"We were more fortunate last year, as will be seen from the following. Our stock consisted of 84 fowls, including cocks, 3 turkeys, 7 geese, 2 ducks, and 2 guinea fowls; which was, of course, much increased in the spring and summer by the young reared. They consumed 71 bushels of wheat screenings, at 15 cents 4 66 - $10 65 2.00 millet, oats, 24 66 · 7 26 66 We obtained 4,152 eggs, average 1 cent - $41 52 47 15 6 00 94 67 "These fowls were confined in a yard, and allowed as much grain as they would eat, it being kept constantly before them, changed often; and in the winter boiled potatoes were fed to them warm, and occasionally animal food. They were plentifully supplied with lime, gravel, and water. Some allowance, however, must be made in regard to the amount of sales, as many of the fowls were of fancy breeds." He adds, in his volume: "By referring to the agricultural statistics of the United States, as furnished by the last census, taken in 1839 and published in 1840, it would appear the value of poultry in the State of New York amounted to $2,373,029; and that of the various States and Territories of the Union amounted to the sum of $12,176,170." "The annual consumption of poultry and small game in the city of Paris usually amounts to £22,000,000. The quantity of eggs used annually in France exceeds 7,250,000,000; of which enormous number Paris uses about 120,000,000. The importation of eggs from Ireland, in 1837, to Liverpool and Bristol alone, amounted in value to £250,000. The importation from France the same year was probably greater." It appears, from the custom house returns of the year 1838, that eggs were imported into England (though loaded with heavy duties) from the continent, to the value of more than a million of dollars. Eighteen tons of poultry, it is said, left Syracuse, New York, in one day, for the Boston market. It is supposed that there may be consumed in the United States 1,400,000,000 of eggs; and, averaging the value at 6 cents per dozen, this would amount to $8,000,000. If we allow an average of 5 chickens, or other kinds of fowls, a year to each person, at a cost of 124 cents average, including turkeys, geese, ducks, &c., this will amount to more than 97,500,000-equal in value to more than $12,000,000 annually; making the aggregate value of the consumption of poultry, to say nothing of the amount which might be added for the feathers. It is said to have been ascertained, that half a million of eggs are consumed every month in the city of New York. One woman in Fulton market sold 175,000 eggs in 10 weeks, supplying the Astor House each day with 1,000 for 5 days, and on Saturday 2,500. No. 38. STATISTICS ON WHEAT IN OHIO. The following extract from the report of the committee appointed by the Agricultural Society of Hamilton county, Ohio, will be read with deep interest. A similar examination in other sections of the United States is strongly recommended. There is no doubt of a direct connexion between the constitution of a soil and the timber it produces; and from this we may deduce a connexion between timber and crops. The heaviest crop of wheat is found on land having sugar tree and oak as the principal timber, as will appear from the following classification: The mixture of sugar and oak appears to give the best yield; sugar and beech, next; and beech and oak, the next. If an analysis of these soils, and of the wood most congenial to them, were carefully made, we should probably discover not only a resemblance between them and their timber, but between the timber produced and the grain and straw of wheat. The statement of an average yield of wheat enables us to ascertain the number of acres cultivated in wheat in 1839, when the official return gives 213,815 bushels for the product of that year. If that year gave an average crop, the quantity of ground then in cultivation in wheat was 13,029 acres. The crop, since 1840, has been more uncertain in its yield, price lower, and demand less; from which we conclude that there has not been an increase in the production of the country since that time. Misfortunes to which the crop is liable. The record we have given of the remarks made upon wheat shows that there are three principal evils to which it is subject, viz: rust, fly, and freezing out. The average loss of the crop, by these and other causes, is once in four years a total failure. Evils and seed. The farmers differ in regard to which of these is the greatest enemy to wheat; six of those speaking upon the subject regard rust as the difficulty most to be avoided; nine consider freezing out the most injurious; and nine suppose the fly to be the worst enemy. Respecting the quantity of seed, the farmers of Hamilton vary from three to five pecks. Mr. Smethhart considers three pecks to be better calculated to insure a full crop than more. In Flanders, two Winchester bushels are sown to the English acre, which is nearly eight pecks of our measure; in England, two and a half to three and a half bushels. The richness and depth of the soil has so much to do with the quantity of seed, that it is difficult to establish a rule upon the subject. In England, however, where the dibbling process has been tried, and the seed planted in regular squares of six inches on a side, and a seed in the middle of two sides, the quantity is reduced to about one and a half bushels to the acre, and the yield increased many fold. Time of sowing-prices.-Among the farmers who gave answers to our inquiries about the time of sowing, four put in their wheat in August, four in October, nine in September, and one in November. Of those who prefer September, six sow during the first ten days, one by the first day, and two in the latter part of the month. Those who cover the seed in the first week expect to harvest between the 25th and 30th of June. The following table exhibits the price of wheat at Cincinnati, every six months, for four years past: The method of tilling is very various. In new ground, for the first crop, the seed is generally scattered over the fresh surface, and harrowed in with-out ploughing. The rooty condition of the ground frequently prevents the use of the plough. In old ground, the practice most in vogue among farmers is to summer fallow, and harrow in upon the sod. In fields that are clear of stumps and stones, (and very few farms in Hamilton county are troubled with stone,) the plough lies over the sward very uniform and flat. It is thought that ground made too mellow and fine is more liable to winter-kill the wheat than such as is in the state of clods, provided they are dead and rotting. Some cases will be observed in our abstract, where clover has been turned in, and wheat sown upon furrow immediately, and also where turf land has been broken up a few weeks before seeding. In land where ploughing can be done so perfectly as to turn over all the soil, and is not inclined to send up grass and weeds, this practice of sowing soon after breaking up is undoubtedly advantageous. It allows the growing plant a chance to absorb more of the volatile portions of the decomposing sward. Upon the whole, this region cannot be said to be well adapted to the culture of wheat. Uncertainty of crops.-A crop which is liable to be cut off once in four years is too uncertain to be raised with profit for sale, although every good farmer would continue, even under this disadvantage, to sow enough for his family use. It is much less sure, and also less abundant in yield, than formerly, when the country was new. This seems to indicate a change of climate, as well as a change in the condition of the soil. The effect of cleared land, and of cultivation, is to cause a greater number of thawings and freezings, which are each of them injurious to the root; and when land becomes heavy by constant use, the effect of frost in that way is different and more destructive. The country is filled with the fly, and there seems to be an increased dis position to rust. Very early sown wheat generally escapes the rust, but appears to be more exposed to the fly. The Alabama wheat has hitherto escaped both, and produces a fine yield of good wheat. It has, however, not been tried long enough to pronounce upon its ultimate success. We should expect a grain from the South to mature earlier, and consequently do better, provided the winters did not injure it. Varieties and composition.-A kind of wheat, called Virginia wheat, has been tried with that view, as we are told, and gave a good crop; but we have no personal knowledge concerning it. Mr. Frost, of Crosby, has tried Saxon wheat, and considers both it and the "blue stem" as before our common kinds, and even before Alabama. The fact noted by Mr. Brown, that the fly which infested the timothy part of his fallow did not the clover, is worthy of remembrance. In England there are 42 varieties of cultivated wheat-winter, spring, and summer; but, as yet, they are not well classified in botanical order. The Romans of the days of our Saviour sowed the common red and the white wheat in general, but in moist situations they made use of the bearded. Sir Humphrey Davy's analysis of wheat shows that the spring wheat contains the largest amount of gluten; and the Farmers' Encyclopedia intimates that it is the most nutritious. The substances of a mineral kind drawn from the earth, are, according to the analysis of Sprengel, for 1,000 pounds of If we call the weight of straw per acre 3,000 pounds, (which is near the average,) and allow 16 bushels of grain, (or say 1,000 pounds weight,) we shall have 4,000 pounds as the vegetable product, which leaves 117.41 pounds earthy residue. This result is not strictly exact; and the grain of Germany, where Sprengel operated, may not be composed exactly as our own. The most striking fact contained in this table is the discrepancy between the amount of lime in the kernel, compared with the stalk. Time of harvesting.-Having given the principal details of our observations among the cultivators of the soil at home, we add some considerations from the experience of farmers in other countries, particularly in relation to the state of wheat when it is cut. In 1840, Mr. John Hannam, of North Deighton, in Yorkshire, England,* made several experiments upon the relative values of wheat cut at various stages of ripeness. It should be borne in mind that the harvests of England occur from four to six weeks later than in southern Ohio. Specimen No. 1, cut green, August 4. Specimen No. 2, cut raw, August 18. The green specimen had not begun to turn yellow; the chaff adhered to the kernel, which was green, soft, and full of milk, although perfectly formed. No. 2, or the raw, was quite yellow from the roots about one foot upwards; and the whole stalk, though apparently green, was seen to be, on close examination, of a yellowish tint. The ears were open, the chaff yellow and green, and the grain still soft and pulpy, with some fluid matter in the kernel. The specimen No. 3 was ripe, without being dead ripe or brittle, but in what is called harvesting order. The ripe gave 30 bushels of 60 pounds, and 2,688 pounds of straw. * Farmers' Encyclopedia, article Wheat, page 1124. |