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INDIAN CORN.

  Maize, or Indian Corn, originated in America, and is not yet, we think, cultivated to any extent on the Europeon continent. Though the people of Great Britain cannot be made to appreciate its merits very fully, the aggregate exports of corn in 1856, in the form of whole grain, meal, corn starch, farina, etc., amounted to between seven and eight million dollars, or about one-fortieth of the whole exports of the country, and 6,700,000 bushels, considerably more than half, went to England alone.
  Corn has always been an important article in this country, both of consumption and export. The total amount of this produce exported in 1770 was 578,349 bushels; in 1791, 2,064,936 bushels, of which 351,695 were Indian meal. The value of corn and its manufactures exported from the United States in 1830, was $597,119, in $1,217,665; in 1840, $1,043,516; in 1845, $1,053,293; in 1850 $4,652,804. The export increases more rapidly that the production. The export of corn quadrupled between 1840 and 1850, while the production did not quite double.
  The great amount of invention bestowed on corn planters, corn cutters, shellers, cob grinders, etc., tends each year to promote the increase of production. It has been estimated that, as a general rule, seven pounds of corn will produce one pound of pork; so that in localities where through distance from market or from transportation facilities, the cereal cannot be raised as a profit for sale, it is frequently the material used in fattening the more concentrated form of diet, and on which consequently, the freight is less.  Cob meal we believe, is most valuable for animals that chew the cud; horses and hogs, as a general thing, deriving less benefit from the cob grinding inventions. With all animals, however, we believe, there is a perceptible advantage realized by mixing the cob with the denser meal.  Scientific American.

A Western Cornfield.

  To give our Eastern readers an idea of the products of some of our Western cornfields, we mention the fact that JOSEPH HAYES, an old farmer in Lawrenceburgh, Indiana, sold 30,000 bushels of corn last week for 80 cents per bushel, and five cents additional for hauling it to the point of delivery in that place. It was almost wholly the crop of 1856, though a small part of it was left over from the previous year's crop. It produced the snug sum of $25,500, and was raised on the famous Miami Bottoms, between Lawrenceburgh and Elizabethtown, that for half a century have turned out enormous crops, without any apparent abatement of fertility. 

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Agricultural Machinery and its Results.

  Six years since, in Ohio, there were very few agricultural machines--now there are an immense number.  The effect of machines in doing the work of men it is hardly possible to estimate.
  A mower with two horses, two men, and a boy, must accomplish the work of at least twelve men.  If so, it must save the labor of five men at least.  Now, we know of one county which has three hundred and fifty mowers and reapers, and they must save the labor of about 1600 men!  In the State at large' there must be about eight thousand of these machines, thus saving the labor of 40,000 able-bodied men.  Supposing that they are employed only two months in the year, for harvest only, they will save, in money paid for labor, about $2,500.00 per annum.  The interest on their cost will be about $70,000 only; so that there will be a net absolute gain on them of more that two millions per annum.  If we look to the prairie States, the saving will be much greater.  In the United States at large, probably the labor of 3,000,000 able-bodied men is saved during two months in the year. This is equal in money to twenty millions of dollars per annum.  This saving, too, is made in the last five years.  But the saving of money is by no means the most part of the saving.  The economy of labor is, in our modern civilization, the highest value, without reference to the money or the market value.  We have already referred, as our readers will remember, to the tendencies of our present civilization towards centralization in cities and towns.  This is really, and without theory, drawing large portions of our rural or country population to the towns.  This is diminishing the agricultural laborers while it increases the towns.  The consequence is that, both in America and Europe, the relative proportion of cultivators is continually diminished.  If we suppose this process to go on like a mathematical series, without arrest, the consequence would be ultimate starvation; but, of course, the preliminary symptoms of such a calamity would be sufficient to drive many from the cities to the country, and thus change the current. Still, we must regard the invention and success of this agricultural machinery as a providential interference to avert for a time the alternative of starving in cities or returning to the country.--Railroad Record.