out about two feet. This is the pyramidal way of tying up, already in practice with the old Romans, and offering great facilities. The vines are serpent-like, tied up around the pyramid. The grapes will hang inside, and be well sheltered. No gale of wind will break down the firm frame. 3d. Of course we leave more fruit-bearing vines, and cut down the same to the double amount of joints, being always careful to raise fresh vines from down below, in order to have our stocks constantly renewed and the older vines removed. 4th. The proper time for pruning is from the end of October to early in March; prune, if possible, in November. 5th. Put your slips into the ground just when you perceive that the buds are swelling-late in April, or early in May. 6th. A very simple rule for pruning is this: take away about half the wood of the whole stock, leaving one-half; thus your vines will be strong enough to grow and bear. 7th. Hoe your vineyard over twice every month, from April to September, (it will save you trouble); but let it rather be a scratching than a hoeing. 8th. In the place of putting "the bung loosely" on your casks during fermentation, put on the bung-hole, first, a grape leaf, and upon that a small bag filled with fine, and not quite dry, sand. In good cellars, and large casks, your wine will, and must not clear in less than six or eight weeks. Rack off in March, then again in midsummer, and then again just before the time of the next harvest. Before every racking, have your casks well sulphurated. Then, first, your juice is real wine, and may be bottled; it will keep-unless drunk-as long as you please, and improve considerably for a series of years. This year and the last I have failed in the quantity of wine raised; but as to the quality, I pretend to say that my product is." hard to beat." Agriculture, on the whole, has, in Missouri, advanced not far beyond its infancy. The people are generally following the exhausting system. Everything is wasted-timber, soil, and all. A farm improved 30 years since is deemed to be an old place. A field that has yielded 20 crops is, as a matter of course, worn out. The weight pressing on our agriculture-as, indeed, on everything else-is the system of involuntary labor. I could adduce many instances of old settlers being compelled to leave their places because they could no more on them "raise bread enough to feed their niggers." Their only shift is, then, "to sell out and move." Perhaps an industrious German will buy the ruined place, restore it to fertility, pay off the purchase money in five years, and be indedependent and "very well off" in 10 years. I do not deny that there are careful husbandmen among the old as well as new settlers; but the prevailing rule is to waste and move. Latterly wheat-growing has vastly extended in Missouri, and our wheat commands a good market. I hope we may look for a new and better era, a new stimulus being discernible among the people all over the State. Accept the assurance of my high esteem, Hon. THOMAS EWBANK, Commissioner of Patents. FREDERICK MUNCH. IOWA. NEAR FORT MADISON, LEE COUNTY, IOWA, December, 1851. SIR: I have received your Agricultural Circular, and herewith furnish some answers to your queries. - Wheat. The varieties used for fall sowing are, the old red-chaff bearded, velvet, smooth red-chaff, and smooth white wheat. The first-named variety is the favorite, although the velvet wheat will occasionally outyield it; still it is the surest crop. There is no guano used here. Our country is new, and farmers have not used manure; but I think clover sod would produce better crops of wheat than we now raise. The average product per acre this season would not exceed 15 bushels. From the accompanying record, (see Sec. vii.,) you will see we have had a very wet spring. This injured our wheat crop very materially. Time of seeding, the month of September; of harvesting, from the 5th to the 12th of July. Seed is not prepared, but sown as it is, generally. Quantity sown, from one to one and a half bushel per acre. Oat stubble is ploughed twice; the first ploughing shallow. The object is to turn under the shattered oats that are on the ground. After the grain has sprouted and come up, then we plough 6 or 7 inches deep, and harrow our wheat in good order. The yield is decreasing. All the system of rotation of crops is to follow corn with small grain. Hessian fly we have no remedy for. In the fall of 1850 a young farmer, living in the bottom lands of the Mississippi, had a good pros pect of early sown wheat, but found that the Hessian fly was injuring it very much. He turned on it calves and sheep; pastured it bare; then rolled it with a heavy roller, and again rolled it in the spring. The wheat produced well-better than any of his neighbors.' There is no weevil here; but the Mormon bug is an enemy to the wheat crop in the fall season. It is not as bad as formerly. Price, from 50 to 60 cents at Fort Madison. I have no doubt but the roller is a great benefit to the wheat crops. Some of our farmers are beginning to use the drill in seeding. . I have received the package of Troy wheat which you were so kind as to send me, for which I return you my thanks. In consequence of its coming to hand so late, I did not get it in the ground until the 17th of last month, (November.) I drilled it in with the hoe on an excellent lot of ground; and, should the rust not take it, as it does generally our late sowing, I will have a good start from it. Corn. This year nearly a total failure, from the wet weather in the spring; not more than ten per cent. raised this season. Our customary average is 50 bushels per acre. Cost of production about 8 cents per bushel. The system of culture--first harrow, then plough three or four times; no hoe used. This is almost the only system of culture. The grain is fed raw. We have corn and cob-crushers; but have not had experience enough to tell their advantage. Fall ploughing is best for corn. It pulverizes, and, to some extent, fertilizes the soil, and increases the product from ten to twenty per cent.; and the crop is easier cultivated, or tended, as we call it, in our vernacular tongue. Oats.-This crop generally follows corn, and succeeds better in fall ploughing. Seed per acre, from 2 to 3 bushels; produce, from 30 to 50 bushels per acre. Harvest, about 5th August. Barley is the least exhausting as a crop, and is the best stubble for wheat; but is not much. sown. Rye, Peas, and Beans.-Not much cultivated. Peas and beans only in gardens. Clover and Grasses.-Timothy and red clover are sown on our prairies when the sod is completely rotten, and the soil in a good state of cultivation. Quantity sown, about a peck of timothy and some clover seed in the chaff per acre. When manured with stable manure-the only kind used-produces two tons and upwards per acre. Our prairies have no means of irrigation, and meadows soon run out. Wheat on timothy sod has always been a failure. Dairy Husbandry.-Average product of a good cow, about 200 pounds of butter, or from 200 to 300 pounds of cheese, per annum. Average price of butter in 1851, 10 cents per pound; cheese, 7 cents. Old-fashioned churns still used. Neat Cattle are raised with but little cost-salt in the summer, and the range of the woods or prairies; and in the winter, a little corn, salt, and straw. Price of native animal, $10 to $15; good milch cows, from $12 to $20. Very few Durhams. It is thought that a given amount of food will yield more meat in a Durham than in a native. Steers, when yoked first, are put on the tongue of a wagon, or the hindermost yoke in a prairie plough; then put on an old yoke before them, and they generally soon give up. Horses and Mules.-The growing of both profitable. Cost of raising horses to three years old, about $20; mules, about $12. We work our brood mares two weeks after foaling, and raise good colts. We have no good stallions here. The best way to break a colt is to put him with a steady horse to the tongue of a two-horse wagon, and treat him gently. Forcible, cruel usage in breaking ruins many a good horse. Mules require more harsh usage. Sheep.-Wool-growing is profitable. Large sheep are more profitable for mutton or for their fleece. A merino sheep will not produce more than half as much wool as a native sheep, but the difference in the price will make up the loss. We feed generally on sheaf-oats, and our sheep do very well. Hogs.-Best breed, China and Byfield crossed; Berkshires are not much esteemed of late. The only method of raising hogs here is by feeding corn to them in pens or small fields. There is no doubt that the clover-lot, or the orchard, will soon succeed the present mode of raising hogs. Cotton, Sugar Cane, and Rice.-Not raised here. Tobacco. Only in gardens, to a small extent. Root Crops.-Only raised in gardens. Potatoes, (Irish.)-A failure this season; the rot was bad. Meshannocks the favorites; yield from 200 to 300 bushels to the acre, in a good season. Cultivation: plough the ground in the fall; plant in hills; plough and hoe twice. Cost of production, in a good season, about 6 cents per bushel. Sweet Potatoes.--The yam is the most productive. Plant, after sprout. ing, in hills; tend with the hoe. Manure is but little used; but, when used, it increases the product very materially. Fruit is receiving increased attention. As yet, there are not enough apples raised for home consumption; consequently we cannot tell their value for the purpose of feeding hogs or cattle; but there is no doubt that the sweet apple would be profitable. Rawle's Janet, Rhode Island greenings, and pippins, are among the best of our keeping apples for win ter use. The best and only remedy for blight on pear and apple-trees is a full and unsparing use of the knife. Cut below the blight some distance; if you lose the limb, you save the tree. There are some of our farmers advocating budding or grafting of the peach and nectarine on an almond stock. This would prevent the grub that works in the root, and perhaps would be a remedy for the yellows. I have not had experience enough to give any directions as to transplanting, budding, or grafting, but would always prefer the spring as the time for transplanting. Pulverize the ground well by ploughing and harrowing; dig large holes; mark your trees in the nursery, and plant in the same position that they stand in the orchard. I have seen hardy appletrees grafted on the black locust, that did well; they are in Clarke county, Indiana, 4 miles southwest of Charlestown, in the orchard of Mr. John Blizzard. Will Mr. Neff, near Cincinnati, Ohio, please to give us his experience with the Osage orange in hedging? We understand that he first planted it in 1837. Should this meet his eye, or any other farmer that has that or a longer experience, they will confer a particular favor on us, inhabitants of the prairies, by giving us all the information they can about planting, cultivating, and trimming, in the Report of 1852. You will find the meteorological record accompanying this. Respectfully, yours, Hon. THOMAS EWBANK, Commissioner of Patents. D. MCCREADY. WISCONSIN. SHARON, WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN. November 20, 1851. SIR: Your Agricultural Circular of August was duly received and noted. I reply as follows: Time of seedSpring, from the Time of harvest Wheat. The average production the present year, for winter, is twenty bushels, and spring, twenty to thirty bushels per acre. ing, winter, from the 1st of September to the 15th. 1st of April to the 20th. Seed, two bushels per acre. ing, from 20th of July to 15th of August. Ploughing our land, twice for winter, once for spring wheat. The crop is decreasing one-eighth. Our markets are Racine, Southport, and Milwaukie. Average price, 55 cents for winter, and 35 to 45 cents per bushel for spring. Corn. We plant from 20th April to 15th May. Seed mostly yellow; the yield, from thirty to fifty bushels per acre. Manuring would increase the product from ten to twelve bushels per acre. Oats and Barley.-Will yield from forty to sixty bushels to the acre, requires 2 bushels, per acre, of seed, and are less exhausting to land than other grains. Peas.-Are considered a renovating crop; not grown here to much extent, but generally approved for preparing land for wheat. Grasses.-Timothy will cut two or three tons per acre; clover, about Blue grass makes fine hay, and will yield from 2 to 4 tons Our lands best adapted to meadows are alluvial and moist; and, next, burr-oak land, seeded with six quarts per acre. the same. per acre. Dairy.-A good milker will make 8 pounds of butter per week for five months in a year. Average price, ten cents per pound. Cattle.-Cost of rearing, until three years old, $9; usual price about $12 per head. Horses. The growing of these animals is profitable. Expense of rearing, till three years old, about $30; worth from $40 to $100. Brood mares should be used carefully on a farm; ploughing, dragging, &c., will not hurt them. They should not be over-heated or driven hard. Sheep and Wool-growing.-Wool growing is profitable. Cost of growing fine, 15 to 25 cents per pound; coarse wool, from 10 to 15 cents per pound. One ton of hay will winter five sheep, which will shear from three to four pounds of wool each. It is safe to calculate two lambs to three ewes, although they frequently double the flocks every year. The large Bakewell sheep are best adapted to this climate; the mutton being the most desirable. Hogs.-Best breeds, a cross of Berkshire and Liecestershire. The latter makes the heaviest pork. Ground grain is the most desirable for fattening, making one-fifth difference in the expense. Roots. All esculent roots grow well here as field or garden crops.· Beets, turnips, and carrots will yield 150 to 200 bushels per acre. Com mon barn manure is sometimes used. Potatoes are decreasing. The rot has injured one-half to two-thirds for two years past. Fruit.-Fruit culture is in its infancy in this vicinity. Apple and cherry trees are beginning to bear. I think it will not be a good fruit country. Meteorological.-Extreme heat at meridian, from 86 to 100 deg. Fahrenheit. Cold, from 15 above to 26 deg. below zero. Having lived South most of my life, I am not as well informed as I would like to be on the agricultural productions of this country. With profound respect, I remain yours, sincerely, H. S. YOUNG. Hon. THOMAS EWBANK, Commissioner of Patents. ALLEN'S GROVE, WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN, January, 1852. SIR: Having been requested by the Commissioner of Patents to give a short history of the habits of the buffalo, elk, and moose, I will attempt to do so, as far as my knowledge extends: |