valleys of Wyoming and Montana to the international bonndarj', and far beyond it into the Canadian Dominion.

In these Western States and Territories thousands of cattle are raised on good grazings, for which not a cent is paid. The only outly under this category is an annual Government head tax of 5 c. for 2-year-olds, and 7 c. for 3-year-olds and all over that age. Where court-houses and bridges are required this tax is some times intreased. As the land is surveyed and sold, as it will be by-and-bye, the stockman’s expenses will be enhanced, and he will have to pay something for his graz ings. Meanwhile, however, in this great free country a man settles down usually •beyond the ranges already appropriated. In the valleys of the great rivers and their tributaries he finds the most suitable loca tion. He runs up his log-hut, or tor a trifle buys out some former squatter, builds a few sheds and corrals, buys some cows, which cost L 3 to L 4, yearlings at 30s to 40s 2-year-olds at 50s to 60s. Often the stockman begins with a partnership in a concern already running, receiving a small share; or cows and ewes are rented to steady men, the owner receiving half the produce and receiving hack after three or five years the number of breeding animals he gave. The cattle need and receive little attention ; they range instinctively in quest of the best food and water, some times spreadin over 50 or 70 miles ; on some runs salt is provided. Smaller owners have 1000 to 2000 head ; some of the cattle kings number their 40,000 to 50,000. The chief expenses are the wages of the stockmen and shepherds, who re ceive 25 dols. to 32 dols. per month (L 5 to L 6 10s), with lodgings and rations. Each man looks after about 1000 head, and in the larger ranches more. The busy time recurs twice a year, when the cattle are rounded up by men well mounted scouring the plains, bringing up the stock to the corrals, branding the young ones, separating those strayed from other ranches, and which, when duly branded, are returned to their respective owners. Opportunity is taken to make selection for sale or slaughter. The baggage waggons follow up with the cooks and provender, and the camping out last for a week or more. The stockowners, if persevering and steady, are sure to succeed. Their losses do not exceed 2or 3 per cent. Mis haps in calving are unknown; in some districts a few cases of black-leg occur ; font-and-mouth disease and contagious ifeeuro-pneumonia have never got out west. The average coat of cattle rearing does not exceed 1 dol. per head per annum, and in the larger ranches 70 c. is stated to include every outlay, including interest on capital. Government head tax, wages, and commissariat expenses. _No wonder that beef can be fed in such regions at 2d per lb! The profits from cattle raising well managed in good districts is currently reported to exceed 20 per cent, per annum. I have conversed with various cattle men who began ten or twelve years ago without a dollar, and now have ranches from which sales are annually made to the value of LSOOO. The banks, unlike their English brethren, do not re fuse advances to steady graziers, who often pay 2 per cent, per month for their ac commodation, and assert that even when thus handicapped they do pretty well. There are great diversities amongst the thousands of cattle reared over these vast areas. All are undergoing steady improve ment, Lank, rough, profitless brutes are gradually disappearing ; the scallowags are polished* off. Well-bred bulls of Short horn and other breeds and well-selected grades are introduced from the eastern States. One gentleman told me in Oc tober that he had himself bred, bought, and forwarded West 1000 young Short horn bulls during the last three years. To insure the advantage of such imported sires, and prevent the incursion of errant Texans, inclosures are being made, in some localities. The Texas cattle, which now muster 5,000,000 are not generally beau ideals of symmetry or quality. They are narrow, often open in the loin, leggy, rough, with big beads and enormous horns, hard handlers, and often of a sickly yellow color. They are of Spanish or Mexican descent.

The Oregon cattle are more shapely, and hare less daylight underneath than those of Texas. Oregon now numbers about 500,000 cattle and 2,000,000 sheep, but has area and pasturage for twenty times these numbers.

During the summer and autumn the cattle throughout these great western graz ings intended for slaughter or for feeding in the Indian corn States are collected, grazed as they steadily travel to the most convenient railways depdts on the Union or Northern Pacific railroads, which have opened up the country and given the stock men markets for their produce. From Cheyenne, Julesburg, and other such stations, 1000 carloads' of cattle are annually despatched. MrJ. W. Iliff, from his big range, 150 miles long and about half as wide, on the South Platte River, now every year forwards 15,000 beasts. The cows each average 25 dol. ; the best for slaughter weigh, when hung up, 600 lb

to 700 lb. They are classified in the trade as Texans, good natives, butcher's cattle, and feeders. Sold on the hoof or by live weight, they vary from about 2,20 c to 3 c. per lb. They are forwarded in large numbers vid Council Bluffs to Chicago, a distance fully 1000 miles. Twenty beasts are put into each car, which is covered. In this journey they are thrice unloaded, fed, watered, and rested during twelve to twenty-four hours. The cost of this long journey is 28s for each beast. They are forwarded from Chicago (800 miles) to New York for 16s extra. When quietly travelled to the railway, carefully loaded, and properly fed and rested in transit, accidents are rare and loss of condition slight. Beasts conveyed by rail 1000 miles and weighed out of the trucks before feed ing and watering, will have lost on the gross 50 to 80 lb. Upwards of 1,000,000 cattle are annually forwarded, mostly from the west and south, to the great Chicago stock yards, which cover 345 acres, and disposed of at 2s per head commission. About one-half the beasts brought in are killed in Chicago, some of the best being forwarded in quarters to Europe, many more are distributed salted, and a large and increasing amount carefully and cleanly prepared and canned for sale throughout the world. Another phrase of American meat pro duction must not be overlooked. Over a great area of the central and southern por tions of the States—in Illinois, Minnesota, lowa, down the great Missouri valley, in Kansas, and elsewhere —wherever the summer heat reaches 70 deg. Fahr., Indian corn is abundantly and cheaply grown. It occupies 52,000,000 acres, bulks nearly 200,000,000 qr., proves a tolerably certain crop, averages 27 bush, an acre, and in good localities reaches 40 bush., and costs only 34s an acre to grow it. This hand}', readily produced, cheap crop gives the American farmer immense advantage in his manufacture of beef and bacon. His corn, shelled, costs Is a bushel, oats about the same figure ; hay is 10s a ton ; bran, at 20s a ton, is usually given once or twice a week to keep the bowels open. With such variety of good, cheap materials, animals are inexpensively fed. Sheep are increasing throughout the States at the rate of 1,000,000 annually, and now reach nearly 40,000,000. In many parts of the country they are of Mexican origin, crossed with Merino grades. Hitherto they have been bred much more for the production of wool than of mutton, but now that their own as well as foreign markets are opened for mutton, Oxford and Shropshire Downs, Cotswolds, and Leicesters are being introduced, and the lank, thin bodies, big heads, and close, fine wool are undergoing transformation. In Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and other Western States, the sheep are worth 12s to 16s each. The best weigh, when fat, 60 to 70 lb. They din sto 6 lb of wool, worth lOd to Is per lb, and are con sidered to pay the twelve months’ expenses. From the ewes two years old and upwards 85 to 90 per cent, of annual increase is ob tained, The loses under good manage ment, in favorable situations, are estimated at about 3 per cent. American mutton, however, is not so good as American beef. There are great tracts of the continent which, owing to the extremes of winter cold and summer heat, are not well adapted to the thriving of sheep. Even where now kept they have often to be housed during three or four months in winter, and this, besides adding materially to the cost, in terferes with vigorous thriving. British flock masters may, therefore, be assured that for the present, at any rate, their im portant business will not be seriously in jured by American competition.

The same comfort cannot beadministered to British pig-breeders. The swine of the United States and of Canada are quite as good as at home. They roam healthily at large over plain and prairie, in wood and orchard; they are fed on the best of pro vender, often on apples and peaches. In the States they number 35,000,000. Berk shire and other English breeds, and a use ful China hog, are culivated. I did not see an indifferent grunter during the whole of my travels. They cost often less than 2d per lb ; 60 per cent, of the hog products are now exported ; hundreds of tons of bacon and pork are sent to British ports at 3d per lb ; our national bacon bills reach annually L 10,000,000.

But I must hasten to a conclusion. From the facts I have brought before you, your own conclusions will be drawn as to the great resources of the western world. For years to come she must certainly be able to furnish enormous supplies of her surplus, both of wheat and meat. I have endeavored to show that with a profit to all concerned American wheat can be brought into our ports at 40s to 42s per qr. The importation of bacon, pork, lard, and canned meats ,has of late years enormously increased. The exports of batcher meat, although hitherto limited, must also un dergo considerable augmentation. Of the :beef, as of other food, the United Kingdom will take the largest share. Live cattle will come freely during summer, whilst finer weather can be counted on. The ocean charges are L 3 to L 4 per head,

whilst 20s to 25s extra covers the cost of food and attendance during the voyage. For about L 8 a bullock, which costs Ud to 2d per lb live weight, can thus to brought from his native ranges on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and landed in Liverpool This transit charge would add less than 2£d per lb to his car case of beef. The transport of dead meat is still less. The superior beef slaughtered in New York and other Atlantic ports, and brought over in ice-cooled chambers, reach ing Great Britain in excellent condition, costs for transport charges only per lb, and brings a satisfactory profit to the im porter of it, is disposed of at the landing ports at fid. Importers, however, discover to their cost that the British meat market is very sensitive to extra supplies, that a few hundred carcases over the normal quantity, which at present is about ’BOOO per week, sends down the price Id or even lid per lb. Superior American carcases, weighing 800 lb, for a week or two in full markets are frequently sold at 4i per lb. This sensitiveness of the market is*at pre sent the best protection which the British feeder has. The enormous meat-producing capabilities of America, the cheapness of her manufactures, the desirability of clear ing off surplus supplies, and the low cost of transport, which, contrary to common opinion, is, I think, unlikely materially to advance, plainly indicate the improbability of high prices being obtained for British beef, or even for mutton, A few connoisseurs may willingly give upwards of Is per lb for a quarter of veritable English Down mutton or for a prime English or Aberdeen sirloin, but large foreign supplies of really good meat, offered wholesale at 6d, must pull down the price of ordinary English meat to 7-Jd or 7d. The British farmer was able some years ago to make meat at 7d or less. He must do so again. Cannot the American com petition be profitably met by breeding only the best sorts, by early maturity, by the steady, continuous growing of the young stock, by avoidance of wasteful dangerous checks, by turning out 2-year-old beef and 1-year-old mutton, by more liberal use of cheap imported concentrated food, by consolidating profits, and endeavoring to do business more directly with the con sumer ?

RUST IN WHEAT.

Mr T. E. Wener sends to the Sydney Town and Country the following abstract from his letter to the Minister for Lands, Queensland ;

“ Having read in the*! papers of this colony that your Government offer LIOOO for a remedy against rust in I hereby beg to offer my experience, which is derived from practical use during 64 years. I am a native of Sweden. ~ My, father was possessed of the Swartsjoe Estate, 18 miles west frorn'Stockholtn, the capital of Sweden, and he has used this remedy since 1816. He generally sowed about 400 bags of wheat yearly, and it is now used by"ray brother, and has never failed. 1 arrived in this colony in 1853, and have never kept this remedy a secret. The cure is as follows :—The evening before you intend to sow your wheat, spread it out on your barn floor, and sprinkle over it ordinary brine, which can be done with a wisp of straw. Throw afterwards over it some slacked lime, and shovel the whole thoroughly, so that every grain receives its fair share of the lime. The quantity required for 20 bags of wheat is from one to two gallons of brine and about two bushels of slacked lime. This remedy is very simple, and may therefore be looked upon with contempt, but, if properly applied, is infallible.”

DR LAWES WHEAT CROP FOR 1879.

The following interesting figures are condensed from a communication by Dr J, B. Lawes, of Rothamsted, England, to the North British Agriculturist. Within his memory England has never before had such a bad wheat crop as that of 1879, certainly not since 1816. Dr Lawes is one. of the most eminent of agricultural ex perimenters, his resnlts being of peculiar value from their accuracy in all the details and the length of time over which the ex periments have extended, He has grown the same kind of crop on the same piece of ground, and same condition as to fertilis ing, and some with no manure for 36 years. The tables, which it is not necessary to reproduce, show that the con;- tinuously unmanurdd plots the present year gave only 4-| bushels per acre, for the 17 years just preceding the last 10 years. A gradual decrease is to be expected, but not the falling off which occurred in 1879. The plot receiving 14 tons to the acre of farm-yard manure annually, gave only 16 bushels for the last year, against 34 per acre as the average for the preceding 27 years.! Of the three artificially manured plots ohe gave 165 bushels, or about half the average; jthe more highly manured, gave bushels, likewise a half average. The last and most highly fertilised plot, gave 22 bushels per acre, also about a half average. In 1863, the

average of the three artificially manured plots was 55 bushels. In 1879, the very same plots and fertilisers, had an average of 19| bushels, and each bushel weighed nine pounds less than in 1863. Dr Lawes concludes by stating, “ We have here a striking illustration of how great is the influence on the results of the farmer’s efforts, of circumstances entirely beyond his control, after he has employed all the resources at his command to obtain a good cron.”

THE BREED FOR MARKET PIGS.

It is a matter of dispute and always will be, which are the best breeds of pigs for special uses. The Berkshire is black but comely ; and perhaps the most profitable pig of all the breeds for pork at any age. The Essex is also black, and some think that the best, but it has the [objection of having too much fat. Some will only have white pigs and the Suffolk is generally considered the best of the small white breeds ; the small Yorkshire is a more modern variety, and perhaps owes some ot its good quality to a Suffolk cross. If so, it would be fair to call the Suffolk a better kind than the Yorkshire. But there are some who think differently, and no one can say confidently that this or that is the best except from his own point of view and as a matter ot opinion. The small white breeds have become so much crossed and mixed, that at the English exhibitions they are no longer classed distinctively but collectively as “ small white breeds.”

AMERICAN AND ENGLISH AGRI CULTURE AS SEEN BY ENGLISH EYES.

The average yield of wheat in Great Britain is 28 bushels per acre. Estimat ing rent, interest on capital, outlay for manure and labor, and the crop costs L 8 per acre. “ The Western farmer who has L2 sterling invested in his soil and its equipments, his expenses per acre would he some as follows” : Interest on capital, 4s ; ploughing, 10s; seed, 6s ; reaping and binding, 10s; threshing and marketing, 2s ; total, Ll 12s. The fourteen bushels (which is the average) of wheat will give a return of 425, or a profit of 10s per acre, “Two year’s profit thus moderately esti mated would purchase the fee-simple of much of : the land in Western States.” The American farmer under the circum stances has much the larger margin of profit. “ The American of a certain t}'pe has an instinctive aversion to the pursuit of an unprofitable calling ; he has a wonderful capacity for , accommodating himself to circumstances. If wheat grow ing does not pay he trys dairying,or gardening, and failing that, will cut down lumber or split rails, keep a store or ‘ run a hotel,’ or even make politics his pro fession.” The English writer claims no such smartness and versality for his far mers, and does not expect it, as they are “not to the manner born.”

Winter Eggs.—All attempts to preserve eggs in the state they are when dropped by fowls have resulted in failure. The only way to have a supply of fresh eggs during the winter is to produce them. Pullets will generally commence to lay when they are about eight months old. With warm quarters and suitable food chickens hatched in April will commonly commence to lay in December. Brahma hens of almost any age will lay during the winter if they are well cared for. Eggs are more likely to be produced, however, by pullets that have just reached maturity. Warm and well-lighted quarters are essen« tial to the production of eggs during the winter. Fowls that are allowed to run out in the open air during pleasant weather are more likely to lay than those that are kept in close confinement all the time; Egg production during the winter depends as much on the quality of food given fowls as on the kind of shelter allowed them. Corn (maize) is about the poorest food that can be put to poultry with a view of pro ducing eggs. Wheat and oats are much superior to corn. Raw cabbage, cooked potatoes, beets, carrots, and scraps of meat are all excellent. Chopped meat and vegetables, mixed with meal and fat, and cookedflike boarding-house hash, furnishes one of the best varieties of food for stimu lating egg production. Fowls derive much benefit from highly-seasoned food during all weather.—Kentucky Live Stock Jour nal.

Trichinosis seems to bo again bn the increase in the United States, for. while the Commission appointed at Chicago nine years ago to examine the question, reported that 2 per cent, of the animals inspected were infected with the disease, a second Commission, appointed a few months' ago, reports that 8 per cent; of the pigs killed at Chicago were diseased., In Germany only one animal opt of the 36,510 _ hams examined at Hamburg last year bn being "unloaded from vessels from ■ the United 'States, contained 1 the trichine worms, and of 14,000 quarters of bacon' 85‘were diseased*; Germany .has now prohibited the importation of American pork, but a good deal still comes into the country by way of Liverpool.

FARMERS’ SUPPLEMENT.

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