STOCK RAISING. 



Good farming depends in a great degree upon good stock, and this 

 for many reasons. The experience of the best agriculturists of 

 Europe and the older parts of this country proves that the vegetable 

 products of the farm are dependent chiefly upon the animal pro- 

 ducts. The animal products are the chief support of the soil. Any 

 soil will wear out by taking off every year its whole vegetable crop, 

 and not supplying it with manure of any kind. There is yet dis- 

 covered no way of enriching a soil equal to animal manure : and no 

 way of keeping up the native strength of the soil except by keeping 

 the farm well stocked. In Virginia and many of the States, there 

 is much worn out land, now valueless. The reason is, because the 

 land was never stocked. Its vegetable crop was every year taken 

 off and no animals kept to repay the exhuasted soil. Where the 

 animal crop is equal to the vegetable, under good cultivation, the 

 farm will never wear out. The animal crop is the natural balance 

 to the vegetable. One exhausts, the other enriches. If everything 

 of a vegetable nature that a farm produces is put into stock kept on 

 the farm and the manure well husbanded and applied, the soil will 

 grow richer every year. Experience, as well as reason, shows, that 

 vegetable products exhaust, while animal products enrich the soil. — 

 A good original soil will bear and may be kept good on an equal 

 animal and vegetable product. The practice of having stock farms 

 and vegetable farms separate is evidently an unwise one. It is ad- 

 missable only in new countries, where the regions distant from 

 market can only be used for raising stock. The true plan in a set- 

 tled country is to have every farm both a stock and vegetable farm. 

 Small farms near large towns may be used wholly for vegetable 

 purposes, provided manure from the towns be taken out to keep 

 good this soil. 



The value of stock upon a farm depends chiefly upon two things, 

 viz : good care and good breeds. Good care consists of good feed- 

 ing and watering, and good shelter from cold and rain. Good breeds 

 are those which are healthiest, hardiest, breed best, and grow best 

 on the least food. 



We may illustrate the advantages of good stock by reference to 

 the aggregate stock of France, England and the United States in 

 comparison. The British Islands contain sixty-two millions of 

 300 



