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Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 380, 16 August 1871, Page 7

CONDITINN OF FaRM ANIMALS IN THE United States. — An investigation of the condition of farm animals in the United States recently made by the Department of Auric-iil tun- shows that fewer losses, either from disease or winter exposure, have resulted during the past season than tur -everal years previously. Losses amounting to millions of dollars have been hitherto reported yearly, but no epizoo'ic has prevailed lately in any portion of the. country. Restrictive laws and the practice of u,arberinp Texas herbs in frontier depofs have reduced the ravage? of splenic fever. The foot and mouth desease, which spread through portions of New York and NewEngland, was not fatal, and has nearly disappeared. Pleuro-pnenrnonia has been reduced to a few cases near the cities of the Middle States. Charbon is now almost unknown in the South. Horses have been comparatively healthy. Swine have exhibited the greatest comparative mortality, but less than in former years. Sheep have suffered slightly from disease.

Farm stock of all kind-; is almost, uuifoi-tuly, reported in good condition. The hay crop was short last season, but of excel lent quality. The corn crop was very large, aid was f-*d liberally. Better care than usual was be.stowed upon farm animals. The improved condition is attributed to abundant feed, more than humane trea:ment, and the mildness of the past winter. The ' Central New Yorker 'says regarding the Little Falls cheese market: — There are in active operation in Herkimer county seventy-five cheese factories, each of which receives, on an average, the milk from five hundred and fifty cows. There are also man}* farm dairies which do not form a part of our estimate. In Montgomery, Otsego, Oneida, and Madison counties there are two hundred and fifry-one factories making cheese from the milk of 102,500 cows. These neighboring counties send representatives to this place on each Monday during the season for the purpose of selling their cheese, and also to get the latest ideas as to the style and quality of cheese manufactured at those factories which dell for .lie highest prices, aa well as to inform themselves a. tb the latest improved apparatus and cheese fa tory furnishing goods. On several occaß <ms as many as one hundred and fifty or two hundred and fifty salesmen have been here on market day, offering to' sell from twenty thousand to twenty-five thousand cheeses. It will be seen, therefore, that the transactions are on a v_ry large scale, and this, taken in consideration with the fact that prices paid have uniformly ranged from lc to 3c. per lb. higher than those obtained in other country markets (owing both to the very great competition that ensues and also to the fine quality of the cheese pro-, duced in Herkimer county) has given this place a world wide reputation as a cheese market. fn one day's drive we have visited twenty-two cheese factories, several of which received the milk of 1000 to 1200 cows. At the railroad freight house there have been received on a single Monday and the Tuesday following 6755 boxes of cheese weighing 418,492 pounds. The recepits of chpese for the season at the railroad and canal store houses have been 113,170 boxes, which do not represent, however, more than one-fifth of the cheese sold here. The Herkimer County National Bank bas paid over its counter on a Monday 60.000 dols. in exchana'p for checks given in payment for cheese.

American Railroads and Farm ers. — During <x business trip on the Erie Railroad the other day, we were particn larlv impressed by the frequent announcement, '* Passengers change cars for the -Rdlroad," that is to say, every few miles there was soul* branch railway extending from 10 to 100 miles or more into a rich valley, so that the whole southern part of the state, recently an almost inaccessible wilderness, is now. supplied with a nee- work of rail roads which branch off from the great trunk line like the limbs or roots of a tree. Each one of these roads, by bringing the regions through wiiich it passes nearer to a market, greatly increases the value of every acre of land and eveiy house for a wide distance on each side. We doubt not that it could be demonstrated that there is hardly a region penetrated by a

railroad where the value of real estate U A $ not advanced enough to pay the entire expenses of the road. For instance, suppose we estimate the cost of the railroad to average 31,680d01. per mile, or C-101. per foot. If we confine the benefits to a strip G£ miles wide on each side, each foot ot rail WHY WOlllri lilfn benefit, |i a<-re, and if tftxfid upou the land would amount to idd. per acre. Tbe ;>nnual interest on 4101., we will call 30 cents (100 cents, or 4s. stelling, make a dol ) Thar is equal to 2 cents per bushel on 15 bushels of wheat, or 1 cent per bushel On 30 bushels of corn (maize), or 30 cents on a ton of bar, and so of other products. Is there a point reached by a railroad where tbe advance in the value of produce has not been many times greater than this ? It would be nearer tho mark to say that the advances in prices are enough to pay for a new railroad every year. The inevitable conclusion is, that railroads are of inestimable v>.lue to the agricultural regions of our country, and we hail with pleasure every new enterprise, no matter where it is located. — * American Agriculturist.

Mary Wager, writing to the 'New York Tribune,' says she knows a man wbo pr.ived night and morning, preached on Sundays, and was a rich farmer besides His wife milked the cows in all sorts of weather, cut- most of the wood, built the fires, churned, economised, and died of consumption. He put a weed on his ha*, tried to resign himself to the *' dispe si tion of Providence," when he ought o have been tried fbr woman-slaughter in the first degree and sentenced to tho > wood and milk cows in the rain all tiie rest of his life. She wants debating clubs to discuss whether it will go harder with him or with Jim Bludso in the day of judgment. [Are there any New Zealand husbands to whom this will in any way apply ?1 Tlie ' St. Mary's Planters' Banner ' sa* s — A gentleman of Terrebonne parish late y info -med us that he iiad a list of seventeen hundred plantations in that parish which had been leased to strangers since tiie war, al! the lessees idling, but which ha>eat length come into the bands of the sotn of the original owne.f. And these sons have m.)St of them pulled off their coats, iolled up their sleeves, and pitched in, and are now in a fair way to own these. plantations at a period nor fur distant. They have led off, relying cl. elv on their own industry and fcs'iiomy a d good calculations. In America in 1869, 19,000 patents for agricultural implements were. issued. Of these, 252 were for ploughs and attachments, 195 for harvesters and attachments, 150-for planters, 150 for cultivators, 130 for churns and churning^ 100' for hiay and pitchforks, 90 tor rakes, 80 for harrows, drags. &">., and 80 for reaping and sowing tnaehines*