Sunbury American And Shamokin Journal

Camels on the Western Prairies.—A writer in the New Genesee Farmer, a native of Russia, who has passed many years of his life in that portion of the empire bordering on the Ural and Volga rivers, suggests that the Camel would prove a most valuable animal for burden in those prairies, and especially for traversing the country in the far west, where water is sometimes not found for days. He says that camels in the unsettled country would be found good to carry mails and convey intelligence. Their speed is great, 120 miles being a common day's travel for speedy animals, and that the breeding of camels would not be more expensive than horses. They may be obtained on the Black Sea, and the writer suggests if Agricultural Societies would import a few pairs they would confer a great advantage on this country. From 600 to 1000 pounds, with a rider, is a common load for a camel; and the commonest herbage, even weeds and twigs, will suffice for their sustenance while enduring the severest labors.

Mr. Colman, the editor of the Farmer, is disposed to think the foregoing statements worthy of consideration. He says:

"The facts given in respect to the speed of the camel, their strength and capacity for burden, their endurance of fatigue, and the cheapness of their support, are well established. They are of a mild and peaceable disposition, and live to a great age. We had supposed that they could not endure our climate, but the statement of the writer of this letter shows that it is otherwise. That they would be useful on the prairies and in the long journeys now constantly undertaken in the vast and unsettled plains towards the Rocky Mountains, into Mexico, and other territories, now and likely to remain impenetrable by carriages, it would seem but reasonable to believe."