Wool. I learned from the principal agent for the purchase of wool in La Porte, that 60,000 pounds were purchased this year, at an average of 35 cents per pound. The agents who sent the manufacturer the wool sold it at an advance of about 30 per cent. I am told the manufacturer makes at least 50 per cent. on his purchase out of his cloth. Now, if the cloth is returned in trade for the wool the succeeding year-and this is the fact-how much does the wool-grower lose in the trade? What would be his gain if the manufacturer removed his manufactory to the wool, where living is cheap, and a permanent abundance?

Now, if we have wool, and cotton, and iron, &c., and an abundance of breadstuffs, and every facility of power by steam or water, I ask, Why all this circling of trade? Here comes in the intermediary, or many of them, who pick up a living out of other men's labors; yes, sir, they gather up all the loose specie and carry it off; and the next operation is to shave paper. But there is another deep scheme in operation for the benefit of idle swindlers; and their patrons, or dupes, are legion in number, and their palaces are in every city: I mean here the patentmedicine men, and I ought to include the adulterers of drugs of foreign

countries.

The population of our county is rated now at 15,000 inhabitants. The town of La Porte has a population of 2,500. The prospect of the completion of the Buffalo and Mississippi railroad has already raised the prices of grain and pork.

As the thing comes to my mind just here respecting the growth of pork in Virginia and North Carolina, I now advert to it. I find in one of the volumes issued from the Patent Office, that in raising pork for market, or otherwise, they estimate pigs at 18 or 20 months, fattened, to weigh, on an average, 150 pounds. Our hogs in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, of the same age, uniformly weigh about 250 pounds. The exact reason of this I would like to see explained. It may be altogether in the breed; but why?*

A word more about the prices of grain: From the best information I can get, our corn can be safely purchased at Rochester, New York, at 64 cents per bushel, and landed on the wharf at Liverpool, England, at $1 per bushel. Here we see that the cost of carrying our corn to Rochester is just 32 cents per bushel. Now, I verily believe that it can be carried to New York city by railroad next season for perhaps less than 32 cents per bushel; then the farmer should receive for his corn at La Porte 64 cents per bushel.

Best flour, per barrel, costs from New York to Liverpool, including wharfage and cartage at New York, freight to Liverpool, commissions, insurance, wharfage, &c., 96 cents. Now, a bushel of corn may be set down at one-fourth of 96 cents, which is 24 cents; add 24 to 64, and we have SS cents. This gives the shipper 12 cents per bushel. Of course

[* Pigs in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts frequently weigh 250 pounds when 10 months old, instead of waiting until they are 20 to attain that weight, as in northern Indiana. In all cases it is the neglect to feed high that makes hogs light in weight at maturity; and it is good keeping that gives a large yield of meat in the shortest time, and, usually, at the smallest cost.

See Report of Committee of Brooklyn Agricultural Society, Windham county, Connecticut, in which they say that pigs 10 months old we gh, when dressed, 350 pounds.]

this will inevitably produce a final removal of all intermediaries, who, like the horse-leech, are never satisfied, but cry, "Give, give!" As for our flour, if we can find consumers in the shape of mechanics and manufacturers at home, we had better let them have it than pay on the wharf at Liverpool cost and charges of various kinds, making the cost per barrel $525, and on sale only be able to get $4 50; clear loss, 75 cents per barrel.

I am, sir, now convinced that our region should become a manufacturing district; yet I know, also, that it will not become so immediately. We are convinced that a judicious wool-grower would make more money from 640 acres of suitable land from raising sheep than making corn.

Should this communication reach you, and meet with your favor, I ask your further favor in sending me two articles-a few grains of the Maryland blue-stem wheat, which produced in Caroline county, Virginia, last year 54 to 60 bushels per acre; and, next, a few grains of what is called Lloyd corn-a beautiful white corn, and very productive. It was cultivated last summer in Chester county, Pennsylvania, by five or six farmers. The Troad wheat you sent me two years ago I had carefully sown apart from other wheat, but not one grain sprouted; the reason I know not.

Of the prevailing kinds of wheat sown last year, and harvested the past summer, were the Mediterranean, the white-bearded, the rock wheat, and the Genesee. I saw them all growing in the same field-20 acres of each; all came uninjured to the harvest. The Mediterranean was most productive-produced 25 bushels per acre. The others averaged 20 bushels per acre. All heavy, good wheat.

The variation in the corn crops was occasioned chiefly by bad or good cultivation, ranging from 25 bushels per acre to upwards of 80 bushels.

I have made from my daily minutes of the season thermometrical observations as far as the temperature is concerned, together with the amount of rain monthly; also, the amount of snow during its season. I have no barometer; therefore no calculations from it.

It has here been a good crop season. The present winter crop is exceedingly fine.

Our winter, which is thus far pretty severe, is this day quite mild; ground nearly bare; no frost in it.

Of imported goods there has been the amount of from $80,000 to $200,000 worth brought to La Porte.

I am, respectfully, &c.,

Hon. THOMAS EWBANK,

Commissioner of Patents.

JOHN C. REID.

FORT WAYNE, ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA,
November 20, 1851.

SIR: Your Circular, containing numerous interrogatories, soliciting information on the subject of the agricultural products of the country, came duly to hand; but various causes have conspired to delay an answer until the present moment.

This county (Allen) has a soil adapted to the raising of all kinds of - grain, as well as grass.

Wheat.-As a wheat-growing county, the last United States Census shows it to be the second county in the State. The variety generally preferred is the Washington blue stem; the white Mediterranean can be sown late, and is preferred by some. The success in the crop, experience has proved, consists more in the thorough method of cultivation than in the variety sown. An illustration of a single instance in our county in 1850 will demonstrate it: One individual sowed about 70 acres; three different varieties of seed-white Mediterranean, and two varieties of red-bearded. The soil was different-one field was hard clay; the other two varied from deep mould to sandy loam. The ground was ploughed twice (summer-fallowed) and harrowed three times thor. oughly. Product about 40 bushels to the acre. Scarcely any perceivable difference in any part of the 70 acres. This was considered an extraordinary crop. The average produce of the county it is impossible to get at; the yield ranging from 10 to 30 bushels. The yield is on the increase, as we plough deeper, and harrow oftener and better, thoroughly— to pulverize the ground with drag or harrow being one of the great secrets in raising wheat. Add to this early sowing and early harvesting, and the product will be generally satisfactory.

Corn.-Very little manure of any kind is used in raising corn in the Mississippi valley, especially on the river bottoms. Average yield, 40 bushels; cost of cultivation about 12 cents; average price, 25 cents. No experience in testing the comparative value between raw, cooked, and * boiled food.

Oats. Average yield, 40 bushels. Side oats stand up best, and are most productive.

Barley.-A somewhat uncertain crop.

Beans. Soil rather rich; continue to grow toc late in the season; do not ripen well; yet fine crops are sometimes raised.

Peas. Commonly a good crop. Average yield 20 bushels; 3 bushels sown to the acre. The bug is very destructive to our early crop. Sow

from 1st to 10th of June, and you escape it altogether. I have tried it.. This is an item of information that ought to be extensively diffused, as the pea crop is an important one. It can be grown on almost any soil, and is not exhausting. Average price here, $1.

Grasses.-Clover, timothy, and red top do exceedingly well. Average yield about two tons to the acre. The application of any kind of manure as a top-dressing is valuable. Even straw, carefully distributed in the fall, has shown itself visibly in the crop. I have used plaster this year on a clover field with marked success.

Dairy Husbandry.-Strictly speaking, very little done in that branch. No data worth communicating.

Neat Cattle.-Cost of raising, very trifling. After the first winter they run out in the range most of the grazing season, and in the stalk fields, and to straw mostly during the winter, which is short. For this kind of treatment it is thought grade cattle do best; some fine Durhams, however, are being introduced. Common price of three-year-old steers from $10 to $12.

Horses.-The raising of horses is considered more profitable than any kind of farming business. They are frequently raised in the same manner as I have described in the raising of cattle, and the expense but little more. Price at three years old from $30 to $50.

Sheep.-Very little done at wool-growing. Sheep did not do well when the county was first opened. The wild parsnip, which was somewhat abundant in certain localities, sheep are fond of, and it is very fatal to them. This has deterred many farmers from going into the busiThe farmers are now experimenting with more success.

ness.

Hogs.-My method of hog-raising is to keep them in clover fields. Sows raise two litters-one in April, and the other in October. Feed the sows and pigs with milk and slops. The April pigs I butcher at 8 months old; the October pigs, at 14 months. I give them a good start, early, with green corn, cut up. They will eat stalks and all. Follow it up with boiled pumpkins and potatoes, giving it more body after the second week with meal and boiled buckwheat, &c., and finish with six weeks on corn and meal. This is my method, which I think profitable. My breed is a cross of the Leicester and Lincoln. I purchased a pair of pigs at the State Fair in New York some three years ago. They keep easy, mature young, and weigh well. The hog I purchased received an injury, and was fattened last fall. He weighed nearly 600 pounds. Other breeds and crosses are preferred by some.

Root Crops.-Do well; but cannot be raised profitably, owing to the expense of raising. Labor is too high for that purpose. Turnips grow well, but are only raised for family use. Price, 12 or 15 cents.

Potatoes. One of our best crops. The varieties are too numerous to give particulars. Quality fine. Average yield about 150 bushels. Sweet potatoes are raised to a considerable extent, and with varied success; not considered a profitable crop.

Fruit.-All the choice varieties cultivated elsewhere. The " pear blight" and "yellows," on peach trees, are not known among us as yet. Grapes do well. The Catawba and Isabella are the principal kinds cultivated. The Catawba is rather late; but it surpasses everything else, and is raised as easily as currants.

JEFFERSON, INDIANA, November 30, 1851.

SIR: I have just received the second part of the Patent Office Report for 1851 from the Hon. J. McDonald, late member of Congress from this district. In regard to the organization of the agricultural part of the Patent Office, I beg leave to offer a few suggestions. Suppose each county had an officer, whose duty should be to report to the Commissioner of Patents, monthly, the condition and prospects of the crops in his respective county-such officers being elected or appointed in all the States and Territories of the Union: the Commissioner of Patents would thus be put in possession of agricultural information the most accurate and extensive.

From these county reports, general State reports could be drawn up and published monthly in Reports from the Patent Office: thus the State agricultural reports of the month of May to appear in the Patent Office Report for June, and those of June in the July Report, &c.; so keeping the people advised of the true state of all the various crops of our widelyextended country, from the time of planting or sowing, through the progress of their growth, to maturity, until they were gathered and saved. I need not say to you that agricultural wealth is the true basis of all o her wealth, individual or national.

Suppose the office of furnishing the Commissioner of Patents these county monthly agricultural reports was attached to the office of county assessor in each county. County assessors are, or ought to be, judicious, practical business men, and competent to estimate and give the county reports correctly; and, in addition to that duty, they ought to be required to ask each farmer, while assessing his property, the number of acres he has in wheat, the number in corn, in oats, in cotton, rice, sugar, &c.; and from these data make out an annual county report of the agricultural productions of the county, the average quantity of grain, or other agricultural productions, per acre, and the sum total of each; which reports should be filed in the clerk's office of each county, and a copy should be forwarded to the Commissioner of Patents, and thus furnish him the proper data for his Annual Report, which would present an accurate account of the number of acres of each article of agricultural production, with the sum total of the entire quantity of each annually raised in the United States and Territories. Thus in a few years an approximate estimate might be made of the quantity of each article of agricultural production consumed, and the surplus, if any, and the deficiency, if any. It is obvious that such information would enable the people to seek the best market for their surplus productions, and the best way of supplying deficiencies when crops fail. It is required, I believe, of consuls abroad to furnish seeds for distribution among the people by the Commissioner of Patents, through the Post Office. It would be well for them, also, to furnish agricultural reports of counties where they are respectively residing. These reports should be monthly, and drawn from the best sources of information in their power. Thus besides a correct knowledge of the agricultural productions of our own country, we would be put in possession of comparatively correct accounts of the agricultural productions of other countries.

Some such comprehensive system of agricultural organization is required in the United States. Hitherto agricultural improvements have sprung mainly from individual effort. Agricultural fairs, agricultural newspapers,