The coldest days were in January-on the 18th, at sunrise, the mercury was 6° above zero; on the 30th, 3° above; and on the 31st, precisely at 0. The warmest days were in September-the mercury was, on the 10th, 93°; 11th, 94°; 12th, 95°; 13th, 94°. The season was very dry in June, July, August, September, and October. Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

Hon. THOMAS EWBANK,

Commissioner of Patents.

WILLIAM JULIEN, SEN.

SIR: Through our mutual friend, the Hon. D. C. Goddard, I had the pleasure of receiving a package of Agricultural Circulars, which I promptly forwarded to such of the practical farmers of southern Ohio as I supposed would be enabled to give you full reports on the agriculture of that portion of the State. Should they comply with my earnest solicitations, we shall have the pleasure of seeing them in your next Patent Office Report. But, as a large portion are more practical than theoretical, in all probability they will decline the request, and southern Ohiowill continue unreported. Therefore I have taken upon myself the task of saying something of the soil and agriculture of this portion of Ohio, in order to remove the impression set afloat by the State Board of Agriculture in their report to the Legislature-that this region of country was susceptible only of being used for sheep pastures. I trust I shall be able to show, most conclusively, that it is the very best portion of Ohio; and, taking into consideration the susceptibility of the whole country for agricultural improvement, and the inexhaustible partially-developed mineral wealth, it is not extravagant to say that no portion of Ohio, nor of any part of the United States, of equal extent, exceeds this in prospective

wealth; which we shall take the liberty to speak of in the sequel of these desultory observations.

From the junction of the Big Scioto to the mouth of the Muskingum, and extending back some 40 miles, the physical topography presents about the same aspect of hill and dale. The first, when examined as to fertilizing ingredients, is found to contain silica, calcareous, and argillaceous compounds, in all localities, in greater or less proportions of each, and by an improved system of farming-that is, returning a quid pro quo, and keeping the land in heart-can, and does often, turn out from 60 to 100 bushels of corn per acre, and from 20 to 30 of wheat. The valleys or low lands are compounded of deposits of vegetable decompositions, with less portions of calcareous ingredients, based on an argillaceous subsoil, with an adaptation to corn and Irish potatoes more particularly; and, when deprived of its vegetable exuberance, is well adapted to wheat culture. In a latitude of 39°, and in the valley of the Ohio, all products of the temperate zone grow well. Corn is planted in lands already exhausted, and in lands well kept up: the average crop is reckoned at about 35 bushels per acre the present season; which is about an average, in series of five years, of ordinary seasons.

Wheat is cultivated with more system and care than corn, as it is one of the staple articles of agriculture. From results well ascertained, it is believed the average crop this season is about 15 bushels. The season was remarkably favorable. The spring was wet and cool, and wheat, even in poor lands, shot up and was hastened to maturity, and generally harvested in June, without the presence of fungus, or rust, or Hessian fly. The berry was full and plump, weighing about 62 pounds to the bushel; and never have the millers turned out a better article of flour than is about being shipped to southern markets.

When lands are kept in heart by a rotation of crops or fertilizers, boun. tiful crops are taken off; but when kept in corn until run down, and then sown in wheat, the crop is invariably small. Many are now going on with a regular rotation of clover and cereal crops, and occasionally bringing in a crop of corn; by which a full remuneration for labor is obtained. When it is supposed that wheat designed for seed contains the embryo of weevil or Hessian fly, previous to being sown it is soaked in alkali, which effectually destroys it. By many, blue grass is preferred as a fertilizer.

Oats succeed well here in an ordinary season; it averages about 40 bushels per acre. With wheat, it is also cultivated for exportation. Since the Mexican war has terminated, it does not command a price to remunerate the labor of cultivating; but our farmers are habituated to cultivating various crops, and continue it more particularly for home consumption; the surplusage is sold for foreign or southern markets.

Potatoes grow well, and on good lands, well adapted to potato culture, 200 bushels are taken from each acre. Those of early varieties, set early in March, and kept clean, need no other labor, and will mature by the 1st of August, and are harvested in September, and sent to market on the first tide in the Ohio. At the present time, on the margin of this county, (Gallia,) there are over 50,000 bushels of potatoes now on flatboats, attached to the Ohio shore, awaiting a tide to go off; they readily command, when dug, 30 cents per bushel.

Beans are an important branch of agriculture in this portion of Ohio? One of our most extensive merchants and produce-dealers is of opinion that some 6,000 bushels will go from this county (Gallia) the present season. While out obtaining that information, and on making inquiry what number of barrels of flour would be shipped from the steam-mills of this county during the present season, one of our largest operators informed me that it would reach some 20,000 or 30,000.

Grasses.-Hay is also an export article, and was most abundant during the past season. On good bottom-lands, the average yield is about one and a half ton per acre. Herdsgrass, or red-top, is the predominant grass; although timothy, on dry lands, succeeds well.

Dairy Husbandry.-No great attention is given to dairy operations; but, during the spring and summer, every family makes a surplus of butter, which is sold to merchants, rewashed, and the extraneous water extracted, and packed into kegs, and sent off to foreign markets.

Cattle. But little attention is paid to the improvement of the breeds of cattle. The common stocks are of a kind that live on browse a great portion of the winter, and short pasture in summer, and are worth, at three years old, from $12 to $16. This is the stock that best suits com. mon farmers not provided with sheds and plenty of provender, and will be fat, with half a chance every fall, with less food than is required to fatten the improved breeds; thus enabling ordinary farmers, on small farms, to supply their families with the luxury of fat beef almost spontaneously. At the same time, a better class of farmers, with extensive pastures of luxuriant grasses, and well supplied with winter food and shelter, are paying some attention to the improvement of their stock, having some fine crosses of Durham and the stock introduced by the Scioto Company some years since.

Horses are not raised, except for domestic purposes, and but few fine horses are to be found; good draft horses are more highly prized than those for the saddle.

Some attention is paid to raising mules, both for domestic purposes and other markets. They readilycommand, at 2 years old, from $40 to $60. They are in demand, and are considered profitable stock.

Sheep and Wool attract much attention, both for home consumption and foreign markets; but few have engaged in the sheep business as an exclusive branch of agriculture. Every farmer has his flock, and many have those of the best crosses of the merinos and South Downs, and other approved stocks; and all sell wool. Large quantities are annually purchased and shipped to eastern markets; it commands remunerating prices, and is considered a profitable branch of business to those who raise wool to sell.

Some extensive woollen factories are established among and near us, and are in active operation, manufacturing fabrics for home consumption and for the people in the valley of the Ohio, and thus relieving them of the burden of duties on imports, or onerous charges for land transportation from eastern manufactories; and enabling every one, in that respect, to be independent, and consequently happy.

Hogs are not produced in great abundance. The continual demand for corn, to supply the wants of the people at the iron furnaces in our vicinity, and the Kanawha saline, distant some sixty miles by the Kanawha river, makes the stock of corn too limited to spare much to hogs; com

sequently, pork cannot be raised here, converted into bacon, and go into market in competition with that produced in the more fertile regions of the Western country. Tobacco succeeds well; yet but w are engaged in it beyond a home demand.

Fruits of fine varieties are being raised in this country. Apples, peaches, pears, apricots, nectarines, cherries, &c., are produced to a limited extent; but, as yet, fruit culture is in its infancy, though the day is not far distant when the valley of the Ohio will vie with any portion of the United States in the production of good fruit.

When these desultory sketches are read, the reader may at once conclude that this is truly a region better adapted to sheep-farming than other agricultural operations; but we say to such that agriculture here is not the predominant and exclusive business of the country, like the other more favored agricultural districts of Ohio. We boast of our inexhaustible beds of iron-ore, stone-coal, lime-stone, Burr mill-stone,* earths for stone-ware, fire-proof brick, with our forests abounding in timber suitable for ship-building, steam-boats, house-building, and a variety of other purposes; while we possess the enviable privilege of being in the vicinity of one of the noblest and most majestic rivers in the known world-"the beautiful Ohio."

Already is the mineral wealth of the country being developed; within the extent of forty miles are some twenty blast-furnaces in operation, turning out annually some 40,000 tons of pig-iron, worth $25 per ton-thus returning at least $1,000,000. To dig the ore, to haul it, to chop the wood to make the charcoal sufficient to make that quantity of iron, to quarry and haul the lime-stone, to haul the iron to the Ohio river, and take it to market-require an expenditure of money and labor to an extent that is unknown to any but the owners. But the farmers in this region of country can bear witness to the immense quantity of beef, pork, vegetables, butter, eggs, and other agricultural products sold annually at the furnaces. The millers in the vicinity can also tell that it takes a "right smart chance" of flour to supply them. So, also, the merchants can tell what an immense quantity of shoes and boots, coffee, sugar, molasses, ready-made clothing, shovels and axes, it takes to supply them. And the two or three hundred wagons can tell how many tons of pig iron they have hauled to the river. Indeed, so lucrative is the iron business considered, that all concerned are promptly remunerated for their labor, and all are in favor of laying an import duty on foreign iron, and thus giving home manufactures an increased spur to more extended operations.

In the vicinity of the furnaces, agricultural products find a ready market, and often seemingly at exorbitant prices.

The coal business is a no less concern. The Pomeroy banks, some 16 miles above, are extensively engaged in digging and shipping coal to towns on the Ohio, and supplying steamboats. A steamboat of immense power is running in that trade, often taking down some 6 or 8 barges, averaging say 6,000 bushels; and often, on her return-trips, she propels against the stream from 8 to 13 empty barges.

[* We suspect that proper "burr mill-stone" is not found anywhere north or west of the Allegany mountains. The rock exists in Georgia, and, doubtless, to some extent, in South Carolina and Alabama. In Georgia it is extensively wrought, and is equal, in every respect, to the best French burr-being precisely similar in its geolological position and lithological character.]