mixed with the excrement, to absorb the liquid and odors; while, on the other hand, if cattle be permitted to remain during the night in the yard, this acquisition is principally lost. I had almost forgotten to acknowledge the receipt of a package containing a variety of German garden seeds in the spring of 1850. The result was, several kinds of seeds did not vegetate at all; the others, with the exception of one kind, produced only inferior vegetables; of the seed labelled German white fall turnip," only a few grains vegetated, which produced enormous turnips. These I have preserved for seed. Last season I raised a considerable quantity of seed of said turnip, which I have distributed among my neighbors and others; but the last season was so uncommonly dry, that no fair sample could be raised. I have also to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of the Patent Office Report for 1849agricultural. Very respectfully, yours, Hon. THOMAS EWBANK, EDWARD KOHLER. HARRIS TOWNSHIP, CENTRE COUNTY, PA., December 24, 1851. SIR: In reply to your Circular, the following notes of our agricultural position and prospects are at your service. Those referring to stock and dairy management are contributed by Mr. Samuel Gilliland, of this township, and are the results of his personal experience. Situation and Soil.-The floor of Penn's and Nittany valleys is almost wholly limestone clay, with remnants here and there of overlying slates and sandstones, which compose the mountain boundaries. The limestone beneath is broken and cavernous, forming natural and perfect drainage, and rendering the soil, though naturally heavy, warm and dry. Penn's valley and Buffalo valley, with the connecting narrows, offer an inviting route for a railroad in a direct line between Pittsburg and Easton, via the Anthracite coal regions. Manure.-A large proportion of the farm-buildings are near the streams, for convenience of water; and in too many cases the richest half of the manure is washed away. Clover grows with the aid of plaster, and is much depended upon for meliorating and enriching the heavy soil. Its large roots, in decaying, break up the solid texture of the soil, and render it permeable to air. Most farmers sow clover after taking two crops of grain, and many sow it in the cornfield after the last working, preparatory for wheat. Plaster is universally used, and could not be dispensed with at present. Lime is but little used, and is not so manifestly beneficial here as in other places; yet examples of its profitable use are not wanting. Culture. Our most successful farmers now plough 6 to 8 inches deep. But many are discouraged from deep ploughing, both by the heavy texture of the soil and the bad results which usually follow from bringing up a thick layer of clay at once. The subsoil plough has scarcely been introduced. It would seem useful in breaking up the subsoil and preparing it for the surface. If brought to the surface raw an fresh, it bakes, and becoming impervious to air, the plants growing in it perish. Crops.-Wheat and Indian corn are the main crops. Of 100 acres of clear land, 40 acres are usually in wheat; 30 in corn; 10 in oats, rye, potatoes, and sometimes barley; 10 acres of mowing ground and 10 of pasture; 12 to 15 acres of good timber are required for such a farm, but the mountains supply much timber to the valleys. Four horses are necessary here to work a farm of this size, and it keeps about 20 sheep, 12 to 15 head of horned cattle, (4 to six cows,) and 12 to 15 hogs-kept over one winter. The average yield of wheat in 1840 was 20 bushels per acre. In 1851 this township would not average more than 10 to 15 bushels. Corn is, at present, the most profitable crop. Wheat has not averaged over 75 cents during the past year. The price of land is from $10 to $60 per acre. Fruit Trees grow and bear as well here as in most parts of the middle States. In the lap of the mountains (elevated ground close to the foot of the steep ascent) frost is seldom destructive, and crops are sure; but the trees become exhausted, and the fruit is not as fine as in the valleys. Apples yield a full crop once in 2 or 3 years, and fail entirely once, perhaps, in 10 years. Peaches bear abundantly once in 4 or 5 years, fail once in 5 or 6 years. and The finer kinds of cherries and native grapes do well where they have been tried. Plum trees are as yet free from black knots, and there seems to be no difficulty in arresting them if cut away promptly. The trees bear abundantly, but the curculio takes the lion's share. This insect was not so numerous as usual the past season. Keeping the soil of the plum-yard bare and firm, and allowing free ingress to pigs and poultry, have proved effective against the curculio, and aid the growth of the tree. A majority of the peach trees in the country have been destroyed by the yellows; and the disease, through an ignorance of its nature, has been more advanced than checked. Trees affected by the yellows ripen their fruit prematurely, and seeds of these are too often planted in the hope of raising early sorts-most of the native seedling peaches being rather late. Pear trees flourish, compared with their growth in other places; yet very few good pears are to be found. The common sorts are very austere. Of cherries, the common mazzard, the late pie cherry, and the morello are the only kinds generally known. The mazzard is a very poor bearer-often of bitter and very small fruit; the morello is subject to black knots; and many, judging all cherries by these examples, swelter through the heats of early summer without enjoying nature's own refreshing and grateful provision for the season. In a few years there will be a better supply of fruits. Young orchards are springing up, and are beginning to receive their due share of culture. Of apples most farmers have orchards of from 50 to 100 trees, mostly grafted, but generally with a meagre assortment. Mr. Christian Dale, a leading orchardist and farmer of this township, says: "I consider good apples the most wholesome of all fruits. I have a family of 12 constantly, besides day-laborers. We use 5 barrels of cider and 18 bushels of apples to make apple-butter for a 12 months' supply, and 1 or 2 barrels of watered cider for vinegar, considering it preferable to any made from poisonous alcohol. One family will consume two hundred bushels of apples in a year, if they have an orchard yielding a full supply of the best sorts, in regular succession, say— "100 bushels summer and fall apples for eating, cooking, drying, &c., at 25 cents per bushel..... 100 bushels best winter apples, at 50 cents.. 5 barrels cider, at $2.... 18 bushels sweet butter apples. 2 barrels watered cider... Value of apples consumed in one large family... $25.00 50 00 10 00 4 50 2.00 91 50 "Where a farmer has not a good supply of fruit, a great deal of money is carried to stores to purchase molasses and other substitutes, not so good or so wholesome for a family of children." "Stock and Dairy.-The average stock of dairy cows here is $16; the yearly produce of butter 190 pounds. We strain our milk into earthen crocks; in warm weather we keep it in cool spring water, in a stone spring-house; in winter we keep it in the cellar till cream rises, which requires about 36 hours. Keep the cream in a large crock till it gets thick, then churn. The average price of butter is 10 cents per pound, and the cost is from 8 to 9 cents per pound. The milk is fed to pigs. "The cost of raising neat cattle till 3 years old is $17, and their value at that time is $21. During the first 2 months of feeding corn to a steer of that age, 100 pounds of corn will add 15 pounds to his weight; after that, not so much. Of pork it will add 20 pounds. "To break steers to the yoke, take them when 2 years old, get the yoke on, and tie their tails firmly together, to prevent them from turning the yoke; then put them into a field and let them walk about, to become familiar with the yoke. Get a long hickory, and, by its motion and the word of mouth, you can get them to follow. If you have a yoke of cattle that are broken, put the young ones behind them; hitch to a sled or log. Good breakers of oxen never put a line on them. "When a mare is with foal, she should be worked but gently; she should not be confined closely; she may be worked till her time of colting. Let her rest 7 or 8 days after she has her colt. When the colt is 6 months old, take it from the mare; in good weather, keep it in a grass lot, but stable it in cool or stormy weather. Put a halter on it and tie it to a manger, so as to oblige it to raise its head up when it eats. If a stud, let the manger and the windows be quite high, so as to strain the muscles of the neck. He should occupy a separate stable after he is 18 months old. Occasionally let him out into an open lot for free exercise. When a colt arrives to the age of 2 years, it is time that he should be bitted. It is of great consequence that he should be at first gentled by some person who understands the management of horses; as first impressions are never entirely removed from man or beast." Seeds. The seeds distributed from the Patent Office generally come under the care of the farmer's wife or daughters. Many new, and some quite superior, vegetables have appeared-some so entirely new and strange that neither as gardener nor cook could the good housewife make out what to do with them. These seeds, collected in far corners of the earth, and presented to the quiet and grateful tillers of the soil, are seeds also of good will-blessings both to the giver and the taker. Very respectfully, Hon. THOMAS EWBANK, LEWISTOWN, MIFFLIN COUNTY, PENN. SIR: Your "Circular" of August, 1851, was handed me by Colonel Butler, the worthy postmaster at Lewistown, with a request that I would respond to its inquiries. This I have briefly done in such cases as a personal experience of 30 years in agricultural pursuits would enable me to do with some sort of confidence, leaving to others the task of replying on subjects with which I was not conversant, or could not speak with the necessary precision. Doctor Rush has said that there were more false facts in medicine (by which terms he designates the false conclusions so often drawn from inadequate experience) than were to be found in any other science; but I must think, had the learned Doctor turned his attention to agriculture, he would have found that there were more of this kind of facts current on subjects connected with this pursuit, and incorporated with its literature, than are to be found in all the other callings taken together. The thousand-and one infallible remedies for the potato rot, the smut and mildew in wheat, the peach destroyer, the bee moth, &c., &c., are a sufficient confirmation of at least this one veritable and humiliating fact. Such will ever be the case as long as men will persist in publishing their crude and visionary theories and fallacies, resting, perhaps, upon a single ill devised experiment on subjects wherein, to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion, it would require long and patient investigation, and numerous and carefully-diversified experiments. Soil. The valley of Kishacoquillis, in which I have resided the last 30 years, comprises the largest and most productive body of land within the county of Mifflin, and will bear a comparison in agricultural improvement and fertility with the finest portions of our State. The soil is highly calcareous, and is based upon the lime-rock No. 2, in the geological series of Professor Rogers. Flint or horn-stone, in rounded masses, has been in many districts profusely scattered over the surface; and such as are so large as to interfere with the plough or harrow are hauled off the fields. But in all these localities the same material in smaller fragments, diminishing to the size of coarse sand, enters largely into the composition of the soil; and although wheat suffers more upon the flinty grounds from exposure to the frosts of a hard winter, yet during the spring and summer months it will outstrip, in vigor of growth and product, the grain upon other lands which, in the early part of the spring, had presented a much more promising appearance. Where this ingredient most abounds, our heaviest crops of corn are raised; and there can be no doubt that our flinty lands retain moisture better, and sustain a severe drought longer, than any other. Wheat.-A clover sod is turned down for wheat in April or May, with a three horse plough, as deep as it can be well laid over. The ground should be rolled and harrowed before and after harvest, to pulverize the soil and keep down weeds. Before sowing, the ground is stirred and harrowed smooth. Seeding commences the 1st of September, and harvest about the 1st of July. A bushel and a half is allowed to the acre when drilled in; a peck more when sowed broadcast. Our wheat crops have certainly been increased from 10 to 15 per cent. by the general introduction of the drill. The average product is between 15 and 20 bushels per acre; but 30 is not uncommon amongst our good farmers, and fields have reached even 40 and upwards. Average weight, 61 or 62. In the year 1845, wheat averaged 65; and some Mediterranean reached the unprecedented weight of 69 pounds. Some white flint, the seed of which I got from Rochester, New York, weighed over 68, and was the most beautiful specimen of wheat I ever beheld. This and the white blue stem are two of our best kinds, and the latter is the one most generally now cultivated. The average price of wheat at our nearest market (at Lewistown, on the Juniata river) in 1851 was 80 cents. From this place there is a canal and railroad transportation of 170 miles to Philadelphia, and about the same -distance to Baltimore. The best remedy yet found for Hessian fly is plenty of manure and good cultivation; for this pest, like other parasites, preys upon the weak and sickly. The bearded wheats, and particularly the Mediterranean, resist its ravages better than the bald kinds. I have never been troubled with weevils, nor have I heard many complaints from this cause. Corn.-Guano is not likely to be much used for this crop so long as gypsum, which is much cheaper, is attended with its present beneficial effects. Our system of culture is to turn down a clover sod with a threehorse plough late in the fall, any time through the winter, or as early as possible in the spring. By this means we escape the ravages of the cutworms, which are destroyed, in their embryo state, by being turned up to the frost. The ground is effectually pulverized by repeated harrowing without turning the sod, and lightly scored out across the furrows at the distance of 3 to 3 feet apart in the rows. No preparation is used for early planting; but when late, there is much time to be gained by soaking the seed over night and rolling it in gypsum. The best times for planting here are the last days of April and first week in May. As soon as the corn is fairly up, it is harrowed and plastered at the rate of at least half a bushel per acre; one-half of this quantity, in combination with wood-ashes, has been found to be equally efficacious. The plough and cultivator are the only implements afterwards used. Varieties are ever changing from intermixtures with other kinds. The sorts preferred here at present are the larger yellow-grained, and particularly such as ripen earliest. To many it may not be known that there is much advantage to be gained by occasionally changing our seeds of wheat and corn for the better kinds of northern climes. Such seeds, in addition to their early maturity, acquire increased vigor when transplanted to a more genial climate; whilst the very reverse (as I have found at some cost) will be the case with regard to seeds brought from |