact that a number of smaller heads shoot out around the original or main ear. This species may be that which has heretofore been known under the name of "California wheat." The custom here is to sow very thin-perhaps not more than one-fourth of what is usual in the States. But the plant, in farmer's phrase, "tillers" so abundantly that, in the course of a short time after seeding, the surface of the ground appears to be thickly covered by the growing crop. One authentic instance has come to my notice of a single grain having produced half a pint of wheat. These extraordinary cases are, of course, uncommon, and are only mentioned to impress the fact that wheat tillers or multiplies its stalks in this country to an extent altogether unknown in the Atlantic States, or, perhaps, in any other portion of the Union except the Territory of Utah. The wheat of New Mexico has but little straw, as its average height does not, perhaps, exceed three feet. Many crops in fact turn out well that do not exceed eighteen inches in height. I will very succinctly describe the manner of getting out and preparing the crop for the market. It is primitive to the last degree: The matured wheat is cut, with the consumption of much labor and time, with an instrument similar, but far inferior, to the almost obsolete sickle. The harvesting cradle is here unknown, and perhaps unheard of. In getting out the wheat, no agricultural implement, not even the flail, is ever employed. It is done by the tramping of horses, mules, oxen, donkeys, or goats, driven around upon a circular earthern floor. For this purpose goats are more frequently made use of than other animals. The farmer has no farming machine to facilitate the separation of the grain |