To show the cost and profit, I will present you the following, in tabular form, for 1852, on wheat, corn, oats, and apples-one acre each— with the yield in bushels, and the price of each per bushel, fifteen miles from Quincy, our market.

Yield in bushels, per acre, 12; total market value, $8 25; loss, 371⁄2

Bushels per acre, 40; total market value, $10; profit, $1 85.

Bushels per acre, 50; total market value, $12 50; profit, $4 15.

The next two years will pay rent, and for the trees. Good winter Genitens, at ten years old, will yield ten bushels per tree; worth 75 cents per bushel. Forty trees-ten bushels per tree-will produce 400 bushels; worth, at 75 cents per bushel, $300. Deduct cost for eight years, ($17,) and you will have a clear profit of $283.

Remarks on the above Table.-An acquaintance of mine last spring purchased eighty acres of land, for which he paid $1,200. On this tract were two acres of orchard and about eighty trees sixteen years old. While on a visit to him in the fall, I observed some ten or twelve trees of the winter Geniten hanging very full. He asked me how I thought they would yield to each tree. I replied, about seven bushels. He then told me he had gathered some of them, and that they measured ten bushels to each tree, and would bring 75 cents per bushel at his door; and that they had borne equally well for the last five years. I had no reason to doubt his word; and on his report I have founded mine; and let it go for what it is worth.

In travelling through the Genesee valley, in the State of New York, during the past summer, the greatest wheat-growing section in our country, I made inquiries of intelligent farmers if their land, from a long course of cultivation, did not depreciate in fertility like the old Eastern States? Their reply was: We make use of all the manure we make on our lands; but our principal remedy is clover. Every spring we go over our wheat and scatter on clover seed; the next spring we usually mow the first crop; and then if we wish to put in wheat in the fall, we turn under the second crop when in full blossom, and in this way we keep up our lands so that they produce as well as they did when first brought under cultivation thirty and forty years ago; and we feel pretty sure of getting 25 to 30 bushels of wheat to the acre.

Such is the response which the farmers of the Genesee valley gave to my inquiries on wheat growing; but, so far as my knowledge extends, clover has not come into use in the wheat culture in this section; but there is little doubt, in my mind, that its introduction here would start our wheat crops up to the figure quoted from the valley of the Genesee, or nearly that point. Our usual depth of ploughing for wheat is from 4 to 6 inches; with this uniform depth of ploughing our soil depreciates, in my estimation, about six or eight per cent. annually, but with several counteracting causes: first, from a rotation with corn and oats; second, deeper ploughing, which improves the soil very much; and third, ploughing under stubble, corn stalks, and the like, versus burning them off. Our staples are corn and pork; as corn, in the way we cultivate it, is more natural to our system than wheat. In the tabular estimate which

I send you, corn is put at 25 cents per bushel; this is its relative value, which is far from being correct when compared with its value fed into pork. According to the best estimate made by old corn-growers on the comparative value of corn fed into pork, it increases in a ratio of 10 per cent. in a manner as follows:

If pork is worth $2 50 per 100 lbs., corn is worth 25 cts. per bushel.

3 00
4.00
5 00

5 50

30 (6

Pork is bringing, at this date, in Quincy, $5 50 per hundred pounds; so that the comparative value of corn is 55 cents per bushel, while its relative or real value is 25 cents cash.

This fictitious valuation (if I may so call it) arises from the estimation that ten bushels of good corn will fatten a full-grown hog; and that it will take another ten bushels to make a full-grown hog out of a decent pig.

Another estimate has, by unanimous consent, been agreed upon between farmers-that half of the quantity, ground into meal and cooked, will make an equal quantity of pork.

The best method of cultivating our corn crops where we do not use the hoe, especially if corn follows the wheat crop, is to begin with fall ploughing to a good depth-say eight inches; the frosts of winter will pulverize the soil and make it as mellow as an ash heap. In the spring, from the 15th of April to the 15th of May, we first cross harrow; and then, with a light plough and one horse, lay it off in rows, four feet each way, and plant in the crossings; three plants in each hill is a sufficient number of our largest kinds of corn, after the birds, mice, and squirrels have taken all they can get. When the young plants are up so that we can see the rows, we plough the corn, turning the soil from the hill the first two ploughings; our last two ploughings, we turn the soil to the hill, and plough three furrows between the rows. This is after the old Kentucky pattern of corn-growing, and with a good horse, a man faithful to his work will cultivate twenty acres, and have it laid by at harvest time, I have known as high as eighty five bushels of shelled corn grown to the acre without a hoe going into the field; but this is not an average estimate; from thirty-five to fifty five bushels to the acre is high enough.

Corn lands have been in cultivation from twenty to forty years, and produce good crops yet; but this remark applies more particularly to our river bottoms than to our upland prairies. Corn lands can be renovated very much by ploughing under the stalks, instead of raking them and burning them off, as is practised by some; as it keeps the land light and loose; whereas raking and burning must, in time, run down the soil.

Oats cannot be a profitable crop to raise for market at this distance; consequently none are raised, except for the home market and for feed. There are two very serious objections against an oat crop which every farmer feels decidedly: first, it is a crop nearly as expensive as a wheat crop; second, it impoverishes the land in a ratio of from eight to twelve per cent on every crop; which is altogether too high a deduction from the productive qualities of the land to follow up for any given length of time.

I have already spun my communication out to such a length that I shall be compelled to be very brief on the other points inquired after in your Circular, and many of them must pass over unnoticed.

Root culture is not receiving that attention which I know it richly merits as a field crop. Our prairie soil is well adapted to it, being a rich vegetable mould, light, loose, and deep; the main difficulty is the want of cellars to keep the roots from the frosts, and the hot, dry weather, which makes it extremely doubtful about getting the seed up, and the young plants a good root hold. When these difficulties can be obviated, give us our dry prairie land against the world on root crops.

The figures which I send you in tabular form, on fruit culture, are correct in the main, founded on personal knowledge, on the results of this year's observations, enormous as they are, and from observations extending back 10 and 12 years. The culture of fruit, I may safely say, has been increasing from 25 to 50 per cent. during that whole time; the demand is just as firm, and prices rule as high as at first. The most inveterate enemy that man has to contend with in fruit culture is the borer. I have dug and slain every one I could find in the spring, and searched closely at that; by midsummer I have gone the rounds. again, and found just as many old fellows boring away at my trees, determined to kill them all. I have washed my trees in soft soap, strong lye, milk of lime, and everything I ever heard of, and some things I never heard of and nobody else ever heard of, and I find "it aint no use." I have got to give up, my trees are dying, and I must either plant out more trees, buy apples if I have any, or go without.

The best remedy which I ever tried to keep peach trees alive and healthy is, when the tree is three or four inches in diameter, to drive two eightpenny nails into it, close to the ground, so that they may cross each other at right-angles and divide the tree into nearly four equal parts; the tree will soon grow and cover up the nails; or mix sulphur and soft soap, and rub down the trees in spring and midsummer, and cultivate the ground around the trees. It is a mistaken idea to suppose that peach trees can thrive and do well, without cultivation, any more than cabbages; I never had half the difficulty with the peach that I have with the apple in cultivation.

TIMOTHY DUDLEY.

MONTELLO, MARQUETTE COUNTY, WISCONSIN,
December, 1852.

SIR: This is comparatively a new country; it is only some six years ago that the first settlement was made here, and even now not one acre in twenty of the tillable land of the county has been touched by the plough. But it is fast filling up with a good, enterprising population, and soon we, too, shall help to glut the already-overstocked markets of the East. The soil and climate of this portion of Wisconsin are well adapted to the growth of wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, barley, rye, root crops, and fruit. Our winters are too open to render winter wheat a sure crop; and, consequently, we raise but little, although its culture is not altogether abandoned. If we could secure it from winter-killing it would be a profitable crop, and would take the place of spring wheat,

which is now extensively raised. Corn, however, is what our land likes, and its culture is on the increase. Our chief fault in raising this crop is, that we do not plough deep enough, four inches being about an average. The average yield of corn per acre is about forty bushels, although in many instances it is far more than that. It is the common custom to feed corn to hogs and cattle in the ear, there being no cash market for it; pork and beef will always bring money at some price. At home, beef is worth three dollars and pork four dollars per hundred at the present time. The disadvantage of being at a great distance from the consumer is keenly felt by the farmers in this part. The extra price we have to pay for all kinds of manufactured articles, and the low prices which we receive for our products, tend to keep the spirits, as well as the purses, of our agricultural population rather low. Our land is rich enough, and our disposition to work good enough, and seems to warrant us a better support. Although we need to improve much in many branches of farming, yet we need a home market for our products still more.

Sheep and Wool.-These might be made to pay well, but the absence of the stock to begin with proves a "damper. We are all too poor to go five hundred miles away to get flocks of sheep, and bring them home, and so engage in that pursuit which comes most handy for us to do, viz: raise corn, wheat, oats, and potatoes, without regard to profit.

Fruit Culture.-We cannot say that this is receiving increased attention, for it has heretofore received no attention at all. We have crab apples, wild plums, wild cherries, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, whortleberries, wild grapes, &c., all spontaneous productions of the country, which go to show plainly what might be done at fruit-raising. Very many of our settlers are becoming convinced of the importance of trying to raise fruit trees, and there is no doubt that in a few years we shall see large numbers of trees planted, both in orchard and nursery.

Meteorology.-By a comparison of the range of thermometer here with the same in Western New York, we find that the average temperature for the last six months has been a trifle higher here than at the latter place a fact worth considering by those who desire to emigrate and think that Northern Wisconsin is too cold a climate, since it is certainly the most healthy region in the Western country.

Yours, respectfully,

H. B. EVEREST.

Hon. S. H. HODGES.

BERLIN, MARQUETTE COUNTY, Wis.,
January 5, 1853.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Circular; and, in reply, submit a few observations on the culture and management of flax.

The large sums which we remit annually to Europe, especially to Ireland, for linen, form a considerable item in the out-going capital of this country whereas a concentrated and well-directed exertion on the part of a few capitalists would not only establish a home manufac