profitable. They are slaughtered from 12 to 18 or 20 months old, and average about 250 to 300 pounds.

15. Reapers and mowers, drills and threshing-machines are the principal labor-saving implements, and make a saving of one-half the manual labor.

16. The "Buckeye," "Cayuga Chief," and "Wood's " reapers and mowers are used. Hubbard's mower is preferred by many, as it works well and requires but little repairs There are other reapers used, but those named seem to have the preference.

17. Hand corn-planters are used to good purpose and con siderable saving of labor. Grain-drills are used with a profit It is calculated that they will pay for themselves every year. I am not able to name the different kinds. Broadcast sowers are not used.

18. The horse-rakes used here are made in this vicinity, and are a great saving of hand-labor. I cannot say what pattern is used.

19. Horse-pitchforks have not been used enough to enable me to state anything definitely regarding them.

20. Hay-tedders are not used.

21. No pains is taken to save the liquid excrements of do mestic animals.

22. Stable or barn-yard manure is usually applied to corn and potatoes, and to most other crops. Sometimes it is plowed in for oats and wheat, with great effect. At least 25 per cent. increase of the crop may be expected in ordinary seasons, and if farmers would pay more attention to the making and saving of manures, the products of the county would be materially increased.

23. In addition to the ordinary manures, plaster is the prin cipal kind, and it is used with good effect on grass and corn. It is sown on wheat when the land is seeded to clover. I am not aware of its being used on other crops. Ashes are used, mixed with plaster, with good effect. Plaster costs about $12 to $15 per ton.

24. The value of forest-land has increased as the timber is wanted for staves and for fuel; and wood-land has increased in value within four years 50 per cent. Wood, in our village, has advanced from $1 50 to $2 50 per cord for four-foot wood. Pine lumber has advanced from $8, $10 and $14, to $12, $16 and $20 for the three qualities of common, second-rate and clear.

25. In clearing land, now, the timber is cut into rails, staves, hoopstuff, building-timber and fire-wood. Rails are worth $5 per M; building-timber 10 to 12 cents per foot, running

measure.

26. Farm wages are now $20 per month, and $1 50 to $1 75 per day during haying and harvesting; during the winter, about $12 per month, or 75 cents to $1 per day. In former years, $10 to $12 during the season, and $1 in haying and harvesting.

27. There has not been much done in under-draining.

28. As to the means of advancing the agricultural interest, I would suggest more thorough and scientific knowledge of the different kinds of soils, and their adaptation to the different crops required; a more regular system of rotation of crops; the saving and increasing the quantity and improving the quality of manures; a more general diffusion of the science of agriculture by means of agricultural papers and books, and the formation of farmers' clubs for the interchange of views on all that relates to the farm.

FROM MONROE COUNTY.

BY A. J. KEENEY, OF ERIE.

1. The soil of a small portion of this section was cultivated by the French settlers, before the war of 1812; being open prairie along the lake, interspersed with patches of hazel bushes, &c. Other portions were heavily timbered with white and black-oak, hickory, elm and black-walnut. The surface is

flat, and the soil of both prairie and wood-land is clay loam. Further inland it is varied, being timbered-land and openings, interspersed with small prairies. The soil of the openings is sandy, and somewhat broken by small ponds, which become dry during the summer, and are covered with beds of muck, from three to six feet deep, which will eventually be valuable for manure.

2. Wheat, oats, barley and corn have been the principal crops. More recently hay has become a very important crop, both for market and home consumption.

The average yield of wheat in this vicinity is about thirteen bushels per acre; sometimes going above and sometimes falling short of that mark. There is some falling off in the yield recently, owing in part to the increased severity of our winters, as the country has become cleared, and partly to attacks of the midge and Hessian fly; both of which were for a long time unknown. Again, as the land becomes worn by constant cropping, and in too many instances by improvident husbandry, it fails to respond to the call of the farmer with that certainty it did when first broken up. This is so, to a limited extent, with all crops, but more particularly with wheat. This state of things does not follow as a matter of course. A proper system of rotation, and judicious culture generally, are found not only remedies but preventives.

The variety of wheat which has been the most popular for the last twenty years is the Mediterranean. Standing the winter and the attacks of the various insects, and being better adapted to low, wet lands, it has been cultivated almost universally. There is, however, a new variety, introduced within a few years, which bids fair to rival the former for hardiness. It is called, variously, the Golden Straw, Golden Chaff, and by some the Amber. It is much like the Mediterranean.

3. Wheat has usually sold at $1 per bushel; barley, $1; oats, 25 cents; corn, in the ear, 25 cents; hay, in Toledo, our principal market, $12 per ton. This season it has been $30; and baled hay brings $1 75 per 100 lbs. at this time. Three-fourths

of all the grain raised, except corn, is sold, and one-fourth of the hay. Wheat costs about 56 cents per bushel. Hay, now that machines are used in mowing, costs, to house it, about 75 cents per ton; to do the work by hand, it costs $2. This is exclusive of the use of land, which may be put down at $250 per acre. Grain unsold is used to fatten beef, pork, &c., and for feed during the winter to stock, and for bread.

4. Apple and pear trees were set here by the French settlers previous to the war of 1812, and are remarkable for the fine quality of natural fruit and for the longevity of the trees.

Pears, and the improved varieties of apples, peaches, cherries, &c., have been introduced more recently, and very successfully. The most profitable fruits are the apple and strawberry. Average price of apples, 40 cents per bushel, sold in Toledo and for shipment to Chicago and the various points west. Apples are more profitable than grain by one-third to one-half.

5. Roots are not cultivated to much extent; are found profitable by those few who have tried them.

6. Sheep are the most profitable stock, though farmers find it to their advantage to mix their products to a certain extent. There is more profit in buying cattle to feed than in raising them.

7. The usual price of beef, on foot, $3 per hundred; pork, $5; sheep, $2 50 per head-more recently from $4 to $6; butter, 13 cents per pound; cheese, 12 cents.

8. Mutton can be produced at least cost; next, beef.

9. The average yield of butter per cow, is 200 pounds. What that of cheese is, I cannot say; there is but little made.

10. I cannot say what is the relative cost per pound of butter and cheese.

11. A diversity of opinion prevails as to the relative profits of breeds of cattle. Some prefer the Devon and its cross with the so-called native stock; others the Durham. I prefer the Devons and their crosses. They come early to maturity, are easily fattened, and are favorites with the butchers. They

make fine, hardy, working cattle. There are but few working cattle used in comparison with horses. The introduction of the Devons and Durhams from New York and Ohio, has improved the stock of the county in a marked degree.

12. The Canadian pony is still used, and by many persons preferred for all work; are well adapted to the road, for light vehicles, and for the skinning system of farming practiced by many. A cross of the Messenger and Duroc with pony mares, produces a very fine animal, of great endurance, fair speed and size. Recently, the Black Hawk horses have been introduced, and have met with great favor. When crossed with the cross of the pony and the larger stock, they produce horses about fifteen hands high, and very hardy, and easily kept. This size, for all work, is generally preferred.

13. Various breeds of sheep are kept. The Leicesters and South-Downs, or their grades, and the Spanish Merinos and their grades, are most common. Average weight of fleece, four pounds, washed. Price, 85 cents per pound. Sheep are fattened to some extent. The grade Leicesters and SouthDowns are preferred. These breeds have been introduced from Canada and New York, with very favorable results.

14. Suffolk swine and their grades are preferred. They are slaughtered at about six to ten months old, and weigh about 250 pounds.

15. Mowers and reapers, horse-rakes and horse-pitchforks, are used. Proportion of manual labor saved, five-sixths.

16. Various kinds of reaping and mowing mowing machines have been tried here, and nearly all have their adherents. The "Buckeye," as a mower, is not excelled; as a reaper, it is not liked. But for all kinds of ground, and as a combined machine, there is none that I have seen equal to the " Cayuga Chief." It mows beautifully, is easily managed, of light draft, and fits itself nicely to the unevenness of the ground. As a reaper, it is light on the horses, and the grain is got off more easily, and in better condition to bind, than from any other machine I have seen.